Apple to announce Smart TV partnerships at CES

Ahead of this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Apple and Samsung announced a strategic partnership to add iTunes Movies and TV Shows and AirPlay 2 to Samsung Smart TVs released in 2018 onwards.

Further to this. The Cupertino-based company will announce further manufacturer partnerships during CES. This is expected to include LG, Panasonic and Sony.

The move outside of Apple's ecosystem is forward-looking and taps into the company's investment in original content to compete with rivals including Netflix and Amazon Prime, spearheaded by a collaboration with director JJ Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

Apple Music is already available as an Alexa skill in the US and AirPlay 2 is coming to third-party speaker manufacturers including Bose this year.

What are your thoughts on Apple's streaming strategy? Let me know in the comments below.

Michael Bay walks off Samsung stage at CES

Transformers director Michael Bay walked off the Samsung stage at CES following a teleprompter fail!

The director posted this message on his blog:

“Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar. I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down – then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing.”

Public speaking isn't for everyone.

Tosh to Warner Bros.

As expected, Toshiba has issued a terse statement in response to Warner Bros.' exclusive backing of all-things Blu:

"Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.' decision to abandon HD DVD in favour of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together to help standardise the first-generation DVD format as well as to define and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.

We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as other regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007.

We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer."

It makes for predictable reading! Toshiba has a vested interest in HD DVD winning the next generation HD optical disc format war! You may have noticed the omission of Europe from Toshiba's statement! Blu-ray is the dominant format over here! It maybe worth mentioning that many Blu-ray discs are multi-region, making import of these titles easier - I was able to import Blade Runner (5-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition) for as little as £19.99. How can Toshiba stop Sony's PS3 Trojan Horse now?

Will other studios make similar announcements during this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES)? Universal should announce Heroes on Blu-ray! Toshiba's shareholders must be quite uncomfortable!