It’s CES time again, and this year, Samsung is going all out with several firsts, a lot of ICES Innovation awards (23 actually!), and a commitment to creating the future of home entertainment.
              
Home entertainment continues to get increasingly exciting with slimmer and cooler televisions and blu-ray players, but the basic experience of watching a movie from your couch hasn’t changed much in many years. Not to worry, in 2010, the 3D experience will make its way from theaters to your homes.

While the first 3D film premiered back in 1922, the technology that is used today is much more advanced and has finally made in-roads to work with the content Hollywood is producing. With widely distributed and popular 3D movies and a lot of curiosity around the idea of in-home 3D viewing, Samsung will deliver a complete 3D home entertainment solution to bring a truly immersive and memorable experience to consumers.

Samsung is not a stranger to 3D; it actually introduced 3D DLPs beginning in 2007 and 3D flat-panel Plasma HDTVs in 2008. At this CES, Samsung in partnership with DreamWorks Animation and Technicolor, announced that it will soon offer a complete out-of-box 3D experience including 3D HDTVs (not just LCD and Plasma, but also LED!), a 3D blu-ray player, and an exclusive promotion that includes a first-time feature-length, 3D Blu-ray version of DreamWorks Animation’s 2009 release, “Monsters vs. Aliens,” created and produced by Technicolor. So, just for a second, imagine watching “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 1080p, at home with your whole family, in 3D, on a very cool looking LED HDTV. And then just imagine all the great content that will come out in the coming year, and you get the picture. Home entertainment. Transformed. (more…)

Conor Knighton produces and hosts infoMania, a TV show about all things media, pop culture, world news, and even politics. The show, which airs every Thursday on Current TV, was developed with Madeleine Smithberg (co-creator of The Daily Show) and is not the typical infotainment / clip show by any means.

Oh no, infoMania is brilliant, and it should be in a category of its own. Often funny and surprisingly intelligent, with several awesome segments like Sarah Haskins’ “Target: Women” and Brett Elrich’s “Viral Video Film School“, as well as rants about people like Susan Boyle, well-compiled exposures of the media’s affair with Twitter, and the occasional association of completely unrelated people like Gene Simmons and Sonia Sotomayor (who I agree, must have been separated at birth), infoMania is a show you can actually watch right now.. online.

So please do. And also make sure to check out Conor’s blog and twitter feed.

1.You were the first person to appear on Current TV back in 2005 and you are now the host and executive producer of infoMania, which has been compared to “The Daily Show” and “The Soup“. How did you get started and what was the road to infoMania like?

Initially, Current hired me to produce and host a show about the internet’s top rising searches.  We called it ‘Google Current’ because, uh, it was about Google and it aired… on Current.  We weren’t very creative back then.

I did that show for a while, and then a similar one with Yahoo – they were both short, 3 minute updates at the top of every hour.  At the time, Current was all about short form content. 

However, it was a lot of running up and down to the studio all day, and we eventually convinced the network that a half-hour, once a week show would not only be a better outlet for us creatively, but would give our viewers something to tune into (or record) on a regular basis. 

We played with a few formats, but eventually landed on what has become infoMania – a comedic and critical look at the chaotic world of the media.

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Frank Eliason is the Director of Digital Care at Comcast. His team is in charge of assisting customers on the web. Frank has done a good job of creating an important presence for Comcast in social media, particularly on Twitter. He told us about the importance of the customer experience, the current environment in which Comcast operates, and his personal life. Please send him a tweet after reading!

1. When I first joined Twitter I immediately saw pages for John Mayer, Oprah, and then… Comcast Cares. What caused Comcast to include Twitter as a line of communication for customer care?

As we are working to improve the Customer experience, one of our objectives has been to meet Customers where they already are. We do this in many ways throughout the internet, including blogs, forums, Facebook, and Twitter. This is just a great way to listen to Customers and assist when we can.

2. What internal/external feedback have you received thus far?

Feedback internally and externally has been overwhelmingly positive. Customers love to have a voice and we love the feedback.

3. Often times when a customer tweets @comcastcares with a question or issue they get a reply asking them to email customer care. What plans are in place to get closer to achieving “one-tweet resolution”?

LOL! I love the “one-tweet resolution!” This happens when the trouble that is being reported may require a little research or we may need more information beyond 140 characters. Our preference when possible is to keep it on Twitter. There may be other times, like the other day I was traveling without all my tools, so I asked people to email my team.

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There are several hints about Hulu streaming on the Xbox 360 (remember that Microsoft used the 2008 E3 to announce Netflix streaming) and this rumor is running on a few comments made by Microsoft itself.

Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s senior VP for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, made an interesting statement about the upcoming E3 in an ESA press release last month:

“Microsoft is gearing up for a big presence at E3 which will completely transform how people think about home entertainment. We’re excited about the momentum that is building in the industry in anticipation of our June 1st media briefing, which will kick off E3 in blockbuster style.”

Back in December, Microsoft’s Shane Kim told The New York Time’s Bits that the Xbox does not have an Internet browser as that would make them just another pipe delivering content in different ways, and that people watching video online are concentrating on sites like YouTube and Hulu. He also said:

“Netflix is the first major strategic partnership to open up the platform. We are just beginning to scratch the surface.”

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David Siteman Garland is an entrepreneur,  speaker, and host of “The Rise to the Top,” a show that is entertaining, empowering, and energizing entrepreneurs.

1. Tell me about how you started “The Rise to the Top.”

It all started in a coffee shop. I felt like there was a market need on television for a show designed for forward-thinking young and young-at-heart entrepreneurs, and also room for events and resources to really help people grow their business and get involved with the community. I saw what was out there and honestly thought we could do it better by bringing in extremely interesting guests and delivering helpful content. I went all in, invested everything I had in getting it started and was fortunate to land some early sponsors who believed in me and the concept. The most crucial aspect though was surrounding myself with great people simply by asking for help. I talked to everyone I knew and said “I‘m doing a TV show and this is what I want to do but I’m not exactly sure how to do it. If you think it sucks, punch me;  however, if you like the concept I would appreciate a nudge in the right direction.” A bunch of nudges later I had a solid network of people who had years of experience helping me.

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Following our post “The Future of TV is Online“, here’s a video that’s a bit less serious..