Google and Partners Seek TV Foothold (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

The New York Times ^ | March 17, 2010 | Nick Bilton

[abb]

Google and Intel have teamed with Sony to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes.

The move is an effort by Google and Intel to extend their dominance of computing to television, an arena where they have little sway. For Sony, which has struggled to retain a pricing and technological advantage in the competitive TV hardware market, the partnership is an effort to get a leg up on competitors.

The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications, like the Twitter social network and the Picasa photo site, as it is to change the channel.

Some existing televisions and set-top boxes offer access to Web content, but the choice of sites is limited. Google intends to open its TV platform, which is based on its Android operating system for smartphones, to software developers. The company hopes the move will spur the same outpouring of creativity that consumers have seen in applications for cellphones.

Google is expected to deliver a toolkit to outside programmers within the next couple of months, and products based on the software could appear as soon as this summer.

The three companies have tapped Logitech, which specializes in remote controls and computer speakers, for peripheral devices, including a remote with a tiny keyboard.

The project, which has been under way for several months, was described by people with knowledge of it. They requested anonymity because the partners were not allowed to speak publicly at this point, and details remained under negotiation.

Spokesmen for Google, Intel and Logitech declined to comment. A Sony spokesman said he was not familiar with the project. The companies appear to be hiring for Android-related jobs.

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[abb]

"By the end of this decade or shortly thereafter, television networks as we know them today will cease to exist. They will be just another url on the world wide web competing against millions of others."

"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."

Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media observer, blogger and commentator

[abb]

ping

[abb]

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/03/15/daily44.html
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http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-why-are-russians-spending-like-mad-to-save-journalism/
Why Are Russians Spending Like Mad To Save Journalism?

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlLA/newspaper_deathwatch/the_district_weekly_to_close_155461.asp
The District Weekly to Close

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seattlesketcher/2011371731_remembering_the_p-i.html
Remembering the P-I

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2694612
Newspapers still relevant in online age: study

[Slump Tester]

I don't agree with the "Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™" tag here The folks who used to make buggy wheels are out of business.

This makes me think of the Bee Gees singing "Stayin' alive, Stayin' alive"!

[abb]

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=142765
Facebook Will Rule the Web During the Next Decade

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100317/tc_afp/usitcompanyinternetyoutubegoogle
24 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/from-the-fields-internet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
Op-Ed: Why the Internet Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize

http://www.magazinedeathpool.com/magazine_death_pool/2010/03/marked-for-death-essence.html
Marked for Death: Essence

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
Editor & Publisher adds Newsosaur column

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=179885
Salt Lake Tribune cuts Reader Advocate position

[Chode]

[mlocher]

Google is expected to deliver a toolkit to outside programmers within the next couple of months, and products based on the software could appear as soon as this summer.

I would love to seen an app that would shut off the 6PM news!

[daniel1212]

I can see this, not that TV has much of anything at all on it (don’t watch it anyway), but it ought to be easy to do. PC’s with multiple streaming capabilities will allow on PC to broadcast to all TV’s in the house, with remotes to change stations.

Newspapers will be read on large screens, some with subscription services.

Right now a daily FR newspaper could be given out with selected excerpts, if there was a device to scan the links (or codes for them) to the full story and have the PC or laptop go to the sites.

[MovementConservative]

The District Weekly to Close

It may only be a weekly, but it's more trees saved. Us dino media death watchers are staunch environmentalists after all.

[Landru]

Think things are bad now, whatwith our entire communication system controlled by fascists? Just wait'll Google (or is that gobble) gets hold of it with help from their enlightened "partners" (spit). We ain't seen nothin, yet.

We'll fondly recall the days of NBC et al. LOL

[MrEdd]

Who is too stupid to ne able to figure out how to hook the net up to their big HDTV as is?

It is like someone announcing that we will now be able to tell time by looking at our cell phones.