Pinboard (guardiantech)

A failed experiment: how LG screwed up its webOS acquisition >> Gigaom

guardiantech — 2014-08-28T20:04:10+00:00

Janko Roettgers:

[The Consumer Electronics Show] CES was approaching quickly, and LG’s engineers [in Korea] ran out of time trying to make their complicated interface work, so the decision was made to go with the webOS launcher instead in order to have anything up and running at all. “We got lucky,” said one member of the original webOS team, who like others in this story declined to be identified by name. I’ve been told that this anecdote was symptomatic of many of the struggles the webOS team was facing across all parts of its operation, including engineering. Despite repeated requests, LG never hired more engineers for the Silicon Valley group. Instead, it put them at the mercy of engineers in Korea who were beholden to their local management, and frequently built features that the webOS team didn’t ask for, or worse, had long fought against. On the engineering side, the webOS team also struggled with a culture clash of sorts that pitted company politics against its attempt to simplify the company’s smart TV platform. Sources told me that LG had a policy in place to reward managers with bonuses or even promotions if their features were part of the final product. The result was a constant feature bloat, as everyone tried to add on one more thing.

Alarm bells ring for Internet of Things after smart TV hack >> SC Magazine UK

guardiantech — 2014-06-10T21:49:33+00:00

Yossef Oren and Angelos Keromytis from the Network Security Lab at Columbia University have found that the so-called Smart TV could be hacked using a cheap antenna and broadcast messages, and relies on an insecurity in the Hybrid Broadcast-Broadband Television Standard (HbbTV), which now features on millions of internet-connected TVs after being introduced two years ago. HbbTV has been adopted by more than 90 percent of TV set producers, according to research outfit GFK, and allows the approximate 60 broadcasters using the standard in Europe to add interactive HTML content to DVB cable, satellite or terrestrial signals. This means that viewers can use their favourite web services via TV apps, and allows advertisers to serve up relevant ads. But writing in a new research paper published this week, Oren and Keromytis have detailed that the standard is vulnerable to a “large-scale exploitation technique” that is “remarkably difficult to detect”. It is low entry too – as a budget of just $270 would be enough to target around 20,000 devices.

The Chromecast vs. Smart TV >> DisplaySearch Blog

guardiantech — 2013-08-05T20:36:27+00:00

Paul Gagnon:

Our research indicates that the percentage of TVs which are connected will increase to 23% in North America, though this is well below the global average of 36% and behind expectations. The low adoption rate of connected TV in the US relates to the proliferation of other devices that can duplicate the function of Smart TVs for little or no money. Gaming console owners already stream from web apps. Roku and Apple TV are relatively cheap at $60-$100. The Chromecast, at $35, significantly devalues connected TV functions (and may be followed up with an Android game console).
For smart TV makers, this is a big challenge. To date, their solution has been to increase the functionality, complexity and componentry of the Smart TV to compete with other devices in the home. However, this increases the cost while consumers see decreasing value in Smart TV hardware (and set makers struggle with Smart TV obsolescence). The Chromecast will widen this gap further, and appears to be a hit among tech enthusiasts.

Why would you pay $100-$200 extra for the "smart" functionality if you could add it for less with a Chromecast, Roku or Apple TV?

Internet-connected TVs are used to watch TV, and that’s about all >> NPD Group

guardiantech — 2012-12-27T19:09:29+00:00

The challenge may be that too much choice is creating a complex user experience. There are six or more types of devices bringing the Internet to HDTVs: the TV itself, video game consoles, Blu-ray Disc players, streaming media set top boxes, TiVo, and a few audio/video receivers. While 15 percent of HDTV displays are connected directly to the Internet, that number increases to 29 percent of HDTVs screens due to these other devices. This is driving the availability of around two connected eco-systems on the same TV screen, leading to a confused user-experience as consumers have more than one way of accessing their favorite TV apps.

Six out of ten "smart" TVs are used to watch "over the top" (ie internet), but do you need a smart TV when you've got so many other devices that can do "smart" through your TV? (Thanks @modelportfolio for the link.)

The Immobile Web >> Jason Grigsby

guardiantech — 2012-05-15T21:22:13+00:00

Slides from a presentation by Jason Grigsby about smart TV. The key problem with Smart TV right now: you can't know whether or what you're supplying content to.

IKEA puts away your TV cables, tech credentials >> Engadget

guardiantech — 2012-04-18T20:17:27+00:00

Frustrated with cable spaghetti ruining the otherwise sharp lines of its TV storage units, the Scandinavian firm has taken it one step further, and built the TV right in to the furniture. Yup, "Uppleva" is an all-in-one TV and stand with storage built in co-operation with China's TCL Multimedia. Not only that, it also incorporates a Blu-ray / DVD player and surround sound (with wireless sub woofer.) Details on the TV itself are sparse, but there's a brace of USB inputs and four HDMI ports (so you can re-add in some wires), plus FM radio and internet connectivity, but beyond that we're left guessing.

(The Swedish translation of its name is "experience".)

Flat-panel TV sales flatten in US >> AllThingsD

guardiantech — 2012-03-27T22:26:45+00:00

Market research firm IHS iSuppli said Tuesday that U.S.-bound shipments of flat-panel TVs will drop 5% in 2012, slipping to 37.1m units from 39.1m units in 2011. And that decline will likely continue for the next few years. By 2013, IHS figures shipments will drop to just below 35m and by 2015, they’ll be hovering around 34.2m.

This is the environment that smart TV is being launched into: an unpromising one where the market is saturated, and the people who are buying are the "late adopters" of flat TV - and so are unlikely to take advantage of "smart" features.

Samsung inTouch TV Hands-on - SlashGear

guardiantech — 2012-01-09T21:55:26+00:00

This camera is a Wi-fi enabled webcam-like device that allows you to turn your gigantic home television into a 720p conferencing station, fully integrated with Skype. This little device also allows you to browse the web and use YouTube on your television with ease. And what’s best? It’s doing so with Android!

Lenovo K91 Smart TV hands-on video and pictures | The Verge

guardiantech — 2012-01-09T21:16:15+00:00

The 55-inch 3D-enabled IPS television is running a skinned version of Android 4.0 ICS, has a webcam built into the bezel, and is powered by 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor.