After Gmail, Google buzz and Google chrome the top executive of cyber world search has now announced Google TV beta.
It is a web TV - an internet facility on your television. Google joined hands with Intel and Sony corporation to manufacture a product which can be plugged with your television set. Hardware will be done by Sony and entrails by microchip makers Intel.
Essentially Google TV is a box like hardware that can be connected to a TV set. You can access internet through television instead of monitor. Contrary to its name, Google TV is not a separate TV but like a cable box or DVD player. Just after declare of beta release, there are masses of exhilaration and rumors on Google’s new product.
Initially it is going to be a box with a remote and will have to be connected with TV to get internet services. You can browse the web using Google chrome, play videos, view online photo galleries, manage your emails and social networking websites and lot more things along with watching TV. This product claims to give you facility of interactive TV. In an interactive web TV you can view ads of your own choice; you can get email alerts and other notifications while watching TV. Additionally, interactive web TV will reduce cost for advertisers and ads optimization will be speedier and ultimate.
This is also being hoped that in near future Google TV could become a better alternate for your cable TV. Being an interactive TV it makes it possible to view TV channels of your own choice and pay for only the specific ones that you watch and also order pay-per-view, whereas on cable TV you have to pay for 50 to 60 channels even if you watch only 20.
Google is paying up on several peripheral devices for their new web TV. For this reason, they teamed up with Logitech to produce a keyboard for Google TV. Entering text through a remote like phone may not be comfortable for many users but keyboard will be a better option. The Logitech keyboard could probably be a replacement for notebook computers as it gives freedom to the user to work and have fun all at the same time without the hassle to control several devices at a time.
Note: HTML5 has a video tag, but no codec is defined yet. Since HTML5 is not going to be fully defined for 10 years - if ever - it is a moving target so the video space is still open.
One of the most exciting thing about Google TV is it will be able to run on Android OS platform which is a mobile phone platform but now Google is encouraging developers to make applications for Google TV and Android both. Official release date is expected in this fall i.e. fall 2010 which allows enough time for programmers and developers to start creating apps for this new product. Expected price is around $150. Hopefully this product will be turn out to be an exciting endeavour - rich web TV and a great treat from Google!
By Azeema our tech news editor July 2010
