Gadgetory

hi I'm dieter bone I'm Neela itself and we are here with the guys behind the design for the all-new well LG webOS TV and one bring in to talk a little bit more about it because we've got a lot of questions yeah yeah each I'm on track Colin job yep hey guys how's it going yeah how's CS gonna stay one Wow it's been awesome you know what kind of running on fumes here adrenaline and coffee of course but it's been very great to be at the booth they're explaining a product to people and having them really get to make TV simple get message you know people just get the UI people just understand how to use it and that's been super fulfilling all rights yeah the booth is full people are really coming in very excited there's a lot of good will towards webOS and all the work we've done so that's a great it's a great launch well that's interesting a good will towards well s because CS the the biggest thing that's ever happened to me to CS was the launch the original launch of webOS and everyone loved the product and the idea and the the the theories of the operating system and then a lot of stuff happened and now you're relaunching webOS here as a TV product which is I don't think anybody could have predicted that when palm originally introduced what was here what's it like to sort of relaunch a product like this yeah it's great the the feeling that we've worked on it for so long and finally being able to show it to the public and also explaining to people why we thought webOS makes sense on a TV so that was one of the the questions that we always people asked us why why are you doing a TV it makes total sense once you understand that TVs are about switching mm-hm TVs are about being doing one thing one minute and then going doing something else and it was always struggled with bringing the the message of why multitasking is important to the public but people multitask all the time on TV to just don't call it that way they just switch yeah and that was the core and that was the thing that we realized and that's why we're so excited about bringing it to TVs well the number one thing you switched on TV is channels right like live television channels because that's where content is whether you are on switcher you want to switch between your the game you're watching and maybe something on Netflix if it's boring and then you're done you want to go somewhere else this is what you're switching and then you might want to go back check out what's happening in TV so yes they are switching channels with your also in the few the more we talk about over-the-top content you're going to switch between different sources and and so the web less on TV you try and treat all sources as sort of equal citizens are all just inputs right so you can switch between you know Netflix or your HTML one or your Xbox one H by three or whatever it is but the the TV input is a really complicated one because there's cable boxes and they've got their own UI for navigating channels there's live TV there's DVRs so it makes really good sense for understanding how I'm going to switch across that line past present and future with you know between you know Netflix and Hulu but I'm wondering like that that simple line if you guys are trying to make it very simple how are you dealing with a very complex world of everything else that's happening with with channels on TV nothing so let me give some thoughts there there's really three things we need to solve first its control then discovery then integration so let me talk about each one so you know obviously if you have a TV set-top box or something like that you mean ways to control it and you know magic remote control and she comes to the IR blaster built-in and so you know as you sell about TV and we recognize a set-top box or you tell us what set-top box you have we actually have a way to make sure that you exist you're using one emote control to control your set-top boxes so you're not like swapping emotes right but you're shorting you ice right I mean you've got the webOS UI which is the beautiful well-designed interfaces I want to use which is beautiful all the time and then you've got your cable box which is awful and you're using the same road to control both of that it like are you did you guys think about that stuff or did you say look that problem is too hard let's do the best job of solving the problems we can so solve how is solving that issue the discovery component yeah so you know you really have a lot of content you can watch you know that's a cost your your you know your over-the-top content as well as your live TV and we come up with various ways to solve harmonized this so if you look at our today menu for example you can actually discover content across live TV and your streaming content so you know you could you know of course choose to go to your set-top box into the EPG to find out this data but we're trying to integrate this and to helped use this out with the discovery aspect as well by making sure that from a metadata standpoint we have this completes our metadata and for modeling it for modeling this melody retreat raius use experiences you know which you know help users put down the barriers between what you can watch on live TV how I can stream so these are where a lot of the challenges need to be so yeah and the question I've always had since LG purchased webOS was why does it you need webOS to solve these problems because every TV manufacturer here knows these challenges right like there's discovery there's so much content now there's so many sources of the content the content is different like Netflix and Hulu have different things then there's a cable box and there's DVR you can't even talk to you but what is it about whether lesson a so we said one thing is it's about switching its switching superclone you can see that worse sub ones second right now switch between things and and that's great and it feels great it feels right but webOS is is it as a philosophy more than anything else or is an operating system but it's mostly it's a feeling you know what well actually I'm like when people think of webOS they think of like that card interface right so that but it's translating that is weird I mean on TV it's not about apps it's about content yeah and what we as LG want to make sure is that content is available to everybody not in closed Gardens unpossible or Gardens that I buy it here I can't watch it there I want everything to be available on the web all the time and in that respect web us is the best thing for that we want everybody to build html5 apps we want to make sure that HTML is a first-class citizen and all the devices and once all our partners build things for the web they're available everywhere and that's the right path for this industry and that's what at what LG wanted to do they really wanted to make sure that they have the ability to continue innovating as a hardware based company and making sure that software and the web are available for everybody that way you push Khan here's a really weird question do you have it you have a browser and on this-tv your web browser so that is never as far as I can tell that has never truly worked in a television right the brat I mean it's almost like you have a browser because you're you're betting so big on html5 that you can just have one because it's gonna be there right what what is it about the browser on the television it's ever worked but then what is it about html5 that works so well like yeah it's it's a strange question but that's because Google that's so big on the browser with Google TV right yeah fell down completely for them cuz nobody wants a browser on a TV but I see the bet on html5 is an app platform for television it's being really smart I can't quite figure out why do you guys think about this stuff yeah so I can I can start the product common has any other thoughts so what is the what's the usage scene here so you come home you click and then browse and no CNN and you don't want to go through the it's not the same thing as a browser and we have browsers on TV today because it is there is some sort of segment of people that actually want to do that but it's not the court that you you'll see we're not promoting them the difference is that apps can be optimized for the TV and they can be placed at a different it just so much more accessible place in the browser where you have to go and start typing right there all that essentially where Boris is the browser that is the browser that is the chrome of a browser it allows you to switch between tabs cards call them whatever you want it's the same thing it's accessing the web it's just where Boris is the browser yeah so yeah I think it's kind of about double-clicking on the statement making something a first-class citizen and so what we've done right now already you know back in the day TV was the first-class citizen on the TV I know your your content apps were the second-class citizens and we brought at an equal level and made those first-class citizens oh yeah I mean for sure massively me TV is still a cable box or satellite box for most people right true so how do you bring but once you start using your cable box your shunted off into a different interface I mean that to me is the challenge of making it television is it somebody else owns a big chunk of it and you have no way to get at so how do you how do you fight that with something like webOS which is I mean you basically bolted a smartphone to the back of the TV and made it run a world-class mobile operating system right I mean that's effectively what you've done right no I think that I believe actually does sound very different from that really oh yeah we were actually figured out what the right experiences on a TV powered by this mobile operating system sure what used to be a mobile operating system but we've what's somewhat portable with two people yeah why it's really about how we've redefined the TV as a form factor yeah and so yes you know TV and cable box is very important and we have some ways to sort control the cable box but I do think you know as we've seen for example Reed Hastings announcement in our auditory press conference that 4k content now is available as the first pipe to the Internet you know when we're so previously you know regular content you know the first part was cable boxes so we do see this evolution to you know online streaming content and that's why I saw bringing up you know all these different content sources and equalizing the paling feel there you think people like whatever has content right so right now that comes from their great service from those from the cable companies and cable companies also want to be integrated into smart TVs there are more and more cable companies that are moving towards apps right wait a dish app right is that coming to the web most platformers that absolutely yeah cuz they announce it first so you never know at CES it's always like when when they announce a partner announces something first and then you make the big announcement it's always like was that coordinated but so it's definitely coming yes so okay so using HTML to make apps for TV seems to make really good sense and you guys have got a really nice interface and we've already tried to talk about the challenge of like the horrible interface from the cable box but one of the other problems with smart TVs is everybody's making their own apps in html5 or wherever and they look and feel very different and you kind of lose your way to like navigate it and like is it this is gonna pop over is gonna take me different screen how are you guys managing that are you enforcing guidelines or let people do whatever they want we will have the open web and we want people to innovate however you're right it does create a bit of a mess so we're gonna talk a lot more about that confetti and in Apps world but we're working really hard on creating great tools for developers that they can start with patterns that we've done for them it can be a lot more about that coming soon so okay you're in a lockdown kind of UI elements you're gonna happen or not so you know you know a lot about n you know and our heritage there and we're continuing and taking that forward it's not locked ok so you're not gonna provide like UI parameters to people or we are okay you know I think it's really more about education so if you don't take a page from history and you look at the mobile web the mobile web kind of had different kinds of design patterns and all to some one man issue do you find a category and you find the curved designs that we see today like you know big buttons easy to tell but in the back idea yeah I look back and stuff like that and I think that's what we're trying to do here which is we're not here to enforce something you know we really respect openness and we believe in it but we're here to stop educate and come up with the best practices for designs on the TV I'll give you an example so a lot of what we're seeing is people do they they translate their interface from a tablet so they put you know something there's some options here it's like an option click something else and then you get finally to some piece of content and you click it and then it plays then if you want to bring up the UI you take away the content again what's a full screen it's probably not the right way to go yeah so we've we're really trying to explain to people ok you can actually have the kind of running in the background you can have UI overlay it should overlay from this direction there's a lot of attention to that level of consistency so actually that's kind of my big the overarching question is you guys did have a mobile operating system it's actually hard for me to stop thinking of web less as a mobile operating system that's about whereas its roots when LG purchased webOS and you guys met everybody for the first time what was what were those initial conversations like about how to take something that was about being used in one hand tactile with touch to LG's remote which is one of the craziest remotes in the market right it has a good scroll wheel is like motion-tracking what was that conversation like in the early stages to bring something that was all that touch to something that was a UI too much farther distance so we actually started doing that before we were required really yes because we really believed that TV is a great space we started working on it and we we we looked at the market and we definitely identified that the d-pad or five-way is what's most of the people are working on but we like LG's approach because it allows us to have a better cross-platform story in one hand or you can take web apps or web thinking and bring them over it's easier and the second thing is that we did notice that it's pretty good like people do use it over time they get used to it and actually use a video so the story was for us to figure out how do we optimize for two interfaces together mm-hmm since we didn't want to just copy the webOS interface from phones to TV it was never about adapting the UI to a TV it wasn't just reinventing the guy from scratch and you were doing that before you got acquired by yeah Wow well what what did that look like where you just blue sky like maybe we'll both the TV someday so it does the story sort of the story of SVL and how s VI became jl s VL can you explain what that is it's sort of a fatty lab right so we were working on reinventing web boys with partners and and it was clear trust that you know we need to figure out what partners want yeah and LG was one of the the best and earliest partners that we had in they were so good that it makes sense to but if we started working with a little bit probably if you see that ones before the acquisition yeah so we're like I don't know 15 minutes and then we haven't talked about the the banner thing that everybody noticed about webOS TV which is bean bird so it should always people people do like being Birds so the idea behind Beamer is that it's there to help you get through set up because you don't set up your TV then your experience sucks so like how did you come up with this character and why why did you decide you want the character to go away after set up so being burped is auralic from like we really started experimenting with this idea of a a UI that is a little bit snarky has a voice it's cute but it does it's not overly cute mm-hmm and what we wanted to put it to use as figuring that okay how can we create an emotional connection and people being excited about their TV that's why we wanted it at the beginning the other thing is remember all that cool stuff Connor was explaining about how the remote can talk to your cable box well right you won't get that if you don't go through all the steps at first you know so we know that can give you a much better interface the more you go through first years so that's where we decided to focus it so it's about production value making you just realize oh I've got this great device and it looks different in business level of newness but personally I think people expect from where voice right and then okay you're done and now we're just a worth TV we're about being quick and yeah and about no fuss just moving building things here's my idea and I just put out there you can take it don't take it the emergent always be there then it turns into Clippy listening for what you want to watch so if you want to watch a movie it should be invert I want to watch this movie and then it should help you locate what streaming services it's on how much it costs where it's free if it's on television that should be like bean bridge should always just be there kind of like having suggestions and ideas so last year called and they want their idea back real yes it works LG last year had that with avatar okay great idea Wow my last year's are eating to be away but it wasn't being burned it wasn't a few wasn't that avatar I mean I know you guys work for LG now but LG saw for last year was awful right that's why they bought webOS and this is like a big theme right is these big hardware companies understanding that they need to get better design understanding that they need to hire real software engineers this is a big reason they acquired webOS and I'm saying now that they've done it they've got the talent the clear blazing talent here it's time for that idea to be resurrected as being done nope being burped is the brainchild of one of your own orphans are totally flowers it was a great compliment waste thank you and credit so bean bread is the brainchild of LaRhonda mere art director and I think we are looking at how do we make the the design more emotional yeah getting people connected it's not just about being British we are gonna do more things I think one of the things that happened this year for web wise is that we were able to merge with a company that really understands Hardware mm-hm and distribution yeah and how to get things done but doesn't understand software at all I think we're helping they're coming there and we're helping differently not just in software but also how to think about software as well we're trying to bring the best of Silicon Valley to OG and LG's really investing in the Silicon Valley presence there too that when in San Francisco in Santa Clara and it's been a great experience like trying to bring those two cultures together not just that like Korean versus them like an American culture it's more of a manufacturing yeah a company and then like this innovative software group how do they work together are you gonna take over their phones anytime soon well that's yeah the obvious question I mean hey that's for you calling so definitely focusing on TVs right now yes and I think you know as a lawyer I think the more important thing you know as you've said just now it's really more about you know what how the problem solving approach at webOS as a whole without team as a whole takes to you know dealing with the different devices you have you know we are open we are we believe in openness and we want to be what we call proactively open which is we actually go out in a very source oh no not open sourcing but it's about how you deal with your ecosystem of devices so you know basic openness is about allowing things to run in your platform or no one on your devices I think being proactively open is about doing the extra work to make sure that devices work better with with our TVs for example are different it are different you know consumer electronics devices we make yeah you know we've and you will see you know in apps world art is a bit here that we are creating this thing called the LG connect second-screen api's which really allow you know phones and applications with integrated to immediately push stuff to a TV without pairing you know completely simple experiences and so we are doing the extra work to create stuff that allows our devices to work better with what you have out there what your video yeah okay so what what is an extra web or I can on the phone discussion and also on that I can promise you this what we want to do is we don't want to do devices just for the heck of doing another phone or just for we want to understand why webOS would be the great thing there like we try to really figure out for a TV okay why would this be great on TV how would we do device that would be so much better because we use robust that's the first thing we want we really want to nail that before we touch it and that's also some of the approach that we trying to bring to LG say a product of a thinking yeah it's not about adding features it's about getting the right features in yep so what's next I think we're going to continue working on TV we have a lot more to do with cable and integrating content sources and then we have a lot more to do with ecosystems and how do we bring more devices in sure okay cool well I think we're out of time but at ICON thank you so much for coming in talking so much and we'll we'll keep watching