My love of webOS is no secret. For example, my TouchPad is my main tablet, despite being discontinued over two years ago. I recently attempted to use a Pre Plus as a daily driver and only gave it up because of battery issues. However, I am a rarity.
LG believed in webOS too, which is why the company purchased webOS last year. Hiring on remnants of the existing team, the stated goal was to use webOS to make smart TVs smarter. Everyone wondered how it would look and function compared to existing devices. As the year went on, people started asking if there was even a need in a world with AirPlay and Chromecast and a dozen other media solutions. To counter these questions, LG showed the results of its efforts at last week’s CES, and the response has been favorable so far.
Gone are the typical grids and muddled settings screens of past smart TVs. Unlike Roku or or Apple TV, LG webOS doesn’t require you to constantly go back or home. It’s clear that LG has taken the underpinning multitasking elements of webOS and used them to create an elegant interface, as seen in the below ad.
First, let us bow our heads in thanks for a webOS-related ad that’s not horrific. The original Pre ones were nightmarish, and Verizon’s “smartphones smart enough for mom” were condescending as hell. The idea of an ad that actually shows what webOS can do? How odd, yet obvious!
The ability to switch between services via the boldly colored Launcher line is quite clever and far superior to the original early leaks. If the underpinning is based on webOS’s Synergy protocol, even better. LG’s take on webOS includes apps that have never existed for traditional webOS (Hulu and Netflix) and refreshes for apps no longer work right on the aged ecosystem (Facebook and Twitter).
Although who tweets from their TV?
Is it possible that these pure Enyo apps might find their way to the remaining webOS holdouts? Doubtful, but there’s always hope. Although, if your hope is for a new handset, you’d best not hold your breath.
In another welcome change for webOS, LG will put the refreshed OS on more than a handful of devices. In fact, 56 percent of all TVs shipped in 2014 will have the new smart TV system. That includes all the 4K TVs. Considering LG’s share of the television market, there’s an excellent chance that you or someone you know will end up using webOS. That’s a technological feat that was nearly unthinkable even before HP shuttered the line.
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