Samsung has confirmed that they will be releasing a new Smart TV SDK at the CES 2013 next week, that will add support for Mac and Linux operating systems.In addition to Windows, version 4.0 of the Smart TV SDK will allow Smart TV app development on both Linux and Mac OS.

The new platform supports USB controllers, keyboards and joysticks, and allow developers to display ads in their TV apps. Samsung has also implemented a payment module, which allows developers to create premium apps.

Samsung's developer community has 25,000 registered users from 140 countries, but taken the number of TV apps into consideration most of them are probably inactive.

We are not sure what this means Samsung's Google TV plans but Samsung might choose to run the two platforms side-by-side - like Sony is doing today.

Google plans to reconstruct Android based on the Linux 3.8 kernel, which was released just recently. This Linux kernel will be a "part" of the OS that Google will develop or improve, which will assimilate certain features once it materializes such as CPU hot plug support, F2FS file system, Intel DRM, Radeon driver enhancements.

By the looks of it, Google is hurrying to study and it could possibly be the basis for the Key Lime Pie or Android 5.0 or the next. Presently, the latest Android version is using the Linux 3.0 kernel and if that would be the foundation for our assumption, there are still quite a few Linux kernel versions for Google to get their hands on-unless they bypass everything and come up with an Android based on the 3.8 kernel as early as next year. The best part of a Linux 3.8-based OS lower memory usage, which is perfect for many high-powered smart devices.

Source: phoronix