Samsung revealed a smart TV running the Tizen OS at the Tizen Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on Tuesday. According to Tom's Guide, the TV has an unusual remote setup and a pared-down menu similar to that of the Roku TVs shown at CES in January.
Rumors circulated last fall that Samsung would bring Tizen, a Linux-based operating system steered by partners including Samsung and Intel, to TVs in the coming years. In March, the company again hinted to The Wall Street Journal that the TVs were coming.
The Tizen TV prototype has a motion-controlled remote for navigating its menus, which are organized by content type (apps, music, TV, photos and video, and so on). Like the Roku 3's remote, the Tizen TV's remote can also be used to play games translated to the big screen.
What sets the Tizen TV apart is that any mobile device can become a remote for the TV without having to download an app. To set up a remote, users connect their devices to the same Wi-Fi network as the TV and navigate to a website on their smartphones. The website turns the display of the device into a large touchpad for navigating the TV screen, and it also gives the phone controls for changing the channel or volume.
According to Recode, Jong-Deok Choi, vice president of Samsung Electronics, said at the keynote that the TVs would "be on the market very soon."
