Google TV poised to kill your cable bill, starting this fall
Google, Sony Intel and Logitech pulled the wraps off one of the worst-kept secrets Thursday when they unveiled Google TV, which will quite possibly be the biggest change to television since cable.
The new system, which incorporates Google's Android software, Intel chips, Sony's TV hardware and Logitech's strength in computer peripherals will let you flip between watching normal TV (ie. your favourite TV shows), with next-generation content such as YouTube videos and whatever else you can pump from the Internet to the screen. That includes Facebook, news content, instant sports stats...you get the gist.
But before we dream of how great this will be, let's get realistic. Google TV could go two ways.
Imagine, for a second, the four most powerful, most beautiful people in your work sphere coming together to create a love child.
Now, their offspring will either be incredibly smart, good-looking and successful. Or all the personalities and strengths will clash, they'll fail and wind up protected in the news for committing some crime at an embarrassingly young age.
If the offspring of Google, Intel Sony and Logitech take the path of the former and not the latter, we can expect some huge things.
That's unlike the AppleTV, which has been a failure. I know two people who own one. Neither actually use one.
Frankly, I think that's because you couldn't really open up the experience and use your TV as a one-stop-shop for consuming media from the web and from your cable/satellite subscription. It was too limited. GoogleTV appears to be the opposite.
It's not just about watching - it's also about doing. You can watch a sports game, squeeze it down to picture-in-picture then pull up live real-time stats from your favourite sports website.
Throw in apps - from the Android Market - and your TV is now an oversized computer screen. The goal here is to seamlessly bring both traditional TV and the web together.
The toast connecting all the peanut butter and jelly here is hardware made by either Sony or Logitech. Sony will be first out of the gate with GoogleTV television sets and enhanced Blu-ray players starting this fall.
The hardware has connections for your cable/satellite box along with HDMI connectors for all your A/V devices.
I can't wait.
A lot of people go to Facebook by Googling Facebook. They go to YouTube by Googling YouTube. They know it's Facebook.com and YouTube.com but searching it through Google is just so much easier for them.
Next, they'll be watching CSI or Glee by Googling it on their TV, then buying an episode or the entire season online. They'll tweet about it using the wireless keyboard or their phone while watching the show.
The only decision left is whether you need to keep that cable or satellite subscription or buy more bandwidth from your Internet Service Provider.
*Picture from Sony's Google TV website
- Maurice Cacho, MSN Tech & Gadgets
UPDATE 10/05/21: The Vancouver Sun is reporting that Canadians will have to wait until next year before we can get Google TV.
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