Samsung's new flagship smartphone sports a feature that's becoming increasingly popular as of late: the Galaxy S4 will come with a built-in infrared LED and companion app that allows it to control your television and home theater system. We most recently saw such a feature on the HTC One, and a smattering of recent tablets have had it too, but the new handset most closely follows in the footsteps of Samsung's own Galaxy Note 10.1 and Galaxy Note 8.0 by using what appears to be the very same Peel-inspired interface.
Samsung Galaxy S4 doubles as a smart TV remote, with built-in IR blaster and ‘WatchOn’ software
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
Not only can you control your media center directly, but also check current TV programs, discover on-demand content with Samsung’s Media Hub, and purchase it from the phone, then watch it on the TV or your device itself. At Mobile World Congress, the company called it Video Discovery, and you can see our video demo on the Galaxy Note 8.0 below. Now, it’s called WatchOn, and we’ll let you know if it differs in any significant way from what we’ve already been shown.
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