A new Palm smartphone has been tipped to be coming in the year 2018, made by the folks at TCL. The Palm brand has been in limbo for the past half-decade, moving in and out of HP-connected devices then on into relative obscurity. The Palm operating system was acquired by LG and continues to be used (in some form or another) in LG smart TVs to this day - as such, it won't be coming with the Palm phone set for next year.
LG has added webOS, WiFi, Amazon Alexa and more to its latest Smart InstaView Door-in-Door Refrigerator, fitting the double-door appliance with a transparent touchscreen and voice and smartphone control. Revealed at CES 2017 today, the kitchen behemoth is LG's latest push in the Internet of Things, though it's not the only appliance getting smarter. In fact, LG is putting WiFi into all its 2017 home appliances.
The LG ProBeam is the latest effort in consumer electronics to make the home theater a portable affair. Movies will be able to be watched on large surfaces wherever this machine can be brought and plugged in. LG's release comes at a time when a series of extremely popular movies is coming out, once a year, all meant for the big screen - a perfect combination.*
Once upon a time, TVs were crudely simple appliances. Turn it on, switch to your channel of choice, sit back, and enjoy. Modern TV sets, however, have mutated to adapt to the more complex demands of today’s lifestyles. Especially smart TVs that add features to both make viewing more sophisticated as well as complicated. LG’s upcoming WebOS 3.5 release for its smart TVs aim to remove some of that complexity. Instead, it will replace it features to make the TV experience feel seemingly magical.
Back in the days, TVs became the hub of the house. These days, each family member usually carry their own mini-hubs in the form of smartphones and tablets. Trying to reclaim their territory, TV makers have made TVs smarter so that they could do anything their owners want. Including shopping, at least for digital goods. To that end, LG has announced its partnership with Paymentwall to bring the ability to make online purchases on a host of its Smart TVs, powered by its custom webOS 3.0 platform.
SmartThings has announced a dongle that turns Samsung TVs into the hub of a smart home. The SmartThings Extend USB adapter will allow Samsung TVs to hook into the SmartThings ecosystem, controlling over 200 products ranging from lights, through outlets, and more esoteric kit like baby monitors and more.
webOS started out life as an open source descendant of the now defunct Palm OS, initially geared to become a mobile platform to stand tall and proud beside the likes of Android and iOS. After changing hands from Palm to HP and finally to LG, the platform has been retrofitted to simply become a smart TV OS. The latest iteration of that platform, webOS 3.0, will be the bridge between users and LG's 2016 lineup of smart TVs and LG will be singing its praises come CES 2016, which takes place at Las Vegas in just a few weeks.
After being stung by the stillborn Google TV promise a few years back, LG decided to go with its own platform instead. Acquiring webOS from HP, which the latter acquired from Palm, LG has put webOS on most if not all of its smart TVs and at least one smartwatch. Continuing its show of support and dedication to its exclusive platform, LG is rolling out a free upgrade to its older webOS 1.0 smart TVs, bringing in some of the features of webOS 2.0 to the screen.
If TV makers have been having a hard time selling their units, they might face even more hesitation about their Smart TVs once people realize what they're getting. Or, in this case, what they're not getting. The promise of a smart TV really only holds if the software running inside it is powerful, fast, and up to date. Sadly, that is not the case for many of these types of TVs. For example, it has taken LG this long to offer a WebOS 2.0 upgrade for its 2014 Smart TVs, and it won't even becoming until sometime later this year.
LG has two smartwatches for MWC 2015, but it’s the LG Watch Urbane LTE that’s arguably the most interesting. Packing LTE for standalone connectivity rather than demanding a nearby paired smartphone, and running not Android Wear but a heavily modified version of webOS, it may look like its Watch Urbane sibling, but that’s only skin - or metal - deep. Read on for some first-impressions from here in Barcelona.
CES 2015 brought us two pretty cool things in webOS for LG TVs and Sling TV. Sling TV is a cord cutter’s dream come true. Rather than having to sign up for a cable subscription, Sling TV users can sign up for packages of TV content that streams to them via the Internet. If you’re taking a hard look at an LG TV with webOS (or maybe already have one), we’ve got good news. Sling TV will come to your LG TV.
Audi’s foray into smartwatches has kicked off some confusion here at CES, over whether the car company is working on Open webOS or Android Wear. Turns out, the answer is "both". SlashGear sat down with Audi’s engineers responsible for both projects, to take a walk through the “Secure Key” project that will allow phones and smartwatches from multiple manufacturers to wirelessly start the car, locate it in distant parking lots, and even loan virtual keys to colleagues and friends. Read on for a full demo of both Audi’s LG Open webOS watch and its Android Wear counterpart.
