Announcing Google TV: TV meets web. Web meets TV. | Hacker News Reader

Announcing Google TV: TV meets web. Web meets TV.

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32 pointsAnon8426 comments

Baha! It'll be built INTO the TV.. Or the cable box, or the blu-ray player.

You get your TV home and connect it to your network, and have Hulu (because it has a fully featured browser with flash) working out of the box.

Making your own TV channel is now pretty much as simple as writing an android app.

You raise an interesting point... Google could potentially turn advertising on it's head again if the popularity of these individual networks perk up!!!!

I don't understand why Apple hasn't made an App Store and SDK for the Apple TV like with the iPhone/iPad. Maybe then it would be worth buying.

I hope XBMC gets support for Google TV. Rather than just watching your media collection, being also to watch web TV would be an amazing bonus.

For those who are unfamiliar, XBMC is a media player with one of the best UIs I've seen on any application, anywhere, ever. Seriously, it looks gorgeous, particularly the "Aeon" skin with custom backdrops. XBMC isn't just a pretty face though, it also handles pretty much any media format you can throw at it (like VLC). And it's FREE. If you have a HTPC it's the media player of choice. It even has an iPhone app that allows you control XBMC over WiFi.

Great XBMC Article:

http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultimate-start-to-finish-g...

Aeon Skin for XBMC:

http://www.aeonproject.com/

Or I can hook a pc to my tv like I did last month. Ta-da.

Seriously, this is a good idea, if executed correctly. I like the pc b/c i can play Bluray, DVD, Youtube and Netflix streaming on the same device. And there's only one device.

If you combined those into once device, that would be cool. Some Bluray players are getting there. However, I like the ability to hack and play. I can install my own codes, etc.

Seriously, the PS3 is there already, but it's Sony, so obviously they didn't execute the software capabilities. But just the bluray capabilities of the PS3 show me that they are very close despite themselves. The Netflix streaming bluray disc that works on many network-connected bluray players is a perfect example, and a beauty to use. It's a huge hassle to have to actually find and insert a physical disc to use the thing, and it would be several orders of magnitude better if the Netflix streaming bluray java app could be installed to the hard drive, along with a bunch of others, but the capability is nearly perfect. I could see a Youtube bluray disc being pretty popular as well. If bluray players could store those network-streaming based apps locally, it would be game over for FlashTV (aka Open Screen) and GoogleTV. Hell, Google could probably implement the real meat of GoogleTV as a bluray disc.

Did google just kill the boxee box? What about boxee in general?

@boxee says: watched the Google TV demo. more complementary than competitive. we should start working on Boxee Android App for TV... :)

And really, what else could they say? "Oh no, they just killed us! SNAP!" Anything said by a corporation (or a manager (boom!)) is so "spun" these days it's hardly worth listening to.

Perhaps, however, I am wrong.

Well, you can always hold out hope that they'll pull an Adobe, and tell people that the other guy is a big, fat meanie, and then have popcorn ready for the ensuing epic flame war.

And then there's @zachklein, their chief product officer:

"Google TV, yawn. The most interesting bit from their presentation today was the hint of a cloud-based music service."

Soon you won't be able to watch Hulu through Chrome, but nevertheless this some exciting and potentially big stuff here. I wonder how the cable and media companies feel about this?

I'm just going to leave this here: http://derefr.co.cc/essays/why-television

People don't (only) watch TV because it's a big screen with big speakers attached to it, placed centrally in their houses. There's also a bit of a sociological element going on, which this doesn't replicate.

You mention TV Web and Web TV, but not WebTV.

http://www.webtv.com/

Other systems, Boxee, MythTV, Microsoft Media Server, Apple TV

I'm watching the live stream in bits and pieces. What is the "input device", exactly? A wireless mouse? That's gonna be a real pain to use.

They showed controlling the TV with Android phones, in fact with multiple phones.

No more fights for the controller. :)

Just fights among the controllers.

I'd like to see a mini game and whoever wins gets to control the TV for 10 minutes.

So the input controller is a $300 device with a $70/month use fee?

I think that you're missing the point if you think people are supposed to (or will) buy an Android phone for the sole purpose of using it as a controller...

No, I fully understand the use of an Android phone as a controller. I consider it an option that 10% of the user base will use.

I'll rephrase the question: what input device am I supposed to hand to my mother-in-law? A wireless mouse? A gyro-pointer? A mega-keyboard with a teensy little trackpad on it? And she's supposed to focus this little 32x32 cursor on the correct place on the screen?

Right now, I don't know. But it's entirely possible that in the future, your Google TV set-top or Google enabled TV comes with voice recognition and your mother in law just tells it what she wants.

I'll just call her from my flying car.

Seriously, this is a clear example where Apple thinks things out a little better. We're now heading into an indefinite period of "OMG GOOGLE TV PWNS APPLE TV"...but Apple at least took the time to think out their answer before presenting it.

A directional pad.

http://www.google.com/tv/developer/#navigation-is-critical

From what i have read this will be a corporation between Sony, Intel and.. taadaaaa... Logitech.. guess what, they build kickass remotes :p

So, a really nice Sony HDTV + Logitech Harmony + Internet... yeah, i'd love that!

Seemed like they were using a diNovo EDGE on stage: http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch:1&#...

Nice, my first credit on hacker news :)

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