Tizen OS applications. What is Tizen OS for Samsung Smart TV

Hello Geektimes!

In the previous post, we talked about the new lines of Samsung flagship SUHD TVs. Today we would like to focus on an important component of the next generation of Smart TV, namely the TIZEN operating system, on the basis of which all the company’s “smart” TVs will now operate.

TIZEN (pronounced taizen) is operating system based on the Linux kernel, designed for a wide range of devices. TIZEN provides full support for the HTML5 standard. Among important characteristics- built-in data security and encryption mechanisms, means of containerization of applications and data, significantly reduced resource requirements and reduced energy consumption. TIZEN was founded on the ideas of openness, convergence and web service orientation.

Fitting perfectly into the concept of the Internet of Things, TIZEN works on various devices and gives them the opportunity to interact with each other. In addition to televisions, Samsung’s global arsenal already includes mobile devices (Samsung Z), wrist watch(Gear 2, Gear S), cameras (NX300, NX2000, NX500, NX3300), as well as washing machines(WW9000), air conditioners and robotic vacuum cleaners (Samsung POWERbot). All household and portable appliances, as well as mobile phones Samsung devices can be combined into a single ecosystem Smart Home, which requires only a smartphone and special application Smart Control.

INTERFACE
In Samsung TIZEN TV, it was decided to move away from dividing the interface into five separate categories, and to concentrate the navigation block in the form of a panel with icons at the bottom of the screen, which greatly simplified the process of selecting sections and applications in the menu. Thanks to the speed of the TIZEN platform, navigation between widgets is instant.

The bottom navigation bar is divided into two main blocks: “Featured” and “Recent” widgets. The Recent section in Smart Hub not only shows latest apps, which you used, but also the channels that you watched previously. The "Popular" section always shows new and current applications. The Featured section provides access to the TIZEN App Store, TIZEN Game Store, Search, Web Browser, Notification Center, and third-party partner services and applications.

A short video about the new Smart Hub on TIZEN:

Among the TV control capabilities, we should highlight the convenient digital “pointer” mode, which allows you to move the cursor using the Bluetooth transmitter and gyroscope built into the remote control. Another interesting feature is voice control, with which you can, for example, increase the sound volume or set a sleep timer after 30 minutes.

Samsung's older UHD models have a multi-screen mode: the screen is divided in half, in one part you can display live TV or content from an HDMI source, and in the second you can watch Youtube videos, surf the browser or turn on one of the applications. The screen interface can be manually moved to different sides, as well as switching the sound source between two zones.

CONVERGENCE
The viewing experience is no longer limited to just the TV screen. Much attention was paid easy ways connections mobile devices with Samsung TIZEN TV: using a smartphone, the user can turn on the TV, instantly establish direct WiFi connection and transfer any content to its screen. For example, to broadcast video to a TV screen from a tablet, just press the Quick Connect button, and in a few seconds you will be able to watch your favorite movie or video from Youtube.

This connection also works in reverse side: Using the SmartView application, the user can stream content or programs from the TV to the screen of their mobile device. Overall, if you've been dreaming of watching a football game while sitting in a lounge chair on your porch on a nice day, then this feature will definitely appeal to you.

CONTENT
Samsung TVs TIZEN TV offers a wide range of applications in the categories Video, Music, Games, Sports, Style, Information and Education, including Amediateka, Zoomby, Ivi, Tvigle, Megogo, Facebook, YouTube, Yandex services, Vimeo, Plex.

Support for decoding the VP9 standard has also been added. This means that for the first time it will be possible to watch 4K content directly from Youtube on your TV screen.

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
TIZEN provides a powerful and flexible environment for HTML5 application development and allows applications to adapt to a cross-platform environment with the least fragmentation. The application can access the device via the TIZEN device API on JavaScript based, as well as through Samsung's API for TVs. Game developers can create high-performance games using the Unity 3D engine. A special mention should be made of Caph, a web application environment that facilitates easy and fast development of web applications for Samsung TVs on TIZEN. In particular, Caph helps speed up animation using GPU resources. Apart from these features, Caph also provides various user interface components for TIZEN TV.

Samsung TVs based on TIZEN have a separate Panel for Games, which is a gaming service in the Smart Hub and, in particular:

• Provides a variety of games from the most popular genres, such as sports and racing simulators, shooters, puzzles, etc.
• Supports various models monetization such as Free-To-Play, in-app purchases, paid applications etc.
• Supports games developed with Unity, HTML5, Java, C/C++ or NaCl.
• Takes advantage Game Service Platform from Samsung and billing services to provide additional income to game developers.

On the shelves Russian stores became available large number various “smart” TVs. When choosing a Smart TV, the user is faced with the problem of which OS to choose when choosing a TV. Today, market leaders use 3 operating systems in their smart TVs: Tizen from Samsung, WebOS 2.0 from LG or Android from Sony and Philips. In this article we talk about the features and advantages of all three systems.

Last year, the largest TV manufacturers introduced new models of their smart devices with Tizen OS, WebOS 2.0 and Android. The latter two migrated from smartphones to smart TVs, only Samsung with Tizen OS developed an “OS” for a number of devices with the ability to connect to the Internet. Let's take a closer look at the capabilities of the operating systems of modern smart TVs and what they offer the user.

Tizen OS

Tizen OS interface

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The latest models of Samsung TVs are equipped with Tizen OS, which demonstrates a simple and intuitive interface, as well as extensive customization options. All modern TVs have an electronic interactive user manual in which you can find the answer to any question without referring to the paper instructions, which is very convenient.

All remote controls of new Samsung TV models can be used as a digital pointer - they have an integrated gyroscope, which allows you to control the cursor not with buttons, but by moving your hand in the appropriate direction. For standard commands, you can use voice control: switching channels, controlling volume and sleep timer. To turn on the microphone, just press the corresponding button on the remote control.

When called up, the Tizen OS menu appears at the bottom of the screen without covering the current image or interfering with viewing. The menu ribbon contains 2 lists of applications: the most popular and recently used. Diversity pre-installed applications quite extensive and aimed at Russian-speaking users, including popular apps online cinemas IVI, Amediateka, Tvigle, Zoomby, Megogo, online video services - YouTube and Rutube.

In addition to the ability to play videos and watch TV channels, Tizen OS allows you to install Tizen from the app store Store various games. To access games, there is a separate access panel to the game library. Tizen also has the ability to switch between several applications without returning to the home page, and on older models there is multitasking - support multi-window mode: Watching videos while surfing the web, etc. When this function is activated, the screen is divided, and its size can be adjusted by choosing the borders of the image to suit you. The browser of the new operating system is not very fast, but I treat it without much criticism, since I did not notice any noticeable “brakes”.

The OS has the ability to send images from TV to a smartphone, as well as stream images from mobile devices to TV via Miracast technology. Plus, you can access content from all devices connected to the TV.

WebOS 2.0

WebOS 2.0 interface

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The operating system WebOS 2.0, developed for LG smart TVs, is similar to Tizen, but with a different design: a similar menu ribbon that appears at the bottom of the screen; voice control with identical remote control and even multitasking are still there. WebOS 2.0 also provides a “Setup Wizard” with an interactive interface.

WebOS 2.0 provides access to many online services - IVI, Okko, Megogo, Amediateka, as well as access to games and other applications through the LG Store.

As I already said, WebOS 2.0 also has a multi-window interface and allows you to access several simultaneously running processes without returning to the main menu. WebOS from LG allows you to access content from all devices connected to the TV using the SmartShare function, and of course, image transfer from mobile devices () is also supported by the operating system. In general, WebOS 2.0 – complete analogue Tizen with a modified interface.

Android TV

Android interface TV

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TVs on Android platform TV is very user friendly and easy to use. Home page is a screen of horizontal columns of applications sorted by category. The first column displays a list of recently watched videos, the second contains all applications installed on the smart TV, and the third contains a list of games. The lowest service column provides access to the settings menu. Among the shortcomings of the interface: calling the start screen while playing a video or watching TV obscures the image completely.

Many believe that Android TV will be convenient for users of smartphones with a similar OS, since it allows you to install on the TV the same set of applications that the user uses on the smartphone. Firstly, in practice, not all applications are available for working with a smart TV, and secondly, it is difficult to find similar programs. Main advantage of Android TV is the ability to install games from the official store Google applications. Gamers can easily find a suitable controller, and keyboards are also supported. In addition, all TVs are Android based TVs support Chromecast technology, which can be used to transfer content from mobile devices to the TV.

Conclusion

For inexperienced users Samsung TVs with OC Tizen are more friendly, since Tizen already has a package of Russian-language applications installed and there is no need to configure the TV, understanding the new OS. I was pleased with the support for multitasking, which allows you to simultaneously play video on the TV screen and use a browser, as well as broadcasting images from the TV to a mobile device.

LG fans will not be disappointed by the WebOS 2.0 operating system, which is essentially an analogue of OC Tizen. Considering the fact that WebOS 3.0 is expected in early 2016, there is a justifiable opportunity to wait for the appearance of new models of LG smart TVs.

To be honest, I chose a TV with Android TV for myself, but I wouldn’t recommend it to the average user yet. If you are a confident user of a smartphone running Android OS, are a little technically savvy and are ready to produce customization TV, then a TV on Android TV is your choice. Those wishing to use the TV to watch broadcast channels and videos in online cinemas, it is better to give preference to other OS. A TV on the Android TV platform can truly be used as a multimedia center, because this operating system has numerous settings and the use of such a smart TV is perfect for playing your video library and games.

The main difference between modern TVs is a large number of different functions and the best image quality. All innovative technologies are aimed exclusively at improving these two parameters: making the picture more detailed and of higher quality, and simplifying control of the TV and all the functions it has. Today, developers from LG cope best with this task.

When creating modern models TVs that support Smart TV, the company's engineers set themselves the only goal - to make TV control more understandable and convenient. The interface update was quite successful and instead of a grid of online services and applications, a scrolling line with icons appeared. All this became possible thanks to the installation of the Webos operating system.

What is Webos?

Many buyers who hear that Smart TV has such an operating system are wondering: what is Webos?

Webos is an operating system that allows you to work and manage data. In fact, restricting access, saving, creating or deleting any data occurs in the same way as in other television operating systems. To do this, the same application programs are used that reproduce and display the same data as other operating systems. The only difference between Web OS and other platform is GUI, which differs not only in its appearance, but also great convenience.

Today there are different versions of this platform, which differ from each other only in the number of different services and capabilities. In modern Smart TVs LG has adopted Webos TV 2.0.

History of development

This operating system was developed back in 2009 by Palm and was initially used only on tablets, smartphones and some household appliances. It was based on Linux, and in 2010 it was bought by HP, with which they worked until 2012.

Since 2012 began to have open source, which made it possible to use it on any other devices, and for companies to develop a large number of applications for it. In 2013, LG began using this operating system in its Smart TVs. Since then, LG and Palm have been developing Web OS together.

When developing a Web OS for Smart TV, special attention is paid to multitasking and the ability to work with social networks. And thanks to additional applications that work with this system, you can significantly expand the capabilities that LG Smart TVs initially have.

Webos benefits

LG smart TVs, on which the Webos platform is installed, have a clear and fairly bright interface, as well as a large number additional features. The main advantages of Web OS Smart TV include the following:

• Easy to connect and use. Thanks to Web OS, watching and searching for videos on the Internet has become much easier. You can also easily connect any additional device to your TV. An animated character will help you with this, providing detailed information regarding all settings and connection features. The Webos platform quickly recognizes and connects an additional device, offering a list of actions that can be performed.
• Convenience and speed of working with content. Thanks to the updated menu, you can quickly switch between channels, files and content on Smart TV. In this case, you do not need to constantly return to home page. Thanks to this, you can simultaneously listen to music and surf the Internet, or play games and watch TV.
• Content search. The Web OS has a “Today” menu, in which you will be offered all the most popular films, programs and TV series. Also, such TVs have a huge number of different widgets and categories. There are special icons for games, 3D videos and movies, thanks to which you can search necessary information quite simple.

Also, the most modern Smart TVs from LG have the following features:

• Smart Share. Thanks to this menu item, you can connect absolutely any device to your TV. Using the USB connector you can connect a camera or hard drive, and when DLNA help create local network at home. Smart Share also supports the following data transfer methods: TagOn, WiDi, Miracast, and MHL.
• Control Smart TV using gestures and voice. Using gestures, you can turn the TV on or off, increase or decrease the sound volume, and change channels. To control your TV using your voice, you will need a MagicRemote remote control.

Tizen OS is an open source platform, the successor of MeeGo and Bada. It became the basis for everyone Samsung smart TVs, starting in 2015. The entire interface and applications in the new models are built on it. The company is slowly introducing Tizen on other devices: smartphones, household appliances and so on. The new OS, by design, has more flexible capabilities than its predecessors, and the company predicts a great future for it in the Internet of Things.

To clearly see how Tizen works, watch our introductory video:

Comparing applications

An important point: on both TVs the most latest firmware and application directory

At first glance, there are not many differences between the Smart Hub of 2014 and 2015. But, having counted the total number of widgets in each category, we came to a disappointing conclusion: at the moment the range of applications in Tizen is seriously inferior to the previous platform Samsung Smart TV.

We counted 122 Russian-language applications on a 2014 Samsung TV and 61 applications on a 2015 Samsung TV with Tizen. With the transition to new platform the total number dropped exactly by half.

From the very beginning, we noticed that Tizen has fewer pre-installed applications out of the box. It’s also interesting that new TVs have less available memory, and the Tizen system has already occupied 2.34 GB versus 343.04 MB on the previous platform.

So, the first category is “Video”. This includes applications from the category “video-on-demand” (online cinemas), “following the broadcast” (TV channel applications), IPTV clients from different providers, and so on. For TV, video services are the most important category; this is where you will watch your favorite films, TV series and programs.

As you can see, 95 widgets are available in the “Video” category on last year’s Smart TV platform, and only 48 on Tizen. At the same time, many large services did not have time to migrate to the new platform. Take, for example, the Okko Movies service - last year its revenue was 2 times higher than the revenue of iTunes in Russia. This is the largest service filled with current films in good quality, is not yet available to owners of 2015 Samsung Smart TV.

IN in this case Only the Sportbox.ru service did not manage to migrate to the new platform, although last year it was they who supported the launch of Samsung TVs with a proprietary application. Enough useful service, I must say.

Few people pay attention to the emergence of new generations of operating systems. But the release of Tizen OS with a license GNU Linux has become a real landmark event in the world of computers, mobile devices and even household appliances. The combined efforts of Samsung and Intel corporations made it possible to create a completely new OS based on the monolithic Linux kernel. The Tizen operating system has not yet become particularly widespread (except in devices manufactured by Samsung), however, they predict a great future for it. But first, it’s worth understanding what this OS is and where it can be used.

Tizen operating system: first acquaintance

The origin of the name of the new OS, as reputable Internet resources make it clear, is based on an abbreviation of three English words. Tie means “connection” or “binding”, Rise means “ascent” or “resurrection”, Zen is the name of the Eastern philosophy of Zen (probably implying the simplicity and flexibility of concepts or the superiority of the understanding of the intellect over the mind).

The Tizen operating system has Therefore, anyone can contribute their own own changes. According to the same GNU Linux license, the system is freely distributed. But many users are still very cautious about the new product, despite the fact that Samsung Corporation Since 2013, it began to actively implement it in its devices.

Supported devices

Initially it was believed that new development should become the basis for mobile devices as opposed to the existing Android OS. Over time, the development continued. Smart TVs with a new built-in operating system have become quite popular all over the world.

Today you can find several basic modifications, including support not only for television panels or mobile gadgets, but also tablets and even laptops. There is no talk about stationary PCs yet, although, apparently, this is not far off. The fact is that initially the system was focused on ARM processors and x86. Based on this, it is not difficult to realize that creating a version for the x64 architecture is practically a matter of time. True, in terms of competition with Windows, Linux or Mac OS X, Samsung Tizen's position looks clearly losing.

Another thing is that the above systems are not used in household appliances. Here the development occupied a free niche. The use of Samsung Tizen in Smart TV devices has become truly revolutionary because new system turned out to be quite independent and autonomous.

History of creation

The history of the creation of the new OS says that it became the heir not only to the Linux kernel, but also to such systems as MeeGo, Bada and LiMa (not to mention the fact that many compare it with Android developments).

People first started talking about this system in 2011, when the Linux Foundation and LiMo Foundation presented their open source development in the form of the Tizen OS. The project was headed by monsters computer world- Samsung and Intel corporations. The second, by the way, judging by the statements, intends to quite seriously reorient one of the market segments towards this particular system, including automotive systems.

And it is not surprising that at the moment the Tizen operating system, which is constantly being improved and tested, has twelve companies as developers and manufacturers of supported devices, among which the most significant are Nissan, Land Rover, Toyota, not counting such giants as Fujitsu or NVIDIA .

System versions

Constantly releasing versions of the new OS could not help but unite developers. Thus, the newly created Tizen Association included developers employed by other companies. But the first announcement of the system is usually dated September 27, 2011. Version 1.0 is called Lacspur. It was officially released in 2012 (April 30). The OS was distinguished by its support for HTML5, W3C, OpenGL and WebRTC. In addition, a special package for developers was released in the form of an SDK.

The second modification 2.0, called Magnolia, received updated support Web Framework and could use additional API tools that allowed access to modules wireless communication(Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth), calendar, contacts, call logs and other settings on mobile devices. It was later modified into version 2.1 of Nectarine, which differed mainly only in extending the API tools and was only supported Samsung systems RD-PQ and RD-210, intended exclusively for developers.

And only the release of version 3.0 in 2013 became the breakthrough that everyone had been waiting for so impatiently. Although the system was initially aimed at Galaxy S4 mobile devices, the announced version had the advantage that it could be used on netbooks, laptops or tablets.

Android wasn't even close

Some skeptics compare Samsung Tizen on mobile devices to Android systems. Indeed, at first glance, the differences are quite difficult to notice. But here you need to clearly understand that all Linux-like systems (by the way, based on UNIX code) have an almost identical interface.

First of all, the differences that this open operating system has, mind you, is that absolutely all the drivers for the intended devices were written, so to speak, from scratch. In addition, unlike Android, the Tizen operating system does not support the already boring Java machine, but is capable of working with JavaScript. In a sense, this can be called a minus, but there are still a couple of trump cards up his sleeve.

The fact is that the system was originally conceived as a tool in the form of WebOS. Such attempts have been made by many developers ( Google Chrome OS, Firefox OS). But this system has advanced much further, thanks to the fact that any developer can use application programming based on the CSS/JavaScript/HTML5 combination. In addition, a set of native development tools based on the C++ language has become a real find for many programmers.

Key Features

As for the system itself, it can be considered using the example of launching on mobile devices. The first thing that catches your eye is the greeting, which is made in the form simple menu, where you can select a specific setting item or function to use.

Smartphones have a special Tizen Store application (application store). Of course, it is still being improved in terms of adding the same multimedia content, however, for developers there are means of monetization and even hosting their own mobile development in the form of paid publications with support for embedding into others official applications from Samsung. True, some users may perceive this as the presence of advertising, but, alas, there is no escape from this.

Smart TV Tizen

Television panels deserve special attention. Compared to the previously used HUB, when the main menu took up the entire screen and you had to interrupt the current program to access functions, the new system has become more flexible.

The new menu is presented in the form of icons, and to access a specific function you do not need to go to various subsections. Everything is, as they say, at hand. But here’s the trick: control can be done in several ways.

The classic way is to use a remote control. But, thanks to the cameras installed on some smart TV models, the user can easily navigate using gestures or voice commands. And the entrance to the menu itself can be blocked. Thus, the Tizen operating system on the TV plays a dual role - both a control tool and a security tool. And if you synchronize the panel with a smartphone, in general, the advantages are more than enough. Smart TVs of the Smart TV standard treat the corresponding devices even as regular control panels, not counting the use of other functions.

Additional support questions

Unfortunately, this OS has not yet become widely used, although the stated capabilities are much higher than those of other systems of this rank.

So far, the impasse is only due to the fact that, despite the declared support from eminent hardware manufacturers, software of this type is implemented only by Samsung Corporation and only on its devices. Therefore, we assume that in the near future devices will be released in which, as control platform the Tizen operating system will be used, it costs best case scenario skeptical.

But it contains several interesting features. On the TV panel you can use the function fast connection Quick Connect for transferring data from a smartphone or tablet to the panel, splitting the screen into parts (Multi-link Screen), using the Smart HUB platform with games and applications, as well as GameFlyStreaming - playing games without using the console at all.

Is everything so good?

All of the above advantages seem to be in favor of the new OS. But it is not known for certain whether it was tested for the effects of viruses and malicious codes. There is no point in assuming that, like any Linux system, it is inherently secure. Firstly, this operating system has an open source source code, and no one will prevent a third-party developer from making changes to it to such an extent as to gain access to confidential information. The same user location can be determined quite simply.

In addition, even the developers themselves indicate that on some TV models the system may freeze due to instability. And it is impossible to “reflash” old models of TV panels from Samsung in any way.

Should I use the system or not?

However, if you weigh the pros and cons, use a new software platform it is possible, even though it is not (yet) widely used. Considering that Samsung will implement this system everywhere, it seems very doubtful that it will be isolated from the global community of hardware manufacturers and software developers. Therefore, with a fairly high degree of probability it can be said that in the near future some giants in the market of mobile devices, computers and software products will have to, to put it mildly, move forward (of course, if they don’t create anything new).