Have you wanted to watch TV and surf the internet at the same time, but feel constrained by the limited availability of online programming? If so, we’ve got some exciting news for you. Recently Sony announced a partnership with Google to create web-enabled televisions called Google TV.
Why Now?
In contrast to past attempts at launching Web TV, Google and Sony are collaborating with some of the top names in Technology such as Intel, Adobe and Logitech to deliver a cutting-edge solution. The TV itself is using Intel’s CE 4100 Processor, Adobe Flash v10.1, Google’s Android 2.1 platform as the OS and Google Chrome as the default browser (naturally). Logitech is offering several options for system controls – an all-in-one Harmony Remote (source) complete with an embedded LCD touch screen as well as a wireless full QWERTY keyboard to navigate the embedded browser with ease.
What’s so cool?
Nearly six years ago, companies like Tivo and Replay TV revolutionized the way that people watch TV. It not only offered the promise of recording your favorite shows without the need for a separate piece of hardware, it also allowed viewers to pause live broadcasts and rewind them on the fly. Google TV promises to be Tivo on steroids: not only will you be able to store and sort through your favorite shows, you’ll be able to Tweet about them using a customizable home screen that stores your bookmarks, Picasa albums and favorite TV shows.
Buffering…
Ok so I know what you’re thinking, there’s gotta be some 900 pound gorilla lurking somewhere in the room. To an extent, there is. His name is Buffering – the 30 sec + bout of frustration that occurs when a page loads slower than its broadcasted material. This is one of the major challenges that Google needs to address if they are to entice consumers of mainstream media to the web. For the time being, they are approaching this dilemma from the hardware side alone. According to Google’s head of TV Technology, Vincent Dureau, the minimum hardware requirements will include Intel’s ATOM processor, in addition to at least 1GB of unified RAM for video and audio processing as well as 4GB of persistent flash memory for system and data storage. (source)
Here at Tech and House, we are as keenly interested as you are in this product offering and will be posting details on this release as soon as we get our hands on them. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have questions. Until then, check out this video by Google explaining the technology.
