14 DAY TRIAL // The open source Firefox OS will be used to power new Panasonic DX900 UHD TVs, Mozilla and Panasonic have announced.
Mozilla said a while back that Firefox OS would no longer be used to power mobile devices, and they are keeping their word. The adoption of the OS hasn’t been great, and given the choice, users don’t really want to get a phone powered by Firefox.
What the company also said was that they do intend to continue to support Firefox OS for other devices, and it looks like TVs are just one of the possible avenues. TV customers mostly look for image quality and don’t really care all that much about the operating systems powering those devices, although they should.
Firefox OS lives on
The fact that Firefox OS powers some Panasonic TV is not something new, but users were wondering what’s going to happen with this collaboration now that Mozilla is no longer actively pursuing Firefox OS.
“Panasonic announced that Firefox OS will power the new Panasonic DX900 UHD TVs, the first LED LCD TVs in the world with Ultra HD Premium specification, unveiled today at CES 2016. Panasonic TVs powered by Firefox OS are already available globally, enabling consumers to find their favorite channels, apps, videos, websites and content quickly and pin content and apps to their TV’s home screen,” Mozilla explained on their website.
The new Panasonic DX900 UHD TVs will ship with Firefox OS 2.5, a version that’s only available to various partners and developers, and not the wider audience. The version of the OS comes with fresh, official webapps like Vimeo, iHeartRadio, Atari, AOL, Giphy and Hubii, and more are on their way.
Developers have also integrated a new feature called “send to TV” that will allow users to send web content from the browser to a connected TV that runs either Android or Firefox OS.
Panasonic DX900 UHD TV is the first one out there to respect the “Ultra HD Premium” specifications, meaning 4K support, default HDR, wide color gamuts, and much more. The launch date is set for spring 2016.
