On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Google celebrates the first birthday of Chrome OS with a triad of announcements-- the improved Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook, the first Mac Mini-style "Chromebox," and general improvements on the OS itself.

Like previous models, the Series 5 550 carries a 12.1" (with 1280x800 resolution) display, x2 USB ports and weighs 1.4kg. It also has a dual-core Intel Atom CPU, 4GB of RAM and 16GB of storage (boosted via SD card slot and Google cloud-based storage).

Connectivity comes through either wifi or 3G, and Samsung says it even improved the trackpad.

Even more interesting is the Chromebox-- a Chrome OS-powered mini desktop PC with a 1.9GHz Atom processor, x6 USB ports, x2 DisplayPort++ connectors (compatible with HDMI, DVI and VGA) and Bluetooth connectivity for wireless keyboards.

The 2 devices do manage to make life on Chrome OS even more tempting-- especially since the OS now has a new desktop-style UI, remote access functions, an improved media player and built-in photo editor and uploader.

Google should be roll out more Chrome OS improvements next month (in time for the Google I/O conference), including Google Drive integration, a native Microsoft Office document viewer and offline document editing and storage.

Is Chrome OS ready to challenge Windows or OS X? Probably not, but it looks like Google is not giving up on its PC dreams just yet...

Go Next Step in the Chrome OS Journey

The Galaxy S3 is more than a flagship smartphone for Samsung-- it also launches Music Hub, the Samsung take on online music services of both iTunes and Spotify variety.

Initially exclusive to the Galaxy S3 (but will also launch on PC and other Samsung devices soon enough), Music Hub offers streaming, radio stations, cloud-based music storage and a music store, with a catalog of 19m songs courtesy of digital content technology provider 7digital.

The service will be available in free (offering 30-second song previews) and premium (with €9.99 monthly subscription) versions.

Samsung and Sony stop retailers from offering discounts on TV prices, The Wall Street Journal reports-- a tactic aiming to protect profits while helping retailers against the "cutthroat online competition."

The policies prevent US retailers from "advertising or selling televisions in stores or online for less than the prices set by the manufacturers." The reason? Sliding TV prices, of course.

According to the CEA, flat-screen TV prices are on a 3 year long 15% slide, even as average consumer TV sizes grow. Meanwhile all the major TV makers (bar Samsung) are making heavy losses.

Not to mention consumers are buying less TVs...

The Monaco Grand Prix involved more than F1 racing this year-- before the race LG launched the 55EM9600 55" OLED 3DTV at the Salle des Etoiles with special guest F1 champion Sebastian Vettel.

First seen at CES 2012, the LG "ultimate display" OLED TV uses WRGB technology, with a white sub-pixel improving colour output and Colour Refiner enchancing imagery further.

OLED displays generate their own light, eliminating the need for backlighting.

The TV also sees a slight redesign post-CES-- the "paper slim" body is in carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), with 4mm thickness and 10kg weight.

The Monaco event also hosted the European launch of other LG TVs, including the Quad HD-- an 84" giant 3DTV with an 8 million pixel panel.

Go LG Ushers New Era of Viewing with "Ultimate Display" OLED TV