LG’s webOS will power smart TVs by other brands

Posted on by Prakhar Khanna

LG has announced that it is expanding the availability of its webOS TV platform. The OS will now power smart TVs from other brands as well. It continues to maintain an open-source edition, and now LG has confirmed that it will license the webOS ecosystem for use by other manufacturers including RCA, Ayonz, Konka and more.

“This has the potential to reshape the TV business for both technology and content providers while significantly growing LG’s presence and prominence in the global home entertainment market,” said LG in its blog post.

LG says that over 20 TV manufacturers from around the world have already committed to the webOS partnership. The webOS ecosystem is supported by technology partners such as Realtek, Nuance, Gracenote, CEVA and Universal Electronics, among many others. According to a report by The Verge, licensees will start off running webOS 5.0.

Licensees of webOS TV will receive the same UX design along with the variety of features including voice search and control, integrated AI algorithms and easy connectivity. They will also get access to global streaming service apps such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and sports streaming service DAZN as well as LG Channels, the company’s free premium content streaming service. Compatible TV models will also include the dedicated Magic Motion remote controller.

“The webOS platform is one of the easiest and most convenient way to access millions of hours of movies and TV shows,” said Park Hyoung-sei, president of the LG Home Entertainment Company. “By welcoming other manufacturers to join the webOS TV ecosystem, we are embarking on a new path that allows many new TV owners to experience the same great UX and features that are available on LG TVs. We look forward to bringing these new customers into the incredible world of webOS TV.”

Licensees of webOS TV receive the familiar and highly acclaimed UX design along with a rich pool of features such as voice search and control, integrated AI algorithms and easy connectivity that have earned webOS positive industry and consumer accolades. With LG webOS TV, partners also get a diversity of content options including access to global streaming service apps such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and sports streaming service DAZN as well as LG Channels, the company’s free premium content streaming service. Compatible TV models also include the dedicated Magic Motion remote controller.

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The fight for Lytro and the flight of Huawei | #PNWeekly 297 (LIVE at 3p ET)

Posted on by Jules Wang

On this week's show: Google is the favorite in the market to buy out light field camera maker Lytro while Huawei is said to be taking a slugging in the US.

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Security & Privacy: Your Fingerprint isn’t your Password – and neither is your face or iris

Posted on by Joe Levi

Regardless of whether or not you're one of the "paranoid" people who doesn't want others snooping in their personal effects, your fingerprint, iris, face, or voice isn't your password, and you'd be wise not to treat it as such.

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WiFi4EU program to deploy at least 6,000 free hotspots across the union

Posted on by Jules Wang

Up to 8,000 under-connected municipalities will be able to get a portion of the €120 million set aside for this program to get hotspots by 2020.

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What chance do small companies stand versus giants?

Posted on by Adam Doud

You might be a fan of the little guy in technology. Maybe you’re simply looking for an alternative to the giants in the industry. Either way, it has been a rough couple of months. Three pretty popular companies have gone the way of the dodo since December. Pebble was the first to fall to FitBit. Not to be outdone by its competitor, Vector got itself gobbled up by what has become the Sarlac Pit of technology – or would it be a Rancor? Finally not too long ago, Nextbit – those of the plucky Robin were purchased by gaming giant, Razor. Which leaves us all asking, what’s a startup to do?

Nothing new

Small companies get gobbled up by larger companies all the time. Heck, I got my start in this industry by having my heart ripped out of my chest when HP shut down Palm. Others recall a fondness for Nokia – though that was more a case of a giant company being gobbled up by a Titan. But still, companies get absorbed and summarily dismissed often in this industry which doesn’t bode well for the small entities. It seems like whenever a small company has a big idea, a big company decides to buy it.

This can lead to wonderful things, like money and resources. Or it can lead to bad things like having the plug pulled 49 days later. It’s a topsy turvey world and we’re all just trying to get by in it. I want to be clear, I’m not a business expert nor do I claim to understand the intricacies of buying and selling intellectual property/assets/businesses, and the like. I just know it sucks I can’t buy a Pebble any more. And that’s what we’re here to talk about.

What do we do?

I mean really, what’s a tech fan supposed to do? Why should we become invested in companies like this to begin with? All that happens is some big conglomerate comes by and sucks up everything you love about a company and shuts it down, right? Well, maybe not always. Take for example a company like OnePlus. This isn’t going to be a rah-rah story for OnePlus, but the folks at OnePlus deserve some amount of credit for being where they are today. OnePlus has all the makings of a small little guy just waiting to get absorbed into some giant, and yet they’re still chugging along. This is the sort of success story that needs to be recognized in today’s ultra tech world.

When you look at Kickstarter – speaking of Pebble – you see a great deal of possibility just waiting to be discovered and adopted. There are a lot of interesting ideas on crowd-funding sites that could potentially turn the industry on its head – or at least stop and take notice. But it’s hard to have faith in companies when the dominoes have been falling as rapidly as they have been of late. If 2016 was the year of the celebrity death, 2017 is looking [...]

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