Report: Google Working With Intel, Sony on TV Project
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Google is working with Intel and Sony to develop a new class of internet-enabled televisions and set-top boxes, according to the New York Times.
The effort, known as Google TV, has been under way for several months and is based on Google’s Android software which is currently available in certain smartphones, the Times, citing people with knowledge of the project, reported on Wednesday.
Logitech International is also involved and is developing peripheral devices, such as a tiny keyboard.
“The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications, like the Twitter social network and the Picasa photo site, as it is to change the channel,” the Times reports.
Google has begun testing the set top box technology with Dish Network, the Times said.
Representatives from Google, Intel and Sony were not immediately available for comment. A Logitech spokeswoman said the company did not have any comment.
Efforts to converge computing and TV watching have had a uneven history, despite such major attempts to bridge the gap as Microsoft’s Media Center and Apple TV, and more recently such things as TiVo’s embrace of YouTube and other web-based services. There are many theories as why these two media appear seem more like reluctant fiances than soulmates; real computing of any kind requires a real keyboard, viewing a TV set or home theater system is done from a far greater distance than a laptop, TV is immersive — and so is e-mail, surfing, social networking, etc.
And yet streaming TV is now an app on smartphones, and your gaming system can connect you to Facebook and other social media. Apple’s iPad, set to be released on April 3 may finally deliver disruptive punch to the promise of casual computing in the living room — not as an appendage of television, but as a synergistic component of the entertainment hub.
Google is expected to deliver a toolkit to outside programmers within the next couple of months, and products based on the software could appear as soon as this summer, the Times reports.
Read More http://goo.gl/Z7Qg
