BERLIN - Google gave a live demonstration of Google TV at Berlin's IFA Tuesday, and CEO Eric Schmidt promised it would be a couch potato's dream come true.
"Once you have Google television, you're going to be very busy," Schmidt said. "It's going to ruin your evening."
Google TV is the search giant's bid to bring the web to the biggest screen in the house in a big way, something TV viewers and web surfers (often the same person)have tended to resist as distinctly different experiences. But as the internet becomes a more viable delivery system for the kind of content we associate with the Barcaloungers and TV sets, Google, Apple and others are trying to get a piece of that action as well.
Google TV is essentially an interface, blurring the distinctions between programming you get from your cable or satellite provider with search -- Google's bread-and-butter. It is set to launch on a Sony HDTV, a Sony Blu-ray player and a Logitech set-top box in the United States this fall (other countries to follow), each with its own "incredible" remote control. After tapping a search button, a single box appears for searching the web, live television programming, recorded shows, on-demand programming, pay TV, online video clips and more.
"You would never want to buy a computer without an internet browser these days," said Google TV product marketing manager Brittany Bohnet. "Soon, you're never going to want to buy a TV without an internet browser."
Google, which demonstrated the service on a generic Logitech box with a DishNetwork DVR, is working on custom remote control hardware for the Chrome-powered Google TV in conjunction with Sony and Logitech that will likely include -- as did Bohnet's wired demonstration keyboard -- a full QWERTY keyboard, a pointing mechanism and television-specific buttons (volume, etc.).
But you'll also be able to use your Google-powered Android phone -- or even an iPhone -- as a Google TV remote. In addition to being convenient, this adds the ability to control the set using voice commands. Screaming at your TV may still have the same ineffectual result, but now, at least, you could say a channel name and your television would switch.
Perhaps more to the point: Google believes that keyboard-less search reduces the friction for web-based inquiries that it thinks people want to make concurrently with watching TV -- and on the same screen instead of the tablet you have on your coffee table or the smartphone in your pocket. In Bohnet's example, someone watching a show about Ferraris can price them via web search, although shopping is not (yet) directly incorporated into shows.
A search for "Star Trek" would reveal television episodes from your cable/satellite provider, video clips from the show on the web, websites about Star Trek, and the option to pay your cable or satellite provider for on-demand versions of the movies. Wherever Star Trek is -- whether online or in your television provider's offerings -- Google TV promises to find it. This is a powerful new way of searching, and Google does search well.
For Google's own YouTube videos, Google's hardware partners include a graphics accelerator to help render HD videos from YouTube. According to the company, more YouTube users are choosing to upload HD video these days, so if you're a heavy YouTube user, Google TV promises to make those videos look as good as they possibly can on a large screen.
Looking even further out, things like Google TV could make it more palatable to get mainstream TV shows over the internet -- just as we have become used to streaming and downloading movies. It should be noted that, perhaps not coincidentally, Google's YouTube itselfplans on offering mainstream movie rentals this year. It's also no surprise that Google's own YouTube already works pretty well on Google TV via a new version of "LeanBack," which defaults to the high-definition versions of YouTube videos.
Any hope that this device will allow you to "cut the cord" and free yourself from monthly cable or satellite bills now is unfounded because it only works to its full extent if you're paying for cable or satellite. When the day arrives that you can watch TV shows on your TV delivered up by Hulu, who needs them?
Though they are not exactly comparable, Google TV invites comparisons to Apple TV, which was slimmed down, simplified and cut to $99 in an upgrade announced last week. Apple TV doesn't actually contain much TV -- only Fox and ABC signed on to offer 99 cent TV show rentals -- and Google said nothing at IFA about any content deals. The Wall Street Journal reported three weeks ago that talks with the networks were not going as well as Google had hoped.
It will also not act like a DVR, so for pausing and fast-forwarding you'll still need your cable company's box (or the vastly superior TiVo).
But that said, Google plans to add Android apps in "early 2011," they said here. Apple TV is not running iOS, so it can't -- one of the five reasons we found it still boring.
What Google won't do is get into the content creation business. "There's a line that we decided not to cross," said Schmidt. "We want to work with content providers ... and we're very unlikely to do any content production."
Updated: Bohnet apparently said "internet browser," not "internet router," change reflected above.
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