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LG will be showcasing its upcoming Google TV at CES 2012, and it is likely that Samsung will be soon to follow. Though Samsung’s version won’t be unveiled at CES in January, an executive with the company told reporters in Seoul that talks with Google are in their final stages, so we should be seeing some Samsung Google TV goods cropping up as 2012 progresses.
Though no details seem to be available yet, our best guess is that Samsung is making a TV-set, as their previous Google TV attempt, a set-top box and blu-ray DVD player in one, was never released. As both LG and Samsung are likely on board to boost TV sales and prices, it will be interesting to see if a fresh wave of Google TV products will do any better than the first. With Logitech backing out of the future of Google TV and Sony undoubtedly feeling a bit burned as well, theres plenty of opportunity for both Samsung and LG to either sink or swim. Stay tuned to see what products and profits will result.
[via LA Times]
It looks like LG is stepping in where Logitech has bowed out: LG is preparing it’s first Google TV for launch at CES 2012 in January. The move is a follow up to when LG was in line to demonstrate Google TV products at CES 2010 before stopping production plans at Google’s request, a request that saved LG from the first round of Google TV disappointment. Back with a vengeance in version 2, Google TV is in need of new hardware partners since Logitech’s recent vow not to replace or further produce the Revue.
The specifics of the new LG Google TV are unclear at this time, as sources have only said that it will be a TV set with Google TV 2.0 integration. Hopefully LG will tread lightly, not making the same pricing and large-scale production mistakes as Sony and Logitech did in the first round. We will keep you posted as the LG Google TV devices hit shelves.
[via Slash Gear]
After launching its music store just a few days ago, Google Music has rolled out a Google Music App for Google TV. The service, which is integrated with Google+ for social sharing, is also free to sign up for in the US and offers 13 million tracks from the archives of Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and EMI, as well as a number of indie labels. The app for Google TV allows you to stream from your library of music stored in the cloud and is integrated into the Google TV system such that you can set up playlists to act as a soundtrack of a photo slideshow. The app is available via the Android Market (assuming you’ve gotten the Honeycomb update) and requires enrollment in the service on your computer.
[via The Verge]
Google is going full on XXX: two days ago a Los Angeles based adult entertainment company called Vivid launched it’s channel for Google TV. Not an app but rather a website specifically optimized for Google TV, this naughty new side to Google TV marks the first specifically adult channel offering available (though of course one can always use the built in web-browsing capabilities to watch whatever one pleases). The Vivid web site, set up without any input from Google, will stream Vivid’s collection of movies, celebrity sex tapes and other HD content to users over the age of 18 who are also subscribers to the company’s website. Ooh-la-la!
But alas, don’t go thinking that you can’t still keep your Google TV kid-friendly if you want to: users can use Safe Search settings in Chrome, the Application Lock feature under Privacy and Safety, and even the content filters already running on the TV itself to control the content that Google TV picks up.
Naughty or nice, it’s official–we can’t wait to see what the new wave of development buzz for Google TV serves up next!
[via CNET]
Sony Google TV devices got the Honeycomb update this week, and though us GTV Hub-ers are still waiting on the Revue to come around, TechCrunch is already talking 2.0. In summary, they are dubbing it beautiful but not brilliant– a definite improvement but still with vasst short fallings. As more and more reviews surface it will be interesting to see if this is the general consensus: did Google miss their mark again? Hopefully Logitech will jump on the 2.0 bandwagon in a hurry, so I can find out for myself! Stay tuned folks, the GTV Hub Google TV 2.0 Official Review is soon to come!
With the coming of Google TV 2.0, giddiness over access to the Android App Market has left another key app-related feature unnoticed: Google TV users will be able to install non-market apps as well. This feature builds a space for creation and proliferation within separate app markets, as well as space in which other Android-powered copycat streaming devices that could compete with Google TV products.
In the GIGAOM article from which this is article is sourced, a comparison is drawn between the tablet market and the Google TV market, as tablets provide an easy to see example of a wide diversification of spin-off products which offer access to third-party app markets, but even without a tablet comparison its easy to see how similar Google TV copy-cats are already abundant in the streaming TV space: Boxee, Roku, Netgear, WD, Seagate and others all have options available to consumers. While it is likely that these impersonators don’t have access to the Android Market, it also seems likely that with time and interest, more and more apps will be optimized for these devices, or they may simply elect to go Android themselves.
Could this seemingly unchecked creative space for both product proliferation and app optimization eventually lead to competition for Google TV products? And more importantly, does Google TV have anything to fear?
Well, the good news is that Google has strict requirements for Google TV hardware makers: devices must support ARM chips, include plenty of RAM, and work with a cable box and a full QWERTY keyboard. Hence, it seems hard to believe that others will sneak to the forefront of innovation or customer need. However, if other contenders in the connected TV space go Android, grab enough apps and offer access to a separate app market, they could potentially steal some thunder.
The key will be to avoid too much fragmentation: multiple Android-based platforms could cause consumer confusion and apps that work on one platform and not another could lead to developer frustration. On the other hand, any device that gets consumers using Android over iOS could only help Google TV succeed. Besides, impersonation is the most sincere form of flattery, and competition breeds innovation.
[via GIGAOM]
It looks like we may have spoken a bit too soon, as it would appear that Logitech is still very much in the game. Or is it just a game? Updated Logitech Revue packages are now sporting a sticker that boasts, “New & Improved: Google TV now with Android 3.1 and Android Market”, but the boxes don’t actually contain Revues that will be running Honeycomb. A Logitech rep stated the following:
We’d like to clarify that these products do not include the next version of Google TV software. The boxes were prematurely updated with the stickers in anticipation of the next release of the Google TV software, which, once available, will be a free and automatic update pushed to all Logitech Revue boxes that are installed and connected to the Internet.
So, Logitech has made it clear that the software hasn’t yet been updated, but could they be implying that at least the hardware has? Or, are they simply suggesting that we are at last extraordinarily close to the hack-free Honeycomb release?
Either way, the quarterly earnings that Logitech released overnight may be enough to disprove our prior suggestion that Logitech may be pulling out of Google TV: $7.9 million in sales from the Revue and it’s accessories since the price drop doesn’t seem like an awful sales figure for a product that seemed like a financial failure. It might be time to contribute to those numbers further: if you don’t have one yet, it’s probably best to get your hands on a Google TV so you can be front row when Honeycomb hits.
[via engadget]
Tell me, Google TV fans, at what point am I compromising my journalistic integrity by reporting too many rumors? Well, in the spirit of throwing integrity to the wind, I’ve got more speculation as to when Google TV 2.0 and the Honeycomb update will finally drop! According to Scott Webster of Android Guys its finally clear that 2.0 is coming in full form on November 8th, and will be unveiled at Streaming Media West 2011, an annual event that encompasses everything streaming-media related (in case you couldn’t deduce that from the title).
From whence did this speculation spring, you ask? Well, from the extraordinarily vague comments that Donagh O’Malley made a few weeks ago, the fact that O’Malley will be speaking at the November 8th event, and from the fact that the “final” add-on for the Android SDK was recently released. If you ask me, I’d say one of Android Guys‘ readers was more accurate when he assessed, “So – we’re lookin’ at around Easter then..?”. Take it or leave it, this rumor isn’t worth much until it happens.
[via AndroidGuys]
Yet another ETA on the official release date of Google TV 2.0, this one straight from Google’s mouth. At the Connected TV Panel, MIPCOM 2011, Google TV Director of Content Donagh O’Malley gave very specific details about precisely when Honeycomb will drop:
What I can tell you about what’s coming up with Google TV, is version two is about to launch probably within the next three or four weeks.
Well, thank you for nailing that down sir. Given how closely Google has stuck to its previous Google TV release date announcements, I’d say that it’s probably best not to hold our breaths. We’ll see Honeycomb when we see it, and you’ll be sure to see lots of it right here when that happens.
[via gnarl'd]
When Google TV first launched about a year ago, traditional television ran for the hills: major networks blocked Google TV users from accessing web-based content in the fear that free online episodes would eventually make live, paid television obsolete. Now, Google TV is marrying catch-up streaming with paid traditional television by offering Google TV apps for major networks like TNT and TBS that require pay TV authentication. These apps, which showed up on the Android Market briefly a few weeks ago and have since been taken down (presumably for further tweaking), have an option for paid TV subscribers to log in with their cable subscription credentials so that they can then access full episodes the day after they air and play older episodes from an extended catalog.
Network apps requiring pay TV authentication will likely smooth over relations and encourage other networks to embrace Google TV, but its a bit contradictory to what most consumers expect when they think of an internet enabled TV. Stay tuned to see if Google TV has succeeded in playing nice with traditional TV, or if this new relationship with major networks scares off consumers.
[via gigaom]
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