The Joys of Digital Living

By Michael Roney

Life is meant to be savored, right? Whether flying along under full sail off La Jolla, trekking through Patagonia's stunning Futaleufu River valley, or simply absorbing a peaceful sunrise on Nantucket, we all seek those exciting, visceral moments that awaken all of the senses, elevating an experience from merely special to positively sublime. Yet these days you can use cutting-edge digital technology to revel in many of the same sensations and emotions, whether you're actually there or not.

Thanks to high-definition video and luxe product design, you can seamlessly bathe yourself in sunrise-sweet reverie or conjure those peak moments almost at will, with nearly the same level of immediacy and drama that you would get out on the water or in an exotic landscape. It's all a matter of equipping yourself with the best digital gear to make that special connection with whatever turns you on, ensuring a joyful soul-meets-body experience.

DESIGN THAT BREEDS PASSION

In the milieu of lifestyle tech, so much of the joy starts with design. Just look at the words we use when we feel passionate about cutting-edge gear: How about smart and beautiful, intuitive, delightfully cool, or dare we say it, awesome? The kind of transformative approach that breeds such passionate language reaches deeper than superficial style or mere function. It's holistic, with equal measures of performance, style and, yes, cachet — taking into account your personal values and who you are.

When most of us muse on the intersection of cutting-edge technology with this kind of style-forward esthetic, we think of Samsung, which in the past several years has emerged as the leader in consumer electronics innovation, with dedicated design centers in Seoul, London, Los Angeles, Milan, San Francisco, Shanghai and Tokyo. To be sure, its output measures up on an international scale, reaching well beyond typical feature lists to bring a cool continuum of style and immersive functionality to the digital lifestyle.

Case in point: Samsung has been the leader in super-slim LCD technology and essentially invented the sleek, bezel-mounted television. It has now brought that iconic form factor to new heights of cool elegance with its latest Touch of Color bezel design. Picture a highly distinctive color-infused bezel created with an injection process commonly applied in the design of premium automobiles, then wrapped with a translucent coating — a subtle yet unique look. The overall effect is enough to quicken the pulse of any aficionado of stylish living.

And naturally, this design elegance isn't just skin-deep, but is fully integrated with:

• HD 1080-pixel resolution and LED-backlit technology that features a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1
• 120Hz motion blur reduction
• InfoLink, a spiffy RSS feed service offering customizable stock quotes, weather and news items.

RELIVING YOUR PERSONAL PASSIONS

Of course, the joy of digital living doesn't have to be limited to luxuriating in the beautiful images and sounds that others have created, however compelling those may be. You can relive your own passions — preserving a special family event, a memorable day on the water or a week with someone special in one of the world's most renowned locales — with a stunningly elegant tool kit of high-performance products. Here too, Samsung offers typically innovative design and styling panache to help you capture and replay your peak experiences in all of their detailed, immersive glory.

Consider the possibilities in the TL34HD, a point-and-shoot camera that offers professional-quality imaging capabilities — including a 14.7 megapixel imaging sensor and sophisticated algorithms that ensure crisp pictures even in tough situations and challenging lighting conditions — all within a compact, all-metal casing in black or silver with a red accent. Its innovative touch screen allows you to interact in an amazingly intuitive way with menu items and picture elements, and its multi-slide show function allows you to put together HD-quality presentations that you can use later to wow your friends on that 55-inch Series 9 LCD you brought home. Pretty cool.

But don't stop there. Add brilliantly detailed motion and sound to your passion portfolio with the SC-HMX20 full-HD Camcorder, boasting a healthy eight gigabytes of built-in memory that lets you record up to 90 minutes of high-quality digital video, and an SDHC/MMC + card slot that gives you even more storage flexibility. Use the swivel grip to shoot from virtually any angle, or maybe employ its 300 frames-per-second super slow motion recording capabilities for your very own Chariots of Fire scenes.

Once you've done that, go for the ultimate in tech-enabled emotional synergy: Use the camcorder's bundled editing software for adding those final touches to your cinéma vérité and stream those creations to your other Samsung HD devices; or mix and match your world of images and sound with an extended-gamut Blu-ray player such as the Samsung's BDP-1500. Add the builtin Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processor, a powerful unit similar to those used by professional production studios, and you're in for a nearly transcendental home theater experience — all orchestrated with a single remote control and Samsung's Anynet+ technology. You'll be master of your universe, having created a virtual experience environment that you can truly get excited about.

SOMETHING WORTH SAVORING

Given this level of innovation, it's no wonder that Samsung has come on so strong in recent years, sweeping up awards in international design and technology while becoming the most coveted brand in consumer electronics.

Ultimately, what really has driven Samsung's success, and what gets hearts pounding over its universe of products, is the way its creations seem to connect with both the senses and the soul — a reflection of an elegant design philosophy that invokes all the possibilities of the present while constantly creating the future. Like life, that's definitely worth savoring.