google tv

Schmidt: TV makers to adopt Google TV within 5 years

Not surprisingly, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt sees a brighter future for the poorly received Google TV at this point than almost anyone else does.

Schmidt was in Great Britain the past few days once again showing off his virtuosic skills at generating headlines for the search company. He spoke about Google+ and privacy. He allegedly criticized the Brits' education system. He also made this comment, according to the Globe and Mail:

"Virtually all the television manufacturers on their very high end will eventually adopt Google TV...or perhaps one of the competitors that will emerge. We know this space … Read more

Schmidt says Google TV heading to Europe

Google TV will be launched in Europe early next year, despite its rocky start in the U.S., company Chairman Eric Schmidt told an audience in Edinburgh, Scotland, last night.

Delivering the keynote MacTaggart Lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival, one of Britain's premier television industry events, Schmidt sought to reassure broadcasters, according to a Reuters report on the speech.

"We seek to support the content industry by providing an open platform for the next generation of TV to evolve, the same way Android is an open platform for the next generation of mobile," Schmidt … Read more

Google TV may be headed to the U.K.

Google could be bringing Google TV to the U.K. within the next six months, The Telegraph reported today.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is expected to outline the plans tonight at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Google TV, which lets you run Android apps on your TV, is built on Google's Android operating system and will basically put the Chrome Web browser inside your TV. It lets you search the Web and stream video from TV providers, or watch your own videos. The service runs through a set-top box, but in the U.S. Sony sells TVs with … Read more

Android developers can start writing Google TV apps

Google released a preview version of an Android programming tool plug-in today to let developers write software for Google TV devices.

"With the upcoming OS update to Honeycomb, Google TV devices will be Android compatible," said Ambarish Kenghe, a Google TV product manager, in a blog post today. "That means developers can build great new Android apps for TV, optimize existing mobile or tablet apps for TV, and distribute those apps through Android Market."

Silicon Valley companies such as Google, Yahoo, Intel, and Apple have tried for years to marry the TV to the Internet, providing … Read more

Motorola could help cure ailing Google TV

Look at what the cable companies found on their doorstep this morning.

Google announced today that it is acquiring Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, a whopper deal that gives Google important handset know-how and patents. You can read more about that here.

But the acquisition also means that Google is now one of the world's biggest set-top box makers and therefore now part of the cable industry's distribution chain. Shudder. Remember, earlier this year that Motorola split itself into two separate independent companies, Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility. The latter half got control of the handset business … Read more

Logitech's Google TV box matches Apple TV at $99

When it was released last year, Google TV was touted as the next big thing. However, things haven't panned out quite as planned. The service has had a rough go of it, with buggy software and networks blocking access to content. But don't count it for dead quite yet.

Logitech, one of Google's partners in the launch of Google TV has slashed the price of its Revue with Google TV system from $249 to $99, matching the price of Apple TV and Roku's new Roku 2 XS. On top of the price drop, Logitech says the more affordable box will be upgradeable to Version 2 of Google TV that includes Android Market later this summer.

Here's what Logitech had to say in a short statement: … Read more

Logitech's Google TV debacle drags down earnings

Logitech last night reported a disappointing quarter and named an interim CEO. The company's Google TV experiment is one of the reasons why.

Granted, Logitech can't blame Google TV completely. After all, the company is in the crosshairs as PC sales remain anemic. Logitech makes peripherals that take a hit when PCs aren't flying off the shelves.

But Logitech's well-documented Google TV woes aren't helping matters much. About a year ago, Logitech made a big bet on Google TV to be a digital home player. Its flagship product was the Revue (CNET review). Now the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1459: Meat puppets behind the servers (Podcast)

It turns out that no matter how technologically savvy we get in the world, we could always be betrayed by the "meat puppets behind the servers." Thanks for that one, Donald. And human error does appear to be what happened to Amazon, and also the Yankees. DSLReports, on the other hand, just plain got hacked. And it would also appear there's no one equipped to help us with our little data leakage issues, since the FBI's own cyber-security agents admit they're not up to the task. But there's even worse news than that: the white iPhone is 0.2mm thicker than the black one. THE HUMANITY! --Molly

More bad news for Google TV

It was pretty much established that Google TV wasn't ready for prime time when it launched last fall, and now comes more proof.

Logitech has reported that the company's Revue with Google TV set-top box and the accompanying gear generated only about $5 million in sales during the last quarter. That's only about 72 percent less than the $18 million Logitech had expected. This was first reported by Janko Roettgers at the blog GigaOm.

One day I hope to learn why Google TV was rushed out. It wasn't like there weren't already plenty of risks … Read more

5 devices (and one rocket ride) that should be free

There's been a rumor floating around this month that Amazon might be considering making Kindles available for free to Prime members sometime this year. Few words in the English language have a bigger fan base than "free," and as a fanboy of all things gratis myself, it seemed only natural to compile this list of other devices that could or should be complimentary some day in the near future. Click through our gallery and please feel free to concur, rebut, or add your own suggestions in the comments section.