Logitech has called for a freeze on Google TV components from Gigabyte Technology, marking the second instance where Google requested hardware delays so it can refresh the software.
Logitech has told Taiwan's Gigabyte Technology to freeze shipments
of the Logitech Revue companion boxes that power Google TV from December through
January, according to Digitimes.
The publication
said Logitech made the request to allow Google to finish upgrading the Android-based
Google TV software, which felt unfinished to many reviewers. Logitech declined
to confirm the report for
CNet when asked to verify its validity.
If true, it marks the second piece of evidence that
Google is asking its Google TV hardware partners to postpone shipping new
appliances so the search engine can improve the product.
Google allegedly
asked TV set makers such as Toshiba, LG and Sharp to refrain from launching
Google TV sets at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show next month so that it can
boost the software.
The Wall Street Journal'
s Walt Mossberg
called Google TV a poor product for "geeks" in a video of best and
worst products of 2010.
Google TV is the company's ambitious effort to wed Web surfing with channel
surfing by putting its Chrome Web browser on TV sets and making all TV
broadcast and Web content searchable.
The effort is one of the dozen or so in the last decade,
including plays by Microsoft and Intel, to put Web browsing and applications on
TVs. All have failed.
Shortly after Google launched Google TV in October via
the Revue companion boxes and Internet TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony it
became clear to many reviewers that the product felt unfinished.
This was particularly poignant weighed against the cost
of the hardware, which many felt was too high. Logitech Revue
costs $300, while Sony TVs integrated with Google TV run from $600 to $1,400.
The Blu-ray player was $400.
Google has also
found its service
blocked from accessing Websites from CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox as
the networks are leery of allowing Google to serve their content for free.
The Netflix application, for example, was just a dumb
movie server, lacking the controls to let users add new titles to their instant
queues, or otherwise manage their content beyond removing titles or fast-forwarding
and rewinding.
Google has
markedly
improved this app, eWEEK found in testing this past week.
Email
Print
