It's not quite here yet, but Google has dropped their announcement for what Google TV is going to look like. Before, there were just some sketches of ideas that were on the YouTube videos you could watch on the Google Blog, but now they've got a brand new webpage showing off their labors. And we have to say, it looks pretty sweet.
There's your TV stations, that's the first part of it. Google TV is designed to work with what you're already paying for, so if you have cable of some kind, you're already set. There will also be a favorites home page, just like in Chrome where your most frequently watched shows, viewed web pages, listened to podcasts are ready to go the moment you turn it on. But it's more than just TV.
The single set top box runs your regular TV channels, but it also has the web built right into it, accessed through Google's Chrome Browser. So in the middle of your program, you can jump online and look up things. Don't believe the diagnosis in "House"? Want to find out who that actress is on IMDB? Want to see what Twitter is saying about the Academy Awards while you watch them? Do it all straight from the same spot. Google TV is set to run picture in picture, so you can throw open IMDB or whatever you want without pausing or missing any of the show.
Google also has plans to roll out a remote control app for your smartphone whether you've got an Android or an iPhone. Another feature they've announced is the ability to "fling" content from your phone to the set top box. Watching something funny on your phone? Fling it to the TV and watch it embiggened. You like the picture you just took and want to show the whole room? Fling it and not have to walk around letting everyone get their germs on your handset. Google's also apparently working to rewrite the coding on YouTube videos to optimize the viewing on your television.
And with Flash installed, that means Hulu on your TV set just got a lot more likely (unless Hulu blocks it somehow), as well as tons of other sites that run movies in Flash still. But that means Flash based games are coming to your TV too.
But the killer part of this for us is the apps. Google TV will apparently run all the apps in the Android App Store. Just the idea that Apple TV could run iOS apps got us super excited, but to learn we may have to jailbreak to make it happen? Not so great. Now we're not quite sure how some of these Android apps will work necessarily, while things like Pandora and Netflix are simple enough. Will your remote control work with much more involved app games or will you need to download one game app to your Google TV and one controller app to your phone?
We'll have to check back in to see as this progresses, but for right now we're holding on to that $99 that was burning a hole in our pocket to buy an Apple TV. The war between these two tech giants just got a whole lot more interesting.
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bproffit
October 05, 2010 at 10:30am
I'm not happy with Apple's implementation either. They force you to stream all local media through iTunes on your computer, rather than streaming it straight from NAS. So those of us storing media on network drives have to:
1) use twice the network bandwidth (which isn't trivial if you're wireless) to play something from our library; drive to computer and computer to set-top
2) leave our computers running in order to watch television
3) expect pixellation/buffering if we're running something intensive on our computer while we want to watch TV
That's why I haven't bought one. I'll take an interested look at the Boxee box when it comes out.
But then... maybe it will be fixed the same way you describe for Google--through a third-party app. Apple has forced me to jailbreak all my other iOS devices to get their full power, so it wouldn't be surprising to see the same thing happen with AppleTV.
J Keirn-Swanson
October 05, 2010 at 9:41am
I think it's too early to say for sure how Google TV will stack up. I'm just saying that I'm not as in a hurry to get to the Apple store for my Apple TV as I was two days ago. While there will be Google TV tv sets, there is also to be a set top box which will be considerably lower priced. If Google plays this smart, they'll work with Logitech to price match Apple and make up losses on sales volume. Google could easily afford to subsidize the purchase for early adopters and I think that might make a sound business strategy. Once they diversify this out to other box makers and set makers, then they can let go of the subsidies.
As far as streaming, I'm certain there will be some kind of app created to allow you to stream content from your Mac to your TV without any problems. You can already do it to your iPhones so why wouldn't someone make an app for that, even if it is on another platform?
bproffit
October 04, 2010 at 8:33pm
It does have some nice features, but I can't help noticing that the product that "makes Apple's hobby look weak" can't stream my local 1.2 terabyte music and video library to my television/theater like Apple TV.
khurt
October 04, 2010 at 3:21pm
"for right now we're holding on to that $99 that was burning a hole in our pocket to buy an Apple TV."
I guess the real difference that matters right now is that Apple TV (and Roku etc) are shipping products. The Logitech Revue with Google TV is not. The Apple TV is $99 and a Roku is $79. A new TV with Google TV will set you back hundreds of dollars.
What am I missing?
