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Google teams up with Intel, Sony to make Google TV set-top boxes

Audio/Video, Home Theater, News, Software / By /

Google is pushing to get Android into other hardware, such as set-top boxes, and in turn to get their ads into more markets and in front of more eyeballs. To that ends, they have teamed up with Sony and Intel to develop something called, naturally, Google TV.

google tvGoogle TV is pretty much a re-imagining of the ill-fated WebTV, where a set-top box brings the Web to your TV screen. Of course, today, there are many different set-top boxes vying for your dollars and space in your AV shelf, including but not limited to media centers, DVRs, place-shifting boxes (like the Slingbox) and much more.

Who knows? Perhaps this version could fare better (think Palm vs the Newton). Of course, the Internet’s pervasiveness is exponentially greater than when WebTV first appeared.

One additional difference will be that the Google Android platform will allow for the software to be embedded in more devices than just the set-top box.

Press Release

Adobe Flash coming to a TV near you

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Networking & Internet / By /

Adobe plans to bring its Flash technology to your TV screens by having TVs and set-top boxes built with support for Flash. Flash is the format used for roughly 80% of video online as well as many online video games.

This will certainly make it easier for studios to create content that is viewable on both TV and the Web.

I think that one of the things that needs an update is many of the interfaces and remote controls for the set-top boxes. Why? Because one of the powerful uses of Flash is building applications that are interactive. Take games for example. If Adobe would really like Flash to be used to its fullest, then those set-top boxes need to improve their current horrible non-intuitive interfaces as well as their power (I’m looking at you Motorola).

Adobe expects Flash-supported hardware to begin selling late this year.

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