back to article LG to bring Palm's webOS BACK FROM THE DEAD in TVs next week – report

South Korean electronics giant LG plans to debut its first smart TV based on the webOS operating system next week, industry insiders claim. Citing an unnamed source, the Wall Street Journal reports that the webOS-powered boob tube will be unveiled at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, due to run from …

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  1. Nathan 6
    Linux

    Maybe this time they do the smart thing.

    Amazingly from the start webos shipped with a full j2se runtime, but the idoits running things never bothered to expose it to developers. Had they did that I suspect webos eould be in a much better position since the api/toolchain would be similar to Androids, but only couple years ahead.

  2. Zola
    Go

    Qt 5 framework on a Smart TV

    Now a Smart TV UI built with Qt 5? I'd like to see that.

    But WebOS? No thanks, and that's speaking as someone who owned a firesale Touchpad.

    1. jai

      Re: Qt 5 framework on a Smart TV

      From a user point of view, it seems WebOS's main benefit on the phone was the card/stack way to navigate the currently running apps.

      I'm sure there's plenty behind the scenes, but I remember that was what everyone was so impressed with when it was a phone OS with a hopeful future.

      But that's not going to work on a TV is it? using buttons on a remote control to navigate a menu like that is going to feel clunky and really, on a telly, who needs that many apps multi-tasking in the background? with the exception of PVR and EPG screens (which anyone with a satellite or cable box will be using via external equipment anyway) if the app isn't in the front being watched, it might as well be closed or at least hibernating.

      But then, without the funky multi-task user interface, is there really much else that WebOS can deliver that other telly OS's couldn't, if the manufacturers could be bothered?

      As others have said - a telly is for viewing. I don't want a Smart Monitor connected to my desktop PC, it'd be a pointless duplication of function. Similarly, whydo i need a Smart TV connected to my (Tivo/Cable/Satellite), my (Playstation/Xbox), my (AppleTV/NowTV/Roku/etc/etc), all of which are already far smarter and more capable than the Smartest of TVs?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Translation

    "Disable" in Korean = "hide better" anywhere else.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why buy something when they could have just joined in on something else? LG could have jumped on with Sailfish OS. They would still have Qt and could have helped with the code for far less than what they spent on WebOS. They get the best of both worlds and if the TV was ARM based, an app store with native apps as well as Android apps as they are compatible.

    1. Tom 35

      They want to own it all

      "Why buy something when they could have just joined in on something else?"

      They would not have full control of everything. The problem is they are likely going to end up like Windows RT with 100% of nothing, or WinPhone with 100% of bugger all.

      The other thing it's not going to do is get people to buy a new TV every 3 years like they do with cell phones.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: They want to own it all

        >The other thing it's not going to do is get people to buy a new TV every 3 years

        It is if the channel change software needs an update every year and you stop shipping updates after 3 years

        1. James O'Shea

          Re: They want to own it all

          ">The other thing it's not going to do is get people to buy a new TV every 3 years

          It is if the channel change software needs an update every year and you stop shipping updates after 3 years"

          1 my tv (an lg!) stays on one channel... the channel that the set-top box uses. I change channels on the set-top box. The internal workings of the tv, including its os, are irrelevant.

          2 should lg manage to do something to make the internal workings relevant, and should they rig it that i must buy a new tv because they refuse to support the old one, i'll buy a new tv, alright, but it won't be from lg.

          3 some 3rd party (logitech, for example, i have a logitech super-remote) will come up with something which accesses the old system. one reason why i have the logitech remote is that it talks to a LOT of different systems, many of which have not been supported by their vendors in years. lg would have to take active measures to prevent this.

          no, they will not even try to impose a cell-phone-like environment.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What difference does a TV's operating system make?

    Unless companies are trying to get developers to write third party apps for their TVs, it is pretty much irrelevant. Is anyone going to base a TV buying decision on whether it runs WebOS, or Android, or $Proprietary_OS?

    The only apps we ever seem to get on "smart TVs" are the 10th different method in a household to access Netflix or Youtube. TVs don't need to browse the web, display information from your thermostat, do a slideshow of pictures on a SD card, or send emails. TVs shouldn't be smart, they should be dumb as a rock, but allow control via IR, serial/USB, and network if available, with published codes including plenty of discretes and multiple code sets. Make it easy to control by whatever method the user chooses to employ, but beyond that it should be a display device with speakers and a tuner.

    The TV makers are struggling for reasons to get people to pay twice as much for a TV that's identical to their low end model except they slapped on a network interface, SD card reader and a few useless apps.

    1. ricegf

      Pros, Cons, and Precedents

      Perhaps. However, my daughter uses her Samsung smart TV we gave her for Christmas to watch Netflix, Hulu and YouTube quite a bit without an auxiliary box (she doesn't have cable or satellite), and using a small TV as an electronic picture frame when not in use for video would cause my wife to swoon.

      Putting all her electronics in one box did give me pause, though. The old VCR/TV and DVD/TV combos were not repairable when the VCR or DVD inevitably broke. Keeping the smarts separate from the monitor makes more logical sense, but the slightly lower cost of the combo devices will probably make them a profitable niche for TV manufacturers. I suspect we'll see the same economics in play with smart Tvs as we did for earlier combo devices.

    2. Fatman

      Re: What difference does a TV's operating system make?

      The TV makers are struggling for reasons to get people to pay twice as much for a TV that's identical to their low end model except they slapped on a network interface, SD card reader and a few useless apps.

      Note the emphasized phrase.

      I bet the cost of the SD reader and network chip amount to peanuts, yet include them, and the price goes up because you now have a SMART TV.

      It's all about margins!!!!

  7. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Boffin

    WebOs Powered 'boob tube'?

    The mind boggles.

    Perhaps for some of us of a certain age the term 'boob tube' means something different to you young whippersnappers?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Piro Silver badge

      Re: WebOs Powered 'boob tube'?

      I'm English, and to me, "boob tube" would mean one of those small and tight strapless tops that a woman may wear around her chest area.

      So of course the title of this article brought images of breasts to mind. Far better than images of idiots.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: WebOs Powered 'boob tube'?

        However, the British use of "boob tube" should not come with a touch-based interface, unless a properly validated user login is required before use.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: WebOs Powered 'boob tube'?

          That's what notes are for.

        2. Fatman
          Joke

          Re: ...properly validated user login is required before use.

          And of course, the proper I/O port probing!!!!

          1. Levente Szileszky

            Re: ...properly validated user login is required before use.

            That's what port scanners are for, aren't they...?

            Though as I think about it there are also a lot of super-compatible ones out there, which gladly accept any kind of I/O connections eg reversed or seemingly incompatible plug-port combinations...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Take a touch screen based OS and put it on a non-touch based device, sounds like they've really thought that through.

    1. ricegf
      Facepalm

      There's a precedent

      Worked out really well for Windows 8! Oh, wait...

  9. Hans 1

    Seriously, I am happy with a dumb tv and a smart thingy sitting next to/under/behind it that I can updrade regularly ... you might keep the tv for 5-6 years, imagine you bought a smart TV 6 years ago, the TV would have the functionality of the original iPhone.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      really?

      I've updated my tv's firmware since I bought it two months ago.

      It's a Samsung, and it works fine for youtube, but when I try to view the HUGE images at nasa.gov, it crashes...

  10. Cubical Drone

    Frankly it is getting to the point that instead of adding stuff, they should just remove the tuner and basically make them monitors that you just plug various stuff into.

  11. Peter Gordon

    I love my pre 3

    its still my only phone. I don't want a smart tv, I want a pre 4 :(

  12. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    Maybe they're hoping that with the channel programmes being so dire these days people will get so bored they'll start playing with the TV as a toy instead.

    1. Fihart

      TV as toy

      Closer to the truth than you may realise.

      The old joke went that the reason Japanese cars had so many pointless dashboard toys was that traffic there was so dire that actual driving was a bit of an afterthought

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thinking about the "LG TVs phone home and snitch on your viewing habits" problem ...

    perhaps someone can extract the OS of the accursed devices, and wrap it up as a VM image. Then it can be automatically fed random key presses and file names to post off to the far east. Run the VM instead of shutting down or when logging off.

    We are never going to get rid of the databases, nor the trawling for info to fill them. Therefore we must devote as much energy as possible to poisoning them.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    YouView

    Why must every TV company come up with a new UI? Why not just put YouView on each TV I'd have far more faith in in Smart TV's lasting if they did.

    That or Andriod.

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