Android, Chrome Power Open-Source Google TV Platform

by Clint Boulton

Google TV is an attempt to succeed where Microsoft, Intel and others failed and where Apple and other players offer platforms for hobbyists.

Vincent Dureau is the technical director for Google TV. He explains what comprises Google TV here.

Sony TVs will support Google TV this fall, but any TV will be capable of being hooked up to the service. WiFi and Ethernet are built into the Google TV platform. Users will connect their HDMI cable from their existing cable or satellite box to the Google TV companion box from Logitech. The components are powered by Intel Atom processors. Google TV remote controls from Logitech will include a keyboard.

Meet the Google TV hardware components, including the Sony Internet TV and Logitech set-top box.

Google TV Product Manager Rishi Chandra pushes this YouTube video from his Android phone to the Google TV service.

Google TV users can also push Google TV to other Android-based TVs.

This service takes YouTube’s videos and allows them to play automatically on users’ TVs. Users can get each others’ YouTube video streams through Google TV. This will come out in beta on YouTube soon.

Google Listen, originally an audio podcast app from Google Labs, has evolved into Google Listen & Watch. This app now includes content from video feed publishers.

Note the drag-down toolbar where users can search through TV channels and applications on Google TV.

No surprise here, given its Android and Chrome basis, but Google is releasing Google TV to open source this fall. These APIs will be available through a refreshed Android SDK. However, this SDK won’t appear until after 2011, after the service comes out.

This is a snapshot of the release schedule for Google TV.