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The Logitech Harmony for Android remote control application is now available free from the Android Market, providing Google TV users with another way of controlling their TV content.
Logitech last week began selling its Revue companion box and keyboard controller for Google TV, the search engine’s new Android-based Web service that overlays its Chrome Web browser atop users’ TV content.
Google TV lets users flit from Web content to TV content using Logitech Revue, Sony Internet TVs and Blu-ray players.
Revue comes with a keyboard controller that communicates with the companion box via Logitech Harmony, the universal remote control technology the company employs in several other remote access devices.
Acknowledging that some users will want a more mobile way of controlling their TV content from a device they’re already comfortable with, the company crafted Harmony applications for Apple’s iPhone and Android-based smartphones.
These apps let users turn their TVs, set-top boxes and A/V receivers off and on, change channels, and navigate applications and other Google TV content.
While the iPhone app is not ready yet, the Android app certainly is. Users can control Revue from the Harmony for Android app by tapping buttons on their smartphone or by speaking into it using the phone’s voice search capabilities.
At the Logitech Revue unveiling in New York Oct. 7, Kevin Simon, director of product marketing in the digital home group at Logitech, spoke into his Android phone to call up TV shows on the TV set.
One other neat perk is that the Harmony for Android app lets users “fling” video they are watching on their mobile phone to their TV set for watching on the big screen.
Users can download the app, which like the Revue works via WiFi, by scanning the QR code Engadget provides here with their smartphone.