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"The Last Screen has been Liberated!"

CONVERGENCE: Google launches Information Website for Google TV

Source and copyrights: Google Inc www.google.com/tv

Since Google, Sony and Logitech announced that they would be jointly producing devices for Google TV, speculations were rife on what the new service would consist of and when it would be launched. Now, it’s getting somewhat clearer what (American) consumers can soon expect.

 

> St. Moritz - October 6, 2010 - by Christian Gartmann <

 

According to Google’s new information website for Google TV the service shall feature Apps such as Netflix, Twitter, Pandora, NBA Game Time, Amazon Video on Demand or Gallery. It remains unclear which Apps will be available when it launches in Europe. As of 2011 though, apps from the Android Market* shall work on Google TV.

 

Google TV will enable consumers to access all Internet contents on their TV sets – including websites which work on Adobe’s ‘Flash’ technology. Contents found while surfing the Web on a mobile device will be transferred easily from the mobile device to the TV screen, is claimed.

 

“The last screen has been liberated†, Google declares pretentiously. However, contents from Apple’s iTunes world will most probably not be accessible on Google TV. Presumably, Apple isn’t interested in such a service since it runs its own competing service ‘Apple TV’.

 

To operate Google TV a set-top box or a TV set with a built-in special decoder is required. The launch in the US market is announced for this fall, while a launch date for Europe seems unclear.

 

Convergence – the fusion of different media channels, devices and their respective contents – will certainly get an additional boost from Google TV. Systems such as Google TV bring television and the Internet ever closer together and will further and sustainably alter the media user’s behaviour.

 

Convergence does not even hold short of the remote control: Android handhelds and iPhones can be used as remote controls for Google TV.

 

Information website on Google TV

 

* Android is Google’s operating system for mobile devices. At the Android Market programs (apps) for Android devices can be bought.