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Samsung offers $400 discount on its artsy 'The Frame' TV
When tuned properly, a good TV can offer a window into another world. Samsung knew this when putting together its design-forward Frame TV last year, and now the tech juggernaut is making it easier to put one on your wall. Now through May 12th (the day before Mother's Day) you can pick up a 55-inch or 65-inch model of the UHD display for $400 off, which knocks the price down to $1,598 and $2,398, respectively, on Amazon. That means you can get the 55-inch variant for just a few hundred dollars over what a 43-incher would've cost last November. Mom wanted a fancy TV for her special day, right? It'd sure beat the vacuum cleaner Dad got her last year.
'Terminator 2' UHD Blu-ray comes with a life-size robot arm
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the best action movies of all time. It's also consistently been a great piece of reference material for home theater geeks who like showing off just what their fancy audio and video gear is capable of. Well, this fall writer-director James Cameron's classic will be released on UHD Blu-ray. With it comes HDR video, a new 4K restoration and, if you feel like dropping $175, a life-size T-800 endoskeleton arm replete with Cameron's signature. Yep, like the one John and Sarah Connor tossed into a vat of molten steel at the movie's end.
Chromecast Ultra review: Better video quality comes at a cost
Google's first Chromecast was an ugly little stick that nonetheless served an important purpose: At $35, it was about the cheapest way to make a plain old TV "smart," letting people get Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and movies from Google Play on their televisions with zero fuss. But things have changed since the first Chromecast arrived in mid 2013. 4K TVs are becoming more and more commonplace while companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and, yes, Google are battling to bring video to your living room. Also, if nothing else, just about every TV these days has built-in Netflix and YouTube apps. Into this crowded market comes the Chromecast Ultra, an update to the 2015 version that adds support for 4K high dynamic range (HDR) streaming. The thing is, that extra feature doubles the price: The Chromecast Ultra comes in at $69. It's no longer in impulse-buy territory for most people, so the question is: Does this improved video quality warrant a purchase?
LG's latest 84-inch 4K TV breaks cover at CES
Sure, a 105-inch curved, ultra-widescreen TV is LG's pride and joy at CES 2014, but it's also brought a handful of flat Ultra HD televisions along for the ride. We've just laid eyes on the 84-inch variant of the 4K (3,840 x 2,160) set and came away fairly satisfied. Sure, the LCD panel isn't nearly as vivid as an OLED one, but it still manages to handle itself adequately while keeping a thin profile. Hidden from sight is the "Tru-ULTRA HD Engine Pro" chip, which handles upscaling any SD, HD and "True HD" (read: 1080p) content. Around the back you'll find HDMI 2.0, USB and LAN inputs that will help pipe UHD content to the TV, which even supports h.264 and the fresh HEVC format. The set itself doesn't have an extravagant stand or frame as is often the case with UHD sets, but its sleek body and pair of thin, side-mounted speaker bars would look right at home in any (exceptionally large) entertainment center. Both a price tag and release date are MIA, so you'll have to wait a while before bringing this behemoth home. To lay eyes on the panel for yourself, check out the gallery below.
iPhone reportedly vulnerable to text message spoofing flaw
If you're an iPhone owner, you may want to use good judgment before responding to any out-of-the-blue text messages in the near future. French jailbreak developer and security researcher pod2g finds that every iPhone firmware revision, even iOS 6 beta 4, is susceptible to a flaw that theoretically lets a ne'er-do-well spoof the reply address of outbound SMS messages. As Apple is using the reply-to address of a message's User Data Header to identify the origin rather than the raw source, receiving iPhone owners risk being fooled by a phishing attack (or just a dishonest acquaintance) that poses as a contact or a company. A proof of concept messaging tool is coming to the iPhone soon, but pod2g is pushing for an official solution before the next iOS version is out the door. We've asked Apple for commentary and will get back if there's an update. In the meantime, we wouldn't panic -- if the trickery hasn't been a significant issue since 2007, there isn't likely to be a sudden outbreak today.
