Google unveiled a television platform on Friday in a partnership with Sony, Intel and Logitech that brings the Web to the television set.
“Google TV is a new platform that we believe will change the future of television,” Google group product manager Rishi Chandra said while demonstrating the new service at a developers conference in San Francisco. The Google TV technology based on the California Internet giant’s Android software “combines the best of what TV has to offer and the best of what the Web has to offer,” according to Chandra.
Google TV can be accessed using Internet-enabled televisions from Sony or a custom digital box that routes Web content to television screens.
A wireless computer keyboard and box were used during the onstage demonstration of Google TV.
“The transition from TV to Web is totally seamless,” Chandra said during the demonstration, which featured a few awkward glitches.
“To the user it doesn’t matter where I get my content, whether it be live TV, DVR, or the Web. They just want access to it,” Chandra said.
Internet search and advertising giant Google is hoping to tap into the billions of television viewers around the world with the new product.
Google TV hardware includes the digital box, a keyboard, and a mouse to serve as an onscreen pointer.
Android mobile telephones updated with the latest generation software released on Friday can be wirelessly synched to Google TV boxes to serve as remote controls or “push” videos or other online content to big screens. Google TV also features automated translation capabilities to serve up subtitles in various languages.