Ready for Google TV? Isn't everybody?
You can get a sneak peek at what Google plans to do with its new device by visiting its just-launched website, here, and taking a tour of what the search giant itself finds differentiates it from its competition.
Obviously, "television meets search engine" is one of the highlights. The company says Google TV will allow viewers to search across every channel, every app, and the entire Internet simultaneously using its Chrome browser.
Users will be able to customize a homepage, so they'll have access to their favorite channels, apps, websites and more. Want to start the day off with weather? Feel the need to check the stock market report or the news? It's all right there.
Users will be able to switch back and forth between the Internet and television programming easily, or, if they prefer, they can watch both simultaneously. That's where easy social networking, blogging about news and events, or just checking stats and scores while you watch a ball game is a snap.
The list of apps already available for Google TV, including Netflix, Pandora, Amazon on Demand, Twitter and more, initially is pretty thin, but they're generally the apps you're most likely to use. Google says it'll open up Google TV to developers quickly, saying many more apps will be available next year, including those from Android Market.
As predicted, you'll be able to use your phone as a remote control and, as hoped (if for nothing more than the entertainment factor) you'll also be able to use Google's voice search.
A newly revealed feature allows users to "fling" what they're watching, listening to, or doing on their phone to their Google TV.
Google TV also functions as "a DVR for the web," allowing users to to send shows to their Google Queue to watch when they want to, and DISH Network subscribers will be able to record a show right from the search bar and search all of their recordings at once.
For more:
- see the Google TV website
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