Operating system tizen reviews. Samsung Smart TV: now on TIZEN

Today we will focus on the still not very well-known operating system Tizen, which is designed to become the most versatile among the existing mobile platforms. Tizen OS is based on the Linux kernel and is open source.

As already said, operating system Taizen is positioned as universal and is suitable for installation on smartphones, tablets, TVs, devices for cars, computers, cameras and other devices, the list of which is constantly growing.

The development of the Taizen operating system is carried out by such market giants as Samsung, Intel, Acer, Panasonic, Asus and others with the support of the Linux Foundation, which have joined forces to promote new platform.

Today, there are already several devices that are based on the new platform.

Let's find out more about the Tizen operating system and see what the developers have achieved in the process of working on it.

General information.

In addition to the traditional operating systems Android, iOS and Windows Phone, there are several other lesser known operating systems, including Tizen OS, which is under development. Another example is Firefox OS, which will be used on smartphones in the lower price segment. The interface of the Taizen platform reminds everyone of the well-known Android, but one way or another it is not its offshoot.

Tizen OS was built entirely from scratch. The platform works on devices with x86 processors and ARM architectures... The peculiarity of the new platform is based on web technology for creating applications, when using which the created applications will be cross-platform. Taking into account one of the innovations of HTML5, then applications can work without a network connection, i.e. offline. And with the help of development Application Compatibility Layer by OpenMobile makes it possible to run Android applications on Tizen OS with 100% compatibility. The browser integrated into the system, which is based on the WebKit2 core, has full support for the HTML5 standard, because all features are already embedded in the rendering engine itself.

Tizen OS interface.

The interface of the Tizen platform does not seem to differ from the popular and known to us Android, but in fact there are cardinal differences between them. All screenshots are taken from the official emulator of the Tizen 2.2.1 platform.

The lock screen displays current time and date, as well as an icon for unlocking the device. The screen is unlocked by swiping to the right, after which we get to the applications menu. The shape of the application icons is round, the icons themselves are well drawn and look pretty good.

In the screenshots below, you can get a better understanding of the interface of the Tizen operating system.

If you want to try the platform right now, without waiting for the first smartphone to be released, you can install the Tizen emulator on your computer. We will tell you about the installation of the emulator of this system in the next article. Of course, the emulator will not replace the physical device itself, so to fully assess the platform, you should wait until the first Samsung Z smartphone appears on sale.

Tizen Store App Store.

There are no applications for Tizen OS. But for their distribution, there is its own Tizen Store, which will definitely be preinstalled on each device. You cannot download anything from the store yet, but developers can upload their applications.

The Tizen Store will be open to users at the same time as the first device on the Tizen platform, which will be the Samsung Z, is on sale (more on that later).

The store is operated by Samsung. Various contests with large prize pools were held to attract developers for Tizen applications. All this was done for users who need to offer a variety of applications and games when they open a store.

Devices running on Tizen OS.

It is noteworthy that several large manufacturers became interested in the new Tizen platform, namely Samsung, Panasonic, Huawei, Intel and others.

It became known that Samsung will not release its devices with an operating Android system... The Tizen platform needs a platform that is capable of uniting all devices under the Samsung brand into one category. A start has been made, but a date has yet to be set for Samsung's end of Android support.

So, the first smartphone on the Tizen platform will be Samsung Z. The smartphone will be equipped with a touchscreen Super amoled display with a diagonal of 4.8 ″ with a resolution of 1280 × 720 pixels. The hardware of the smartphone has quad-core processor with clock frequency 2.3 GHz, 2 GB random access memory and 16 GB of internal memory with support microSD cards memory up to 64 GB. The main camera has a resolution of 8 megapixels, autofocus and LED flash, and front-camera has a resolution of 2.1 megapixels.

Samsung Z supports 3G / 4G, Wi-Fi a / b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, NFC, GPS / GLONASS and an IR module for using your smartphone as a remote control. Accelerometer, compass, barometer, heart rate sensor and fingerprint scanner are available from the sensors. The battery capacity of the smartphone is 2600 mAh.

The Samsung Z smartphone will run Tizen OS 2.2.1. The device will be available in gold and black colors.

Smartphone sales will begin in Russia, presumably in the third quarter of this year. Following them, smartphones from Huawei should appear on sale, a prototype of one of them is presented below.

Recently, the list of companies interested in the new platform has been replenished with another well-known name. The Taiwanese manufacturer HTC is interested in the production of smartphones based on Tizen, unfortunately, this is not known in more detail.

Companies Acer, Asus and Intel are going to release several models of portable computers (netbooks and ultrabooks) based on the Tizen platform by the end of this year.

Among cameras (smart cameras), the first to enter the market were the Samsung NX300 and Samsung NX2000 mirrorless cameras, the software of which is based on elements of the Tizen platform. And the advanced Samsung NX300M smart camera is powered by the Tizen Camera Platform, which is entirely based on new system Tizen. Several more cameras on Tizen OS were presented this year - these are Samsung NX30, Samsung NX Mini and Samsung NX3000.

Samsung has announced plans to release a special SDK with which you can create applications for smart TVs on the Tizen platform, which were demonstrated in early June this year. Control of the TV using gestures and voice will be supported, and the TV will also communicate with smartphones and wearable devices. The SDK should appear before the end of this summer, but the date of the smart TVs on sale is still unknown.

In early 2014, Samsung introduced the WW9000 smart washing machine, which operates on the Tizen OS platform. One of the features of which allows you to control the washing machine from your smartphone. Samsung also plans to release a refrigerator and a printer on the Tizen system. Samsung is also negotiating merger with various manufacturers and suppliers of smart home solutions and equipment.

On this moment a project is being developed that will be used in transport infotainment systems - these are cars, airplanes and other vehicles. In the fall of 2013, KAMAZ OJSC and Intel presented a joint project - an on-board infotainment system based on Tizen OS.

Conclusion.

Several giant companies are working on the development of Tizen OS at once and the advantage of this system is the interest of several world market players in it at once, led by Samsung and Intel. By the way, the total number of partner companies of the Tizen platform is 36 participants.

Tyzen does not support the annoying Java machine, which only benefits from performance. The operating system was completely and completely created using web technologies, however, you can develop applications for it not only based on HTML, but also using native C ++ development tools.

The development of the Tizen operating system has been going on for quite a long time, and the thing is that the developers have aimed to create the first universal platform that can work on almost any device, and now the Tizen platform supports all available components that competitors use. As a result, Tizen OS, being not yet fully assembled, is already ahead of its competitors in potential capabilities.

About a year ago it became known that Samsung intends to release its first smartphone on the new Tizen OS in 2013. Immediately, many media and Internet resources began to publish news, informing that Samsung may stop producing smartphones with the Android system and completely switch to its own mobile platform. Of course, all this turned out to be just unconfirmed rumors and unreasonable guesses. After all, you do not need to be an expert to understand the fact that using the mobile system from Google brings in a significant part of the income, and it would be very foolish to refuse it. Then many people had a question: what kind of system is Tizen OS, and why did Samsung need it, even as the main system for new smartphones.

The development of a new Linux-based platform was announced back in 2011, this project was named Tizen, and it was led by two corporations Intel and Samsung. Since its inception, the platform has been developed for a variety of devices, not just smartphones, such as digital cameras, laptops and ultrabooks, tablets, smart TVs and car systems. And as you know, Samsung is also engaged in the production of household appliances, therefore, the creation and use of a single OS on all products is a perfectly reasonable step for the company.

For almost two years of development, Tizen has acquired sufficient performance and its recognizable appearance... Already in version 1.0, an SDK and an emulator for Windows and Ubuntu was available (on Mac OS it appeared in 2.0). The system fully supports Html 5, 3D graphics and OpenGL, in version 2.0 added support for Blutooth and NFC. Introduced in May 2013, version 3.0 of the system is slated to be used for laptops and ultrabooks, it supports Full HD resolution, and in the future will add multi-user mode, a new 3D engine and support for 64-bit architecture. At the same time, in May, the Tizen Store was introduced. While it is available only for developers, it accepts web applications in HTML 5, native (C ++) and hybrid, publishing applications is free. The store will open with the release of the first devices on Tizen OS, but this event is still delayed. Samsung planned to show new devices in 2013, then it was announced in the summer that this event would be postponed to autumn. Today it is known that smartphones based on Tizen OS will be presented in February 2014.

Download, install and run

Tizen OS is not the only new mobile platform under development and is set to compete with the current ones. mobile systems... As similar examples, it is enough to recall Firefox OS, which is planned to be used on smartphones of the lower price segment, or, for example, the Jolla system, a smartphone with it was presented this fall, and its feature is support for Android applications.

Perhaps, when information and the first news about Tizen appeared, many owners of modern smartphones became interested in how to install and run Tizen OS, for example, instead of Android. After all, everything new attracts public attention and becomes very interesting. And if you are one of those who want to install Tizen OS on their smartphone, then there is no need to do this. Firstly: doing this is dangerous, because you don't want your device to suddenly turn into a ‘brick’, and secondly: you can look at the system and try it in operation right on your computer by running it in the emulator.

In order to run Tizen OS on your computer, you need to download and install the SDK. This is all done quickly and easily. There are two ways to install: download only the SDK manager (program to run) and he will install everything himself, or download the manager and a separate SDK image and specify the path to it during installation, the only difference is that in the first case everything happens almost automatically ... But there is one caveat, to run the manager, you will need to install the Java Runtime Environment.

In order to do everything accurately and confidently, the second method will be described below.

3. Run the downloaded SDK manager (file tizen-sdk-windows32-v2.2.71.exe), open a window additional parameters by clicking on the ‘Advanced’ button, select ‘SDK Image’ installation mode and specify the path to the downloaded SDK image (file tizen-sdk-image-2.2.1-windows32.zip or similar)

4. After unpacking the image, proceed with the installation by clicking 'Ok - Next'. In the next windows you will need to accept license agreement, then select the type of installation: normal or custom (if you are a developer choose the second and customize the installation), then click ‘Install’ to start the installation.

This will install the emulator manager and SDK. It is worth knowing that installation requires 5 GB of free space, but if you choose to install only the emulator and the platform itself before installing (choosing the normal mode or custom mode), then you will need 1 GB. By default, everything is installed on the C drive, in the ‘tizen-sdk’ folder.

Now all that remains is to open the emulator manager and create a new one virtual device... If no shortcuts appear on the desktop after installation, the manager can be started using the file located in the installed folder (by default, the path is ‘C: \ tizen-sdk \ tools \ emulator \ bin \ emulator-manager.exe’).

In the opened program, click on 'Add New' to add a new virtual device. On the right panel it will be possible to configure this device, nothing is complicated there, everything is simple and clear, but if you don’t know English, then you don’t need to change anything, the default parameters are fine, the most important thing is to enter a name in the Name field, it should consist of Latin letters and should not contain spaces. When the 'Confirm' button becomes active, click on it to confirm the addition. An icon of the added device will appear on the left, displaying the specified architecture, amount of RAM and screen resolution. You can start it by clicking on the blue button on the icon. After that, a new window will appear in the style of a tablet or smartphone. If your computer is not very powerful, then Tizen OS can start up for a long time, up to 30 minutes. To speed up this process, close all programs and leave only the emulator. When the system starts, an unlock screen will appear, if you missed this moment, you can ‘wake up’ the device by pressing the Home button.

Tizen OS Review

The first thing we see after loading the Tizen OS operating system is the unlock screen. It is traditionally quite informative, it displays the time, date and an icon for the swipe. Yes, unlocking the screen here is done with a swipe to the right, apparently, nothing more convenient has been invented (except for TouchID, of course). With a swipe of your finger, the screen becomes transparent and the application menu appears.

What immediately catches your eye are, of course, round icons. Such a design element is not unique and has been found in various other operating systems, but for Tizen, apparently, it was necessary to create something that distinguishes this system from others, and we must admit that it succeeded. The icons look fresh, nice and beautifully drawn. And yes, exactly fresh, because the entire interface of the system is made in light, white and blue colors.

This is how, for example, the settings menu in Tizen OS looks like. As you might have guessed, the system fully supports the Russian language. By default, English is selected, but it is not difficult to change it: in the settings, language menu and keyboard.

There are not so many standard applications in Tizen yet. Above is a screenshot of the messaging app. From it you can understand how the interface in Tizn works. There is nothing particularly new in it, many of the interaction elements are similar to those used in modern mobile operating systems. So for example, after swiping on a message, a menu of three buttons appears for additional functions.

And this is the task manager and the notification bar. The dispatcher is not very beautiful, apparently, it will still be finalized, while it looks like on TouchWiz Android versions 2.2. There is a button on the notification panel for quick access to settings and a slider for adjusting the brightness of the display, most likely, in the future, switches for additional functions will be added to it. By the way, the task manager is invoked by a long press on the Home button. And in addition to it, the emulator also has a physical Menu and Back button. That is, future smartphones based on Tizen OS will presumably be, like Android smartphones, with physical and touch keys.

Below are additional screenshots of Tizen OS for a better familiarization with the system.

Even before the release of smartphones on Tizen OS, this system can already be installed and tried by anyone. But in order to fully appreciate it, its design, interface, usability and performance, it is worth waiting for the appearance of devices working on this platform. Will it be another copy of already popular platforms, most likely not. Because it makes no sense to simply copy, all new and emerging systems ‘absorb’ all the most convenient, beautiful, pleasant to use and tested over the years. Therefore, you should not critically evaluate this platform, we will wait and see until the devices on Tizen OS are released.

But what do people know about her? We will list for you five main advantages of the new platform over the main competitors.

1. Developers

Several large companies with a huge patent base are working on the Tizen operating system at once. A significant advantage of the operating system Tizen that is, several market players are interested in its development. First of all, these are companies Intel, Samsung as well as organizations and the Tizen Association. By comparison, Android is only developed by Google, iOS is owned by Apple, and Windows Phone is a Microsoft project.

According to experts, it is the huge support from manufacturers of hardware, mobile devices and software will make Tizen successful. Plus, in the event of any litigation, Tizen will have a larger patent base than any other platform in the world. Recall that the total number of partner companies of Tizen OS is 36 participants, including (in addition to the companies already mentioned by us) such monsters as eBay, Konami, McAfee, Panasonic, The Weather Channel, as well as game developers and operators mobile communications around the world.

2. Nothing to do with Android

The operating system Tizen OS only at first glance may resemble Android interface, however, in fact, the differences are dramatic.

Operating system Tizen runs on core Linux, but it has nothing to do with the market leader - Android. All drivers for this platform were written from scratch. Perhaps this is why the first builds of Tizen are much faster and more stable than Android in the latest versions.

3. Wide development possibilities

According to some experts, the advantage over the same Android is Tizen is that it does not support the annoying java machine. However, when it comes to application development tools, Tizen has a few more trump cards in its pocket.

Initially, Tizen was conceived as an operating system, the development for which had to take place entirely using Web technologies. This idea is not new and was used in webOS, and then in Google chrome OS. An example of a similar experience for mobile devices is development. However, Tizen went beyond the "fire fox" idea.

Application development for Tizen can be implemented in full using only a bunch of HTML5 / JavaScript / CSS. The fact is that Tizen not only offers Web components for building the user interface and supports W3C / HTML5 standards, but also provides a Web API for managing applications (alarms and reminders, installed applications, data exchange), communication (Bluetooth, messages, NFC, etc.), content, file system, organizer (bookmarks, calendar, call history, contacts), system functions (food, system information, system settings, time) and notifications. At the same time, starting from version 2.0, native development tools have been added to Tizen using C ++ - Samsung's developments have been used for, therefore there is a high level of compatibility with bada 2.0 API... This makes it possible to develop productive applications using OpenGL® ES, OpenAL and OpenMP® technologies and the Glibc, libstdc ++ and libxml2 libraries.

Thus, actively supporting the development of applications based on and HTML5, and C ++ the Tizen operating system makes it possible for almost every programmer to realize themselves.

4. Tizen fits everything

Operating system development Tizen OS lasts long enough. The thing is that its developers decided from the very beginning to aim at a big piece of the pie. Tizen is envisioned to be the first platform to work with virtually any device. Tizen is not at all focused on smartphones or tablets, as it seems to many now.

At the end of May this year, at the Tizen developer conference, it became known that the version Tizen 3.0 will be released with support personal computers and laptops. Another Tizen variant that was presented at the conference is Tizen IVI(in-vehicle infortainment) for vehicle infotainment systems. Equipment compatible with it was demonstrated on machines Land rover, and this is a premium brand. Not so long ago, we saw, and in the future, manufacturers of TVs, receivers will use Tizen-based software digital signal, multimedia systems and even household appliances.

This approach to the versatility of the platform will allow the user of a smartphone based on Tizen OS quickly sync music on your phone with music in your car, change channels on your TV, view documents on your computer, and maybe even turn on or off your washing machine. In short, the versatility of Tizen does not hold, and the composition of the Tizen Association members unequivocally hints at their desire to create a real ecosystem based on this OS.

5. Support for the best components

Despite its young age, the platform Tizen already now supports almost all those components that are available to competitors.

After demonstrating Tizen OS on a smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4 it became clear that this operating system, even in its early assemblies, supports Full HD displays. For example, only this fall introduced support for this permission. But that's not all. Unlike Android, Tizen 3.0 already has support for processors Intel and ARM... And all thanks to the fact that Intel is one of the developers of the operating system. Thus, being not fully assembled, Tizen is already ahead of its competitors. True, so far not by the number of users, but only by potential. It remains only to use these opportunities correctly.

Hello Geektimes!

In the previous post, we talked about the new lines. 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 “smart” TVs of the company will now work.

TIZEN (pronounced "tyzen") is a Linux kernel-based operating system designed for a wide range of devices. TIZEN provides full support for the HTML5 standard. Important features include built-in data security and encryption, application and data containerization, significantly reduced resource requirements and reduced power consumption. TIZEN was founded on the ideas of openness, convergence and orientation towards web services.

Fitting perfectly with the concept of the Internet of Things, TIZEN works on different devices and gives them the opportunity to interact with each other. In addition to TVs, Samsung's global arsenal already includes mobile devices (Samsung Z), wristwatches (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 Samsung devices can be combined into a single Smart Home ecosystem, which requires only a smartphone and special application Smart Control.

INTERFACE
Samsung TIZEN TV decided to move away from dividing the interface into five separate categories, and to concentrate the navigation block in the form of a bar 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 have used, but also the channels that you have viewed previously. The Popular section always shows new and trending 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 apps.

A small video about the new Smart Hub on TIZEN:

Of the TV control capabilities, a convenient digital "pointer" mode should be highlighted, 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 volume of the sound or set the sleep timer after 30 minutes.

On older Samsung UHD models, a multi-screen mode is provided: the screen is divided in half, in one part you can display on-air TV broadcasting or content from an HDMI source, and in the second you can watch Youtube videos, surf in a browser or turn on one of the applications. The border of the screen section can be manually moved in different directions, as well as switch the sound source between the two zones.

CONVERGENCE
Content viewing is no longer limited to a TV screen alone. Much attention was paid to ways to easily connect mobile devices with Samsung TIZEN TV: using a smartphone, the user can turn on the TV, instantly establish a direct Wi-Fi connection and transfer any content to its screen. For example, to broadcast a video to the 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 link also works the other way around: using the SmartView app, the user can stream content or programs from the TV to their screen. mobile device... In general, if you dreamed of watching a football match sitting on a sun lounger on the porch of the house on a fine day, then this feature will definitely appeal to you.

CONTENT
Samsung TIZEN TVs offer 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, Vimeo, Plex services.

Support for VP9 decoding has also been added. This means that for the first time it will be possible to watch 4K content directly from Youtube on a 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 app can access the device via the API for TIZEN devices on JavaScript based as well as through the Samsung TV API. Game developers can create high-performance games powered by the Unity 3D engine. Of particular note is Caph, a web application framework that facilitates the easy and fast development of web applications for Samsung TVs on TIZEN. In particular, Caph helps speed up animations using GPU resources. Besides these capabilities, Caph also provides various UI components for TIZEN TV.

V Samsung TVs based on TIZEN, there is a separate Game Panel, which is a game 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 monetization models such as Free-To-Play, in-app purchases, paid apps, etc.
• Supports games developed with Unity, HTML5, Java, C / C ++, or NaCl.
• Leverages Samsung's Game Service Platform and billing services to provide additional revenue to game developers.