We were waiting for it, after so much gossip… finally, Google TV has been announced. And it rocks. Let´s review all the confirmed information:

THE CONCEPT

Google TV is far superior to Apple´s approach (do you remember Apple TV?), which was a kind of TV add-on or supplement. Google bets for a complete renewal of the television concept, which becomes an interactive service where you can search for plays and movies, search over the web, run your favorite apps, or even videochat… all from a fundamental place on people´s lives: your coach.

THE PLAYERS

There are some big players with Google to bring up this new era. Sony is the one building up the TV itself, Logitech will build up set-top-boxes (called Companion Box) to adapt traditional HDTVs to full-featured Google TVs, and will also provide the remote controllers; and Intel will provide its Atom processors to fuel up all with the necessary power.

THE TIMELINE

There are four proposed milestones:

1. TODAY: Google wants us to start optimizing web sites NOW. A Google TV website development guide has been published, mainly an open call to designers and developers to start opening our minds as this new channel has never existed before.
2. 2010 FALL SEASON: Launch of Sony TVs and Blu-Ray player as well as Logitech´s Companion Box. Most probably Google TV will be limited to US users at this time.
3. EARLY 2011: Launch of Android Market, Google TV SDK and TV Web API.
4. SUMMER 2011: All the project will be published as open source !

Logitech´s Companion Box

THE REMOTES

In my opinion, Remote Controllers are one of the key challenges for Google TV. Technology is mature enough on other aspects of the project to take the leap, but interacting with TVs with a practical control, that´s another story and I would dare to say it could determine the massive adoption on “non-geek” homes. Nintendo Wii controllers were probably the only innovation in this field over the years, but are not at all suitable for the task Google TV proposes.

Logitech is the ally selected by Google, and their proposal, if still not unveiled, mixes a compact keyboard, a remote control and a touchpad. There will be an Android app to use Android smartphones as remote controllers, and Logitech blog also suggest a variety of controllers as shows this image, including a video camera for video-chatting.

THE BEST: ANDROID ON YOUR TV

The best of it all is that Android will not be only in your pocket, but in your living room. Google TV technology is built upon Android. We as Android developers can´t wait to embrace this new concept of applications over 40 inch screens .  There is a Chrome browser too, running on top of Android, to navigate the web and play webapps.

Google TV will come with Netflix, Youtube and Hulu pre-installed, but any Android app not needing phone capabilities should work, in fact Google demoed the actual Pandora mobile app published on Android Market.

SO…

We had high expectations on this year´s Google I/O developer conference, but all have been surpassed. Still analyzing how Android 2.2 has raised the bar for Apple (which worths a separated post) , and now Google TV is coming. And will come to stay. I really believe this is the beginning of a new era. And Sevenclick is in.

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Related links

http://www.google.com/tv/

http://www.google.es/tv/developer/

http://discover.sonystyle.com/internettv/

http://logitech.com/google/GoogleTV

http://blog.logitech.com/2010/05/20/logitechgoogletv/

Yesterday Antena 3 and Vodafone announced the agreement will allow us see Antena3 live from any mobile 3G.

Right now only can deliver the 70% of the total schedule, owing to the fact that sports and foreign series rights are more difficult to get.
But according to the director of Vodafone Spain Internet Service Inañi Cabrera,  we will in the coming months.
So, who were thinking of seeing The Champions League from your mobile 3G, you have to wait.

In addition to this, have added two news channels, Anetena 3 Series and Antena 3 New 24H.

The agreement allows bringing television to all people. Now, you don’t have to stay on home to see TV.

Via Noticiasdot.com

Sharp, has just launched a new mobile TV phone on Japanese market. This model will be available under the name Sharp Aquos 923SH, but only for the subscribers of SoftBank (Japanese mobile operator).

Main features:

• 3.3 inch LCD
• Swiveling display
• TV Mobile (DVB)
• 16.7 million colors
• 480×845 (woouu!!)
• Camera of 5.2 Megapixel with auto focus, flash, face detection, wide-angle capabilities and video recording.
• GPS
• 3G W-CDMA and GSM standard
• Bluetooth
• 135 grams
• 113x50x18.6 millimeters
• Battery should provide up to 350 hours of standby or 4 hours of talk-time.

It’s a pity that this only available in Japan.

Via Gizmovil

Samsung Omnia (model: SGH-i900), the newest handset in a growing series of DivX Certified mobile products by Samsung Electronics Co., LTD.

Probably one of the best iPhone killers, Check it out.

The Samsung Omnia is the first Windows Mobile-based DivX Certified phone on the market and the fourth Samsung mobile to achieve DivX Certification.

It features 8GB/16GB of internal memory with a micro SD slot, allowing users to keep a media library on the device, and easily enjoy their video on a large 3.2-inch touch screen. It also features a TV-Out feature to play back content from the phone directly on the television screen.

DivX technology enables a high-quality media experience in which video content can be transferred from the PC to the mobile environment and beyond.

“As the availability and creation of video content explodes, being able to take videos from the PC on-the-go and from the mobile to the living room is of increasing importance to consumers,” said Kevin Hell, CEO at DivX, Inc. “Samsung has recognized that DivX allows users to do more with their media, and we’re pleased that Samsung has continued to expand DivX certification to their mobile devices.”

Check this hands on videos.

Link: MobileBurn

Motorola and Paramount Pictures are known to be working together in order to offer films adapted to mobile phones. The release date could be end of may, at least in USA.

It´s still not clear how they will organize that service. Offering such type of adapted media should save a lot of broadband compared with other similar services, however it´s said that the media conversions would be performed on our desktops computers.

Via XatakaMovil

Last week we visited Mobile World Congress. I was specially interested to find out if Mobile TV was finally about to take off. As time went by, I realized that this was not a key topic in this year’s congress. Just minor references, no massive adoption by key firms.

Just one week after, 1Seg announces they have reached 20 million users in Japan. 1Seg is a digital mobile service offered not only to mobile phones, but also to handheld consoles, GPS systems, and son on. The service was launched two years ago, on April 1 2006. Among the fantastic features offered by 1Seg is the ability to record video on mobile phones, as long as the broadcasted signal comes without DRM. GREAT!!!!

Another example of the strong differences between oriental and occidental markets…… What a pity.

Via MobileCrunch

Qik is a free utility for Symbian S60 3th edition that allows making video and audio streaming, live from the mobile phone. That is, our mobile phone turns into a mobile TV unit through Internet.

Qik works with a GPRS, 3G or Wifi Internet connection. Videos are automatically stored in FLV format and its broadcasting can be public.

Moreover, with this program, we can share our videos and configure the Qik account to export videos automatically to Twitter.

During live video broadcasting, Qik allows you to maintain a conversation via chat with people who is watching your broadcasting.

At moment, it is only available the alpha version in the website where we can pre-register to obtain the full version.

Via Xataka Móvil

Have you got a 3G or HSDPA mobile with Orange? if you have it, congratulations!! During next 3 months you will be able to see the TV in your mobile for free. Incredible but true!!

Orange Spain is going to test a show chapter on HD quality in the mobile. Orange is showing this experience in SIMO (International Fair of Multimedia Computing and Communications) which is being celebrated this week in Madrid.

With this technology, mobile television is opened to events where the image and sound quality is fundamental to appreciate and enjoy the content’s quality.

During next 3 months, Orange Spain customers who have a 3G or HSDPA of last generation can enjoy this new technology for free. The channels which has been chosen are: MTV (music), National Geographic Channel (documentaries) and Sci Fi Channel (TV serial).

Moreover, Orange has increased the offer of mobile TV channels  exceeding the number of 30. This service is offered by 1 euro per day for 20 minutes or a flat rate tariff of 6 euros per month. The channels of this complete offer are: FOX, Bloomberg TV, Euronews, Paramount Comedy, A3 Mobile, among others.

Via Noticiasdot

Video decoding is one of the most processing intensive task, thus compromising battery life, very important in mobile devices. In the most recent issue of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, researchers at the University of Maryland, describe a simple way for multimedia devices to save power.

The algorithm just take advantage of human tolerance to failure on frames decodification. While much digital vido plays at rates about 30 frames per second, human eye only catch up to 24 frames per second. So, if we miss 6 frames per second on decoding process no one will notice.

Then, researches proposal is not to try all the frames, but only the 24 easier to decode. This way a great saving of power has been reached in first lab experiments.

For sure, many research projects related to the topic of power saving on multimedia decoding will go on. We encourage to read the whole story. And, very important, don’t miss the comments, where this project is harshly criticized.

Via TechnologyReview

Apple’s iPhone and phones with Windows Mobile operating system will be abe to search and see all the videos from Beet.TV using a software that can be downloaded from their mobile web browser.

This service, Vtap, is provided by Veveo; which is currently developing a service upgrade in order to allow some Java based phones (Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson) to use the program.

The potencial of this service is as huge as the amount of videos currently indexed by Beet.TV (tens of millions) but the user experience is best using WiFi rather than AT&T network.

Vtap Official Site: Vtap