Currently viewing the tag: "Honeycomb"
In keeping with their promise to release more frequent Google TV updates, Google introduced Honeycomb 3.2 last week. The new software, currently for Sony devices only with the Revue soon to follow, provides the following improvements:
- It supports hardware acceleration, making apps with animation effects move faster
- It supports HTTP live streaming which will help with HTML5 video and make local media streaming through apps work
- Improvements to the way Google TV identifies channels will make it easier for app developers to use their own EPGs
- Chrome is getting a boost
This update will likely be one of many before the arrival of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which is rumored to occur before the end of the year. Stay tuned to see what Google rolls out throughout the next year of Google TV.
[via GigaOm]
It turns out that the Honeycomb update that rolled out to the Logitech Revue a couple weeks ago was incomplete: the updated Revue does not support the full Google TV Version 2.0 enhancements for video and media streaming capabilities. The limited functionality is centered around the Logitech Media Player, which lacks support for transport streams (.ts) and the MPEG-2 codec, both of which where implemented by Sony in the Honeycomb update.
Upon first discovery of this shortcoming, it was thought that perhaps the Revue had a limited chipset that wasn’t capable of supporting the MPEG-2 codec used in traditional DVDs, but deeper probing has revealed that the Revue is not only capable, but that support had been available in the first leaked beta version of Honeycomb and had been specifically removed in later leaks and the official release.
So, why is Logitech barring its users from some features while at the same time blaming Google for the Revue’s lack of success? Furthermore, why are they bothering to push incomplete updates that only serve to highlight the fact that Logitech has got one foot out the door? This is troubling news for customers who have already invested in Revue units, and even more troubling for customers who have just purchased units this holiday season under high expectations of improvement. We will keep our fingers crossed that Logitech pushes another update that offers full functionality. If not, Logitech may have just sent a message that officially sentences the Revue to market death.
[via StreamingMedia]
I was giddy with anticipation last week when my Google TV interrupted my regularly scheduled programming to inform me that a software update was available, and after a painless install that took roughly 3.5 minutes to complete without issue, my first act of Google TV 2.0 was to check out the Android Market. But alas, there wasn’t much to see.
Based on Google’s pre-Honeycomb call for app development, we knew that Android Market Apps for Google TV weren’t plentiful, but the slimness of the pickings is still a little shocking: of the roughly 50 choices (Were there really fifty? There seemed many fewer), I downloaded only a few of interest. Most unfortunate what that I was bummed to find that my classy fireplace really wasn’t that classy, after all (not to mention it freezes every few awkward, elevator-music and campfire crackle-filled seconds).
App developers, if you’re out there, please please please give a little love to Google TV.
We sure think Google TV is great, but is it yet capable of total TV domination? Google chairman Eric Schmidt sure thinks so. In a bold statement during an interview at Le Web conference in France, Schmidt made the following statement:
“We’ve just released version two, and by the summer of 2012, the majority of televisions you see in the television stores here will have Google TV embedded in it.”
Well, considering the Honeycomb update came about 4 months late (with my Revue having just been updated today, hooray!), and Logitech having just declined to pump out new product, that’s a pretty hearty prediction (or, is it an admission?). Is version 2 so powerful that it will completely change the fate of Google TV in less than a year? Will more hardware developers and consumers alike welcome Google TV into their sets? And what’s got Google feeling this cocky so early on in round two? Stay tuned to see what Google’s got up its sleeve, and to those of you who only very recently got Honeycomb, enjoy!
[via AdroidOS.in]
Logitech announced today that the Revue will be getting the long-awaited Honeycomb update this week. Sony Google TV’s got the update in early November, at which time we were told that the Revue was soon to follow. While I guess a month wasn’t a terribly long wait, it sure felt like it to us! In fact, we were starting to wonder if the update wasn’t coming at all, what with Logitech’s recent statement about pulling out of Google TV. But alas, Logitech is still hoping to clear those warehouse shelves via Version 2.0.
For those of you already using the Revue, simply make sure that your unit is hooked up, turned on and connected to the web– an automatic screen pop-up will require that you accept the update when the time has come. New Revue users will be expected to receive the updated version automatically upon start-up.
Along with the improved features of Android 3.1, which include access to the Android Market and easier-to-navigate search features, the Revue boasts “improvements to the Logitech Media Player”, with no detail as to what exactly that means. Luckily we will be able to see for ourselves in just a few short days, so stay tuned for updates.
[via Logitech Blog]
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]
Hey everyone, remember a few weeks back when we speculated that Logitech may be pulling out of Google TV? Well, as it turns out, it looks like we were right. As stated by Logitech’s CEO Guerrino De Luca, Logitech is done with Google TV:
To make the long story short, we thought we had invented [sliced] bread and we just made them. [We made a commitment to] just build a lot because we expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy these boxes [at] $300 [...] that was a big mistake.
While Logitech still undoubtedly hopes to unload their remaining stock of Revues with what may be a renewed wave of interest with the Honeycomb update, their work on Google TV is done. De Luca noted that while Google TV may have marketplace success in the future, he believed any notable success is still a long way off, and that Logitech will not be involved if and when that success occurs.
Logitech, which “executed a full scale launch with a beta product” (De Luca), lost $100 million dollars when consumer demand failed to (even remotely) meet expectations. It really must have hurt if they are swearing off Google TV forever, despite acknowledging that it may still have a significant future. If Logitech is out, should Google worry about losing Sony, which has also suffered significant losses as a result of low Google TV interest? Stay tuned to find out.
[via MacRumors]
Yep, it’s finally happening: Honeycomb, the Android Market, and what look like many other pretty sweet improvements for functionality and navigability are all finally coming to Google TV in round two, and they are less than a week away. Starting with Sony Google TV’s and with the Logitech Revue to follow “shortly thereafter”, Google is releasing the long awaited Honeycomb Android 3.1 update “early next week”, and catapulting Google TV into it’s next phase. From the official announcement as well as the flashy overview (*drool*), it appears that Google has really taken the past year of setbacks to really focus on improving the Google TV experience by responding to user feedback. The new and improved Google TV is set apart in four major ways, which you can read about after the break.
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]
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