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LG unveils webOS, their new take on Smart TV

In February 2013, HP decided it was time to give up the webOS dream, after half a decade of failing to bring the Palm OS ideas to life. LG acquired the dying mobile operating system and had a plan, to reinvent webOS for their Smart TVs.

LG’s move to take webOS and change the layout and functionality, while still holding some of the finer details together, was an ambitious stride. Today at CES the company unveiled why they bought the OS and how they have redefined the idea of Smart TV.

WebOS has been redesigned but comes with the familiar card layout, only this time with rhombus shapes on the bottom the TV. The cards are all the users frequently used apps and LG has grabbed a few core apps, including Netflix, YouTube and Skype, amongst others.

Whats interesting is the cards are not just apps, they are stations and different connected devices. For instance, when a user plugs in their Xbox One or PS4, instead of just showing ‘HDMI 1’ it will show up as the PS4, a clever move by LG to make webOS easier.

LG has also made switching channels a lot easier and it all has to do with the simplistic interface, allowing users to switch from TV to Netflix, similar to how the Xbox One controls applications and app switching.

As for how LG will acquire the apps, webOS uses a very simple Enyo framework and most web applications are compatible without a large amount of tinkering. App developers will obviously have their worries in case their apps do not see any users, but with Netflix and other streaming services already available, it is only a short time before LG starts to build its own TV store.

LG will not just be putting this on one TV, the South Korean company plans to install webOS onto 50% of their TVs this year alone, with more to follow as they move forward. This is a move against Rokuand Apple TV and other TV options, but it is one that is integrated with the television, making it an easier solution.

LG webOS TV leaked before CES 2014 debut

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LG’s webOS TV project has been silent for a while now, ever since the acquisition of HP’s failed Palm OS project we have heard very little from LG, apart from announcements they will be working on webOS for their new smart TVs.

The fruition of months of work may be upon us at CES and Evleaks has come early to the party once again, with new leaked photo of the LG webOS TV and the new interface LG has created on top of Palm’s old mobile operating system.

It is impressive that in a matter of months LG has managed to create a TV operating system from an abandoned mobile project HP put on the shelve. Most of the functionality will remain, we suspect and LG has had some work re-skinning webOS to look better on the big screen.

The design of the LG webOS TV is really nice, but the South Korean electronics giant has become a master at making incredible televisions. The steel stand and edge-to-edge display with no bezel screams quality and we can expect this being a high-price smart TV.

On the user interface front, LG has kept the multi-tasking cards feature but redesign it to make every card a small rhombus. We actually like the photo showing the UI, but it will be after CES when we find out if it is intuitive and functional, for now it just looks exciting.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype all look to be available on the LG webOS TV, the photo shows all the apps available. LG will be using webOS Enyo framework to gather apps onto the system, there is already quite a few, but none have been updated recently.

We do not know how this TV will fair, LG has not had the best success when it comes to smart TVs, but then again, nobody has apart from Samsung. WebOS is a nice concept and if LG can sell this at a reasonable rate, they may be able to draw a few buyers in.

LG will unveil first webOS TV at CES next month

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Its been a few months since news arrived about HP selling webOS, the successor of Palm OS, over to LG. Exact details were not announced, but LG did say they plan to put the operating system into their TVs, moving away from Google’s “smart TV” plan.

The webOS TV will be running a different version of HP’s smartphone operating system, scaled better for larger screens and with some new gestures. LG has had a problem with developing operating systems and skins before, particularly when it comes to designing interfaces.

LG has said the webOS TV will come with 2.2GHz dual-core processor with 1.5GB of RAM, we are not sure if the dual-core processor will be a Snapdragon 800 or something a little different like the MediaTek dual-core lineup.

The webOS TV will also run Enyo third party apps store and LG will be looking to find suitable TV applications. The regulars Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant and other social/video apps are bound to pop up in the first few months, with more to follow later.

Palm OS was the original “smartphone” OS, back before Android, iOS and Windows Phone. A lot of the designs and ideas that went into Palm OS were seeded into the popular mobile OS’s today, like the cards interface.

LG may have less popularity when it comes to their redesign of webOS, but we still think it will be better than most of the skins and interface choices LG has made in the past.

The first webOS TV will be available to check out at CES 2014 in January – last year we got a good look at all the new 4K displays on offer and we wonder what price point LG is looking to market the webOS TV at – we expect high-end since it is a smart TV.