Google will update its Google TV during the next few weeks, beginning with the Sony Google TV sets. Logitech devices will be updated to Google TV 2.0 soon thereafter.
Google has focused on four areas of user feedback. First: keep it simple. The interface is now much simpler. The new customisable home screen gets viewers to their favourite content quickly. And within “all apps” people can see all of their shortcuts, similar to an Android phone or tablet.
Second: make it easy to find something worth watching. Google said they have improved search across the board for content from live TV, Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go, and more.
But what if a viewer doesn’t know what to search for? There’s now an app called “TV & Movies” that let’s the viewer easily browse through 80,000 movies and TV episodes across cable or satellite, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and many other sites.
Third: make YouTube better on TV. Google is launching a new YouTube experience specifically built for Google TV. It is now fast and easy to get to HD-quality YouTube entertainment. YouTube is now also more closely integrated with Google TV search, so that people can turn virtually any topic – mountain biking, cooking, etc. – into a channel.
And finally: bring more apps to TV. Google is opening up the TV to the creativity of content creators large and small through Android Market. Android developers can now bring existing mobile apps or entirely new ones to TV.
Initially, the number of apps won’t be large – apps requiring a touch screen, GPS, or telephony won’t show up – but 50 developers have seeded the Market with cool and useful apps for the TV. We’re excited to see the number of apps grow.
The news was posted on the official Google TV blog by Mario Queiroz, VP product management, and Vincent Dureau, director of engineering: “We look forward in the coming months to announcing new software updates as well as new devices on new chipsets from multiple hardware partners.”
