Samsung’s new Ryder Cup app for its smart TVs brings viewers closer to the action

By Alex Tretbar September 23, 2014

samsung builds ryder cup multi screen app for newer smart tvs rydercup — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Samsung announced today that it has collaborated with Turner Sports and the Professional Golfers’ Association to develop a Ryder Cup TV app, designed exclusively for Samsung smart TVs. The app will allow golf fans to follow live, up-to-date scores, access exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, and view course information through virtual hole flyovers.

Turner Sports, the PGA, and Samsung developed a similar app for the PGA Championship last month that offered a number of the same features. Fans were even able to use the app interactively with the tournament, by taking part in the “Pick the Hole Location Challenge” hosted by Jack Nicklaus, in which viewers used their Samsung smart TVs to vote in real time and help determine the hole location to be used on the 16th hole during the tournament’s final round.

The new Ryder Cup TV app is now available for download across select 2013 and 2014 Samsung smart TVs. While a companion app is available for both Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, only Android users will be able to pair their TVs to mobile devices for the full multi-screen experience, including casting capabilities and even more exclusive live action and content. In usual Samsung fashion, owners of both a Samsung smartphone or tablet and one of the newer Samsung TVs will also have access to additional exclusive content, though it’s unclear what exactly this doubly exclusive content will be.

The smart TV, iOS, and Android apps each feature Broadcast Mode, which enables users watching the Cup on NBC or the Golf Channel to toggle between various live video feeds, launch an interactive leaderboard, and keep up with their favorite golfers. Also included is a shop feature that enables viewers to buy official event-based merchandise, including Team USA uniforms, directly through their Samsung smart TVs. Users complete the purchase via mobile device or PC.

This year’s Ryder Cup action will run September 23-28 at the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles in Scotland.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Alex Tretbar, audio/video intern, is a writer, editor, musician, gamer and sci-fi nerd raised on EverQuest and Magic: The…

Audio / Video

Why Samsung built an NFT aggregator into its new TVs

Samsung NFT aggregator.

It's easy to read Samsung's CES 2022 press release and scoff. Maybe it's at the images of beautiful TVs you probably can't pay for affixed to designer concrete walls in impeccable homes that you most certainly can't afford. Or perhaps it's the models doing model things in those impeccable (and impeccably lit) homes. Or maybe it's the idea of a remote control without batteries. (Which almost certainly isn't actually how that works, but that's neither here nor there.)

Or, perhaps, it's the idea of an "NFT aggregation platform" being built into the television. It sounds insane -- baking something that most people don't understand, let alone engage in -- into a TV. Most of us can't even describe what a non-fungible token is, let alone tell someone how to go get one. It's a multi-layered process that's far more difficult than taking a screenshot of something you saw on Instagram and then sticking it up on your TV.

Audio / Video

Samsung looks for an ‘Age of Togetherness’ with new Frame, Neo QLED TVs

Samsung Micro LED 2022.

Samsung kicks off CES 2022 doing what Samsung does best -- taking its line of many televisions, already great in their own right, and kicking things up yet another notch. Smarter, brighter, better, easier to use -- all the things that make a TV more than a TV in an era in which we're spending more time in front of the TV than ever.

On the front side of things is a new home screen, "a testament to our vision for the future of TVs." Samsung is paring things down to three main hubs -- a Media Screen, a Gaming Hub, and Ambient Mode. They're mostly self-explanatory. If it's something you're going to watch (via Samsung's built-in apps, anyway), you'll get to it from the Media Screen. The Gaming Hub gets you into your cloud-based gaming services and consoles and works with existing third-party controllers and headsets. And the Ambient Mode makes it easier than ever to have something pleasant on the screen when you're not actively watching or playing something. That includes art, or photos, or even NFTs, because it's 2022 and it's all about non-fungible tokens, apparently.

Audio / Video

Samsung brings the Mona Lisa and other famous Louvre art to its The Frame TVs

Samsung's The Frame TV displaying art from the Louvre.

Owners of Samsung's The Frame QLED TVs are getting a serious upgrade to their art collection. Thanks to a new partnership with the Louvre gallery in Paris, Samsung has added world-famous works of art like the Mona Lisa and The Wedding at Cana -- 40 works in all -- to its Art Store catalog, which The Frame TV can display when not being used for video content.

The new collection also includes photos of the Louvre galleries, its architecture, and museum grounds (Louvre Pyramid, Tuileries Garden, etc.). Samsung says that the partnership will grow the number of included artworks over the coming year. When you include these new items, The Frame's Art Store catalog now includes more than 1,500 works of art from 42 different countries in 4K resolution. In addition to the Louvre, the catalog also has works from the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Tate Modern in London, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Hermitage State Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and online photography gallery Lumas.