Their love of flexible technology products of late is well-known, and it appears as though South Korean company Samsung have been continually aiming bigger with their ambitions to make screens that bend, as they launch their newest product to their native market.

Released today (1 August) in the South Korean market, Samsung’s first product in the new ‘Bendable UHD TV’ line will do exactly what the name suggests, although anyone hoping to roll their set up like a carpet or flex the screen completely to their will will be disappointed to learn that there are only two settings which are toggled by the device’s remote control.

Those settings for the ’78-inch 4K display’ will see the set flex at a point to transform from traditional flat-screen to curved at will based on a viewer’s preference, with the simple press of a remote control’s button and 6 seconds of time claimed to be all that separates a set from taking on its new appearance and format, with the screen remaining active whilst the change is taking place.

Having first demonstrated the technology during the CES 2014 show in Las Vegas (USA) in January, the impending release is one that proves the dream to be a reality, although the amount of time it will take before Samsung take the product overseas remains to be seen.

With the first of a new ‘shape-shifting’ hybrid of TV sets, though, all that is missing from Samsung’s current stage of ‘bendable TV’ development now is for rivals LG to announce they have something similar…

British television manufacturers Titan, with their newest model, the ‘Zeus’, have certainly placed themselves into the upper echelons of TV product folklore, after a their product appears to have broken the key size and price-based records in the industry with its launch.

The Zeus is claimed by Titan to be the ‘world’s largest commercial TV‘, with their published ‘370-inch’ screen size dwarfing the ‘groundbreaking’ releases from major technology companies in the past year that can barely manage a quarter of such figures. In a more general perspective away from the TV manufacturing industry, the Zeus is noted as measuring close to 8 metres wide by close to 5 metres high, almost as wide and around twice the height of a football goal.

Believed to be a release that will co-incide with the sporting TV marathon that will be the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Titan, for a number of reasons, are targeting public screening providers (such as pubs and ‘other public services’) as their main market for selling the device.

One of those reasons is naturally the size of a wall that would be required to fit the set indoors (making the ‘outdoor optimised screen setting’ (viewable in direct sunlight) a critical component), along with the fact that generally only people with those types of walls to hand would be able to afford this TV, with the Zeus also noteworthy for being listed at £1 million ($1.7m), and in doing so being the first TV set to surpass such a ‘milestone’. For more budgeted customers, there is the option to take on a new ‘mid-range’ set in Titan’s TV lines, with a ‘100-inch’ model available from just £150,000.

For the millionaire buyer, though, features promised alongside the outdoor optimisation is a capability of displaying 65 million colours, as well as the presumably-expected support for watching 4K content.

Titan’s CEO Anthony Ganjou said of the work his company have put into making the Zeus “We have assembled the best screen technologists in the country to hand build a British-made screen which would not only be the biggest but the most extraordinary ever conceived. Following the interest in the launch range of our ultra high end 1000 inch domestic screens we decided to create something iconic and the team spent 6 months building the million pound screen.”

Whether they receive any customers this summer (or any season in the coming years) remains to be seen, and whilst the comparisons to what you could buy instead (many apartments, vehicles, hundreds/thousands of ‘regular’ 3D or 4K tv sets), the point that could really drive home the cost of the Titan Zeus is that you could be in the situation below, buy the set afterwards, and be without a penny to show for it. But you would have a nice TV set…

Whilst not the only one occurring this summer, the 2014 FIFA World Cup is without a doubt the biggest international football tournament that will be staged this year, and like many major sporting events will be a proving ground for new viewing technologies, as proven by Sony’s commitment to trialing 4K HD filming at select matches in Brazil.

Joining in on this experiment is allegedly UK co-broadcasters BBC, who have been reported as joining forces with Sony’s footage to prepare for future 4K broadcasting initiatives. Whilst the BBC‘s ‘R&D Labs’ division (previously co-operating on experimental 8K Ultra HD filming at the 2012 Olympic Games), in charge of the process alongside Arqiva, will not be making the coverage publicly available, instead satellite and streaming only to a select number of TV screens on BBC sites.

The trial run during the tournament will be in place for each of the 3 matches (from a total 64) that Sony are committing to filming in the format (primarily to showcase during the tournament’s official documentary film), where the BBC will measure the level of difficulty it will take to broadcast 4K live, with a key area of interest being the ‘understanding of limitations’ in supplying 4K streams to an online audience through BBC iPlayer, amongst other factors.

BBC Research and Development controller Matthew Postgate summarised: “The trials will prove hugely valuable in furthering our understanding of UHD technology, and potential distribution models for the future.”

In a streaming format believed to require an average of 20mb/s to successfully pull off with no glitches, it is something in which experimentation is needed, so will BBC R&D be able to come home from Brazil reporting a positive outcome on their initial football-based experiments? Speaking of, tournament organisers FIFA last month revealed the trailer for their first dabble into the biopic film industry:

South Korean technology company Samsung have revealed a dual move which could give them a key step up in their presence in the UK, with both the launch of a ‘Samsung Experience’ line of stores, and the impending release of select versions of their curved UHD TV sets in the region.

It has been confirmed by Samsung, who visibly carry a presence on one of the UK’s most-viewed TV programmes, that Monday (14 April) will see the launch of their HU8500 TV models in both 55-inch and 65-inch versions, available for purchase from UK retailers.

The sets are noted as offering 4K Ultra HD quality picture, along with PurColour and UHD Dimming technologies for ‘more accurate and natural’ colours and ‘deeper black and purer whites’, respectively, as well as an ability to upscale lower-resolution content of live TV and regular HD Blu-ray imagery to something sharper and more in line with the display’s potential.

Additional features for the currently-unpriced product include a ‘Quad Core Plus’ processor (said to make the smart TV twice as powerful as its predecessors), which in turn gives the ability to run a new ‘multitasking screen’, whilst control of such screens and the set overall will come from a touchpad/button-based ‘smart control’.

Although their TV sets are unlikely to make it inside, Samsung products smaller in size now have a single-brand house to call their own in select UK cities, following a deal with mobile phone company Carphone Warehouse. The deal has seen 9 branches of the ‘Samsung Experience’ open in a number of cities, with the Welsh capital of Cardiff joining stores in the English locations of Bournemouth, Bradford, Liverpool,  London, Manchester, and Newcastle.

The store’s aim is to offer an Apple Store-style ‘hands-on experience’ with their more portable products, with shelves that stock smartphones, tablet computers, laptops and ‘wearables’, whilst extras and services (including training sessions, tutorials, and product repairs) will also be on hand at the stoers.

Samsung UK head of mobile Simon Stanford summarised: “We are committed to providing the most innovative and exciting shopping experience for our customers, and our partnership with Carphone Warehouse allows us to do just that. We will be able to offer a unique shopping experience tailored to our customers’ needs, as well as giving them access to our wide portfolio of connected mobile products.”

It has been confirmed that the second season of the Kevin Spacey thriller House of Cards will be available in 4k Ultra HD. The only problem will be getting the hardware capable of displaying it.

CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings revealed at the CES that viewiers including 4k enabled LG Smart TV owners, will be able to watch in glorious Ultra HD (UHD) when the new season begins on February 14.

Although only a handful of early adopters with a fat wallet will be able to watch currently, 2014 marks the year when Ultra HD will take off. Youtube are planning to stream in 4k using their new bandwidth saving VP9 codec.

TV manufacturers are also gearing up for 4k adoption. Polaroid have revealed they are entering the 4k market with a 50 inch screen smart TV, selling for an appealing $1,000.

The second season of House of Cards sees Frank Underwood (Spacey) sworn in as Vice-President after scheming his way to the  top. See the trailer below:-