First Smart TVs Powered By Firefox OS On Sale In Europe, Worldwide Soon

An anonymous reader writes: The first smart TVs powered by Firefox OS have gone on sale in Europe. Panasonic's line of Viera smart TVs includes six that are powered by Firefox OS — CR850, CR730, CX800, CX750, CX700 and CX680 — including their first curved LED LCD TV. The full global launch of the TVs is expected “in the coming months.” From the Mozilla blog: "We’re happy to partner with Panasonic to bring the first Smart TVs powered by Firefox OS to the world,” said Andreas Gal, Mozilla CTO. “With Firefox and Firefox OS powered devices, users can enjoy a custom and connected Web experience and take their favorite content (apps, videos, photos, websites) across devices without being locked into one proprietary ecosystem or brand.”

Comments

Updates

[Teun]

Yes it is nice to have another Linux system available on TV's.
But more important is for how long, if at all, the manufacturer will support security and other updates.
Most important is if we can install a system of our own choice.

Re:Updates

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Why is it nice to see any OS on a TV? This is how we end up with ads inserted over ads, a scenario that should never have ever plaid out but somehow it has.

Re:Updates

[thegarbz]

Most important is if we can install a system of our own choice.

Who cares? No really outside of a few geeks who are likely already running out and buying dumb TVs due to the typical anti-corporate agenda type anger at company developed software, who really cares? The average consumer doesn't, and the average geek has shunned smartTVs for the ultra slow, ultra crap "smart" experience they typically bring.

The vast majority of people barely know how a SmartTV works and are happy enough when the program guide correctly displays.
The small minority who do use the Smarts are happy enough to get a weather update and youtube.
The only people who care have already completely given up on the worthless steaming pile of excrement that is the TV vendor's software and will run Kodi, Apple TV, Chromecasts or similar such small devices.

I would go one step further and say the single most important feature that Panasonic TVs and Firefox OS can bring: A TV which actually turns on in under 30 bloody seconds. Everything else security included (who would be dumb enough to attach a smart TV to the internet after every vendor has been caught out attempting to screw their customers).

Re:Updates

[Barsteward]

i'm hoping for Adblock to work on commercial TV

Re:Updates

[Darinbob]

Linux is in other mainstream devices, like Tivo and Android. It's not a geek thing. It's a sensible choice to make when designing high end products. Saves development costs, saves royalty costs, higher quality than most commercial embedded operating systems especially with networking and security. Why wouldn't a manufacturer want to use it?

Re:Updates

[hairyfeet]

The whole idea of a "smart TV" is retarded because it ignores a fundamental truth, which is 1.- "Smart"devices that are successful are in markets with high turnover so the consumer is able to run the latest apps, for example smart phones and tablets, while 2.- TVs are devices that are typically kept by the consumer for 5-10 years which means the "Smart" part will quickly become as outdated and useless as a Palm Pilot.

Since FirefoxOS hasn't been out long enough lets use Android as an example, lets say you bought your smart TV 6 years ago, right around the time I bought my mother her new set (which is still working great and will probably last at least a couple more years if not more) that would put you on on Android 1.5, AKA Cupcake...now how many apps today can run on Cupcake? Very damned few. What about the hardware, could it have been updated? Since I had one of the early 1.6 (AKA Donut) I can tell you that while you MIGHT have been able to go to 2.0 it would have been painful to use, as the average device then was similar to these specs, a 530Mhz ARM11 with just 192Mb of RAM and 512Mb of flash...now remember that most smart TVs have lower specs than your average phone so how long do you think it would take before it was just painful to use?

At the end of the day I think that other than malware targets these things are gonna quickly become irrelevant, the OS will go out of date looong before the TV dies, making for a security nightmare as vulnerabilities in both the OS and the apps won't be able to be patched as the hardware will just be too weak to run anything newer, and for the consumer the apps will lose support and using the ones that come with it will be about as pleasant as trying to surf modern sites on the phone I listed above. So other than a checkbox on the side of the box? IMHO this is just fucking stupid any way you cut it.

Re:Updates

[AmiMoJo]

I have a Panasonic smart TV. The only place it has ads is in the app store, nowhere else. If it did I would have returned it, or not bought it in the first place. Not all smart devices are maximum evil, ads everywhere all the time etc.

Mine has an OS based on FreeBSD. I use the smart features to watch YouTube pretty much every day. Various electronics and woodworking video blogs mainly. I use the network media player from time to time too. It's a good system from 2012.

Re:Updates

[605dave]

Well I bought a Panasonic TV two years ago and have to go through a "Home" screen before I get what I want. Oh, and there are ads on this home screen. But the worst part? Ads would occasionally appear over the content when using the volume controls. That's right, hit volume up and get an ad from United Airlines!

I did manage to turn off the ads but swore I'd never buy another Panasonic.

Not Interested

[Kunedog]

This is almost as bad as "smart" platforms in cars. Way too much software functionality will be put into devices that will last far longer than the manufacturer's interest in upgrading or supporting it (especially since they'll probably have no interest in the first place). Any TV that lists "smart" as a feature should be avoided like those that list "3D."

Re:Not Interested

[Anonymous Coward]

YES... exactly.

Want a smart TV, get a dumb TV and put a small footprint computer on it, e.g. in my case a Mac Mini.

It gets updates, the RAM can be upgraded, it has expandable local storage, has USB ports, Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wifi

It can play games, run a massive variety of Open Source and Proprietary software.

As new protocols are developed it is far more likely to be kept up to date.

And it may well cost less.

Re: Not Interested

[Anonymous Coward]

In the long run you will not be able to avoid it. You can only buy what's on sale, and your existing devices will not last forever - or will be banned outright. Do you remember when digital extremists vowed to stop Trusted Computing at all costs? Well, now Trusted Computing hardware is present in ALL computers, Linux has to support it, and there's nothing you can do about it. Same with DRM. Big Money *ALWAYS* wins.

Re:Not Interested

[Dutch Gun]

You can't really buy good TVs nowadays without those "smart" features, but that SoC hardware is pretty cheap nowadays, so I don't think it's affecting the price too much. Just buy a TV based on it's picture, price, and general physical qualities. Fortunately, you can still treat your TV like a simple monitor and leave all the media wrangling to a dedicated box, whether it's a console, Roku, Amazon Fire, or some roll-your-own PC-based solution.

who wants a smart tv anyhow?

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally, I want my women smart and my TV dumb. Seems like it wouldn't be very entertaining the other way around...

Hope it's better...

[Sooner Boomer]

...than my android powered LG 47G2 "smart" TV - it SUCKS! Google updated android in spite of everything I tried to prevent it, and broke a LOT of functions. And there's no way to back out of the "upgrades". I called LG and they blame google. Google says it is an issue with LG. I bet the same thing happens with Firefox OS and these new TVs.

Re:Hope it's better...

[kixome1]

I have more faith in firefox although their browser sucks on my android 4.1.3 phone, than I do in google. Hell I have more faith in MS than google. I hate app-le with a passion though.

Just what I needed...?

[lopaka1998]

Just what I needed... a TV that...

* updates automatically every few weeks whether I want it to or not.
* sends *anonymous* viewing data to "improve the experience", against my will.
* changes the interface on the tv, and meanings of the buttons on the remote every 3rd or so update.
* that I will need to install adblock plus on to get rid of ads or keep them under control.
* that I will spend needless hours trying to find how to activate the power button after an update reconfigures the power button to require the auxillary button to be pushed down at the same time.
* requires that I install plug-ins that also self update just to get the tv to operate the way I want it to.
* that requires a unplug/ replug every few days as it runs out of ram and slows down channel switching and video output to a crawl.
* that as an organization, doesn't listen to it's user base and does what it wants instead.


NO THANKS, MOZILLA!!!

Re:Just what I needed...?

[Blaskowicz]

I heard you can install linux on the TV instead : rolling release with systemd, KDE 5 and of course firefox. Another TV can work for the lifetime of a TV (remember when a TV lasted 20 years?). You can buy a TV that runs AIX or HP-UX, but it costs $200,000.
The z/OS TV is best, but requires expertise on your part and costs $1,000,000 + $20,000 a month fee (if you spend a bit more, you can activate the Channel Changing Processor, which is disabled in the low end configuration)

Re:Double-speak

[arglebargle_xiv]

It's also easy enough for Mozilla to claim you won't be locked into any ecosystem because they don't have one. For Android at least the ecosystem is what makes it so valuable (for Apple I'm guessing it's about 50% cool electronic jewellery and 50% ecosystem).

I didn't buy my Android phone to make a social statement, I bought it because of the Android ecosystem. The ecosystem is a feature, not a flaw.

Re:Just hope

[antiperimetaparalogo]

Just hope that it can run netflix.

I don't understand why you have been down-modded, but:

The first smart TVs powered by Firefox OS have gone on sale today in Europe. [...] The new Panasonic TVs ship with a decent number of Firefox OS apps, including a Netflix app that supports 4K streaming, [...]

"Sorry, Netflix is not available in your country yet.": Netflix - Greece (that's in Europe... and not just in Europe, but in the European Union also... actually "Europe" IS A FUCKING GREEK NAME!)

Re:Firefox Browser

[Darinbob]

I'd be happy if Adobe came out with a decent PDF reader again.

Ads?

[kooky45]

Can I run AdBlock on it?

I don't want a smart TV

[Chrisq]

.... I'm sorry Dave watching that much porn is not good for you. I cannot let you do that. Time to get off the sofa and run round the block.

You thought this was for our benefit?

[Viol8]

Wake up. Very few people care about smart TVs - they just want a TV Essentially something they can plug other boxes into and can also receive OTA broadcasts. I don't remember anyone clamouring for all this half baked UI "experience" shit and 3rd rate "apps" being squeezed into TVs but manufacturers seem to think we want it and because there are hardly any "dumb" TVs around anymore we can only buy smart TVs so the manufacturers claim its what we want. Circular reasoning , much?

And it still sucks

[Lumpy]

Sorry, but ALL smart TV's suck.

Give us a place to dock a Roku or ATV and call it done. LG/Sony/Panasonic/Etc all utterly suck at the "smart" part. actually they all utterly suck at software and firmware in general. All of them have user interfaces that are train wrecks.

These Firefox Tv's will have a bastardization all over in them. Like how SHARP shovels advertisements at you. Buy a $2600 Tv set and you have Ad's on screen unless you unplug the network and never use the smart functions. WTF is that?