The business of imagining good technology
Developing new technology, to steal a line from Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, is a race for the prize. Lots of considerations before a new product can be deemed prize-worthy. Is it efficient? Does it save space? Will it push boundaries? Is it cutting-edge? What impact will it have on the technology at large? What about in terms of design?
One company has always prided itself on accomplishing the preceding checklist. Samsung utilizes its R&D department to develop products and solutions that “fuse elegant design, revolutionary functionality, and cost efficiency.”
Samsung recently launched its latest products at the Pen, which boast innovations such as No-Noise technology, premium LCD image quality, eco-friendly parts — essential for the corporate arena.
“Samsung is dedicated to providing premium IT experiences through its many quality products,” says Bong Wan Kim, Samsung vice president for information technology.
And these printers, LCD monitors, and digital photo frames are strong in terms of design also. Not surprisingly, since Samsung aims to strike a balance between cutting-edge technology and good design principles. (A digression: I once interviewed a Samsung cellphone designer who designed a particular Samsung handheld mobile around Zen, flying butterflies and minimalism, with terrific results.)
Samsung’s SCX-4500 and ML-1630 printers feature one-touch scanning, easy access to toner cassette and touch sensors — precisely the things that make life in the office (or even in the home) simpler and more effective. These small and sleek babies come in a shiny, piano-black finish with sapphire-blue accents that match the new Samsung LCD monitors accordingly.
The Samsung SyncMaster 932BW and 2232GW LCD monitors strike a fine balance between “function and fashion.” They allow users to enjoy clear, vivid and realistic motion images displayed at high speed. So, after a long day of doing computer graphics at the office, you can just sit back and indulge in a couple of minutes of Warcraft in all its epic, phantasmagoric glory.
The Samsung Digital Photo Frame is a new concept in multimedia solutions. Users can enjoy vibrant digital images, without even turning on a PC or printing out photos. They can show the Siargao surfing photos to relatives or friends in, say,
Versatility is the operative word in Samsung’s Slot-In DVD writer, which supports both reading and writing media, as well as supports 8cm disc reading and writing. It also has LightScribe, which enables users to engrave their own label on the surface of special chemical-coated discs.
With the Samsung TruDirect, users can create DVDs and burn digital content through the PC without the need for a hard drive. It provides easy, real-time recording from almost any digital device. Similar to VCR recording, users can connect their camcorder, digital camera or Web cam to their PCs or notebooks, connect it to the TruDirect, and burn DVD movies directly. With today’s technology, anybody can be the next great Filipino filmmaker like Lav Diaz, realize his vision or version of the world, and make the rest of humanity take notice.
Technology is a tool for human creativity, as well as the fruit of human creativity. Just ask those guys in lab coats from Samsung.
