The new Magic Remote will have hot keys for Netflix, Amazon
Prime Video, and Disney +. It will also have an NFC-powered function called
Magic Tap that will allow users to share content from their NFC-enabled
smartphone to the LG TV, and vice-versa.
Seven years after introducing webOS as the platform for its
Smart TV lineup, LG is introducing version 6.0 with a new look and feel for its
2021 4K and 8K TVs.
The old blade lineup of apps is gone, with a more modern
tile-based layout. LG Home Entertainment president Park Hyoung-sei calls this
“the most significant update since we first introduced webOS in 2014.”
An upgraded version of its ThinQ AI has more voice command
control than ever whether you’re using Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
For traditional control, this year’s edition of its Magic
Remote is a bit more standard than some of the previous versions, but also
includes NFC for the first time, which allows users to share content from phone
to TV (and back) simply by tapping it.
The new software includes Magic Explorer, which can pull up
related content about actors, locations and items of interest for “select
broadcast channels, while Next Picks analyzes viewing preferences to suggest
things you might like.
There’s no word on opt-in or opt-out preferences for these
settings, but we’ll ask about them as the show progresses next week. It’s also
unclear whether the updates will extend to older TVs in LG’s lineup, one way or
another, the old HP software platform is still rolling on, powering new OLEDs
and LCDs for another year.
Park Hyoung-sei, president of LG Home Entertainment Company,
said in a statement that webOS 6.0 is the most significant update since LG
first introduced webOS in 2014.