The Technolon - Tech News and Opinion » Google TV

Google updates YouTube app for Google TV adds new interface and channels

Noah Shearer — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:28:17 +0000

Google has recently updated the YouTube experience on Google TV. The update provides better performance, allowing you to get to content faster. But the most interesting part of the update is the roll out of YouTube channels. YouTube channels are Google’s first attempt to compete with cable companies and other video content on their TV’s.

Users can also now see related videos and more videos from the same user while watching videos. Using the up and down arrows on the remote users can even add videos to one of their own YouTube playlists. A new Discover feature is also included that lets you browse videos by category. To update the YouTube app access the Android Market on your Google TV.

Source: Google TV Blog

Google and LG to make a ‘Google TV Nexus’ edition

Noah Shearer — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:24:28 +0000

Google has been quite successful for the most part with its Nexus brand of Android phones. According to Bloomberg Google may be trying to do the same thing with TV’s now. The first device is said to be made by LG. Rishi Chandra said in an interview with Engadget that Google TV’s next task will be to focus on content discovery and user experience. It will be interesting to see how Google TV’s next iteration improves on the current version. Already at CES we have seen many Google TV’s that have heavy manufacturer made skins. Google has to act quick to unify Google TV so that we don’t see the same fragmentation happen here.

Hopefully Google has some good ideas about the future of Google TV. We can already tell that the smart TV market is about to get really crowded. Especially when Apple throws their offering into the ring.

Source: Bloomberg, Engadget

Vizio announces Google TV-powered players

Noah Shearer — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:31:37 +0000

Vizio has been on a roll here at CES with their wide range of product announcements. Already the industry is buzzing about the design of their new PC line. But Vizio is not stopping here they have even more to announce.

They are going to release two Google TV powered set-top boxes in 2012. The first of these products is the VAP430 Stream player which adds the Google TV experience and streaming media to any home theater setup. This device feels alot like a new and improve Logitech Revue. The second is the VBR430 Blu-ray player which adds blue-ray functionality to the Google TV experience.

Sadly just like every other product Vizio has announced so far at CES the prices and release dates are still unknown.

Google thinking about starting Pay-TV service

Noah Shearer — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:59:41 +0000

Google has always been a company that loves to experiment with different ideas. They often release betas of some new service or even roll out high speed fiber internet to rural towns… all for the sake of experimentation. But one of Google’s newest ideas, according to the WSJ, is to start offering Payed TV service. Google already offers a internet connected platform for TV known as Google TV. But now reports are saying they could start offering their own subscription service to TV channels from studios like Disney, Discovery, and Time Warner. Google has already announced new ad supported live channels for Youtube last week. It might not be long before those live Youtube channels also include channels currently only available on traditional cable. Insiders say that Google would drastically undercut the prices of most current competitors when it does enter the market. No official statement has yet been released by Google and everything above is still speculation. But we can still be hopeful that Google might revolutionize the Cable Market and make the consumer experience better.

Source: WSJ

Android 3.1 update comes to Google TV

Noah Shearer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:33:29 +0000

Well the time has finally come my friends. Google has just announced on their Google TV Blog that they will begin rolling out the Android 3.1 update to Google TV devices. Most importantly the new update adds Android Market to TV’s. All though the initial offering of apps is small Google says, “50 developers have seeded the Market with cool and useful apps” to get people started. They also claim that Android developers can, “bring existing mobile apps or entirely new ones to TV”.

A few other small changes have been made to the interface of Google TV. Such as a cleaner interface and a new customizable home screen that lets one pin apps just like in Android for phones. Google has also added in a better search functionality that lets users search accross Live TV, Netflix, YouTube, HBO GO, and more with one search. For example the movie app lets the user search through 80,000 movies and TV episodes across cable or satellite, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and many other sites.

Google finishes by saying that Google TV is a work in progress and they will continue to improve it. And that they look forward in the coming months to announcing new software updates as well as new devices on new chipsets from multiple hardware partners.

Enjoy the pics and videos below.

Source: Google TV Blog, Google TV Site

Google TV 2.0 SDK gets final add on. Ap Developers pleased.

Noah Shearer — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:43:56 +0000

For those of you who don’t know Google has been planning to revamp Google TV for a while now. There has been talk of it running Honeycomb with access to the Android Market. The final add on to the SDK brings some new improvements that are nice. But more importantly this final ad on to the SDK tells us that the new Google TV is just around the corner.

Source: Google, Engadget