From the monthly archives: July 2012
If controlling your Google TV device via its peripheral controller or your mobile device wasn’t enough for you, now you can do it from your web browser with Chromemote. As the name suggests, it’s a Chrome applicate that gives you both the functionality and the look and feel of the Google TV mobile app.
While Google TV users have been quietly twiddling their thumbs waiting for Hulu Plus, Apple TV users have received the golden green ticket. The Hulu Plus icon became available on user’s home screens earlier today, and a formal announcement came via Hulu’s blog.
Could Hulu Plus for Google TV be coming sometime in the not too distant future? There is no way of knowing for sure, so for now we will just have to continue to keep our fingers crossed.
An upcoming update to Google TV will bring AirPlay-like functionality, according to Google TV’s VP of Product Management Mario Queiroz. Users will be able to queue up videos from their mobile phone or tablet with one click. However, unlike Apple’s AirPlay functionality, Google TV users will only be able to bring up videos from the web.
The update will also bring a New Releases section, making it even easier to find the newest movies. No further information about the update is available at this time, including a possible release date. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
[via Engadget]
Vizio’s new Co-Star Google TV box, which became available for pre-sale on Wednesday for $99, sold out of its initial stock in less than 12 hours. Vizio stated via their Google + page that pre-0rders are once again available, but as of writing this post the website still says they are out of stock.
We will update this post once it appears that pre-orders are available once again. If you would like to try for yourself, you can visit the pre-order page here.
Last week we told you that Google was planning to formally announce its Google Fiber service on July 26th. The day has finally arrived, and as expected the search giant has announced its first foray into the high-speed network arena.
Google Fiber will debut in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, and will offer download speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second. This is a staggering number to say the least, but what is also fascinating about Google Fiber is the announcement of a TV service as well.
Earlier today, Vizio announced via their blog that their new Co-Star Google TV box is now available for pre-order for $99. Some specs include 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connectivity, Bluetooth, DNLA support, 3D support, HDMI in and out, and one Bluetooth 2.0 port.
The product page also states that you can “Play the latest hit console video games through OnLive”, a statement which is confirmed by On-Live via their blog. From their own post earlier today:
OnLive is integrated into the VIZIO Co-Star Stream Player and will also be pre-installed on the LG Smart TV with Google TV (G2 Series) via a future software update. For other Google TV devices, an OnLive app is on its way to Google Play, making console-quality top-tier gaming a standard capability for any Google TV device.
You may remember last week’s story about Sony’s Google TV device possibly dropping On-Live support. Perhaps Sony will have second thoughts now that one or more competing devices will be On-Live ready. Continue after the break for the full press release from Vizio, and head on over to the pre-order page if you want to grab one for yourself.
Streaming capable set-top boxes are growing in popularity and, according to ABI Research, Google holds the key to making them mainstream. Shipments of devices like Google TV, Apple TV, and Roku are poised to hit 57 million by 2017. However, with the increasing popularity of low-cost Android mobile devices oversees, this number could dramatically increase.
“Google has a split personality in this market. On the one hand, China, in particular, is seeing growing interest in “generic” Android based set-top boxes and USB (or MHL) dongles/stick devices. On the other hand, it is launching its second generation of Google TV platforms (including the well-priced and impressively spec’ed Vizio Co-Star) where it tries to bring more content relationships and a better ecosystem,” says Sam Rosen, practice director of TV & video at ABI Research.
It’s been known for a while that Google has been planning a fiber optic network to deliver high-speed Internet and possible cable television. Well, we will have a definitive answer on July 26th, as indicated by a short teaser announcement posted on the official Google Fiber website.
At this point we can only speculate what, if anything, this could have to do with Google TV. If the plan is to offer cable television service, it is almost certain that Google TV will be included in whatever set-top box will go along with the service.
Stay tuned for more information on July 26th.
When Sony first announced its NSZ-GS7 Google TV set top box, the spec sheets indicated that it would support OnLive’s streaming game service. However, Sony is now changing its tune. A company rep recently told VentureBeat that the device would no longer support OnLive’s service.
The news comes shortly after Sony announced its acquisition of Gaikai, an open cloud gaming platform. Despite the statement from Sony, there is still some confusion as to whether or not the Google TV device supports OnLive. According to VentureBeat, OnLive claims there has been no change and that the device still supports their service because it is universally supported by the Google TV operating system.
It is possible that Sony will block the use of OnLive on their specific device due to the Gaikai acquisition, but there is currently no evidence to support this. All that remains is that, for the time being at least, OnLive is currently unusable on Sony’s NSZ-GS7 Google TV set top box.
[via The Verge]
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