Samsung adds TV Plus and art mode to the Family Hub refrigerator - The Verge

The latest update to the smart fridge is coming in July and adds the Samsung TV Plus app, a choice of art for the screen, and better food recognition capabilities.

Samsung is releasing a new update for its Family Hub refrigerators that brings Samsung TV Plus — the tech giant’s free, ad-supported live TV service — to its fridges with a tablet built-in.

At its second annual Bespoke Home event on Tuesday, the company said the update (which was first announced last year) will arrive this July on Family Hub 2.0 models (2017 and later). The live TV option is only available in the U.S. and Korea.

Currently, users of Samsung’s smart fridge can watch television on the fridge’s built-in touchscreen by mirroring a Samsung TV to the fridge or content from a Samsung smartphone. But without one of those devices, your fridge just had to be boring.

I have attempted to watch TV on a Family Hub and it’s not a great experience — it can only use a small horizontal area in the middle of the fridge’s vertical 21.5-inch screen. A Google Nest Hub Max or Echo Show 10 makes a better kitchen TV, but those take up counter space. Samsung’s fridge does also double as a smart speaker, with Amazon’s Alexa and Samsung’s Bixby voice assistants co-habiting in the device, a rare coupling.

I’ve also attempted to watch Samsung TV Plus on a Samsung TV and while there are over 200 channels of free, ad-supported live TV as well as on-demand content, it’s a wholly random assortment of stuff. Yes, there’s CBS News and CNN Replay, plus lots of food channels and kids' channels, but there is also a channel that just plays Baywatch 24/7, and another one for Antiques Roadshow.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/8/23158896/samsung-family-hub-smart-fridge-new-features

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