Sony to announce Google TV products on Oct. 12

Google TV, announced back in May, will soon be getting a lot more attention. Sony is holding a special event on October 12 to show off Google TV products. They are expected to announce new Bravia TVs with Google TV built in, as well as some Blu-ray players with Google TV.

To recap, Google TV is a system that can either be built into a TV, Blu-ray player, etc. or purchased as a stand-alone box, like Logitech is doing. The system promises to unite all of your various TV viewing sources, including cable/satellite, Hulu, Amazon, Youtube, etc. into one easily searchable interface. Check out this video showing how the system works:






The coolest, and potentially game-changing part is that Google TV is powered by Android. You may have noticed that searches in the video above were not only showing results from the web, but were also showing apps. Google TV devices will be able to use almost all of the 80,000+ Android apps currently available. As long as the app doesn't require phone-specific hardware (like GPS, camera, etc), it will work with Google TV.

This is very different from the way the Apple TV works, which is a very closed system that only allows watching via purchased content, and doesn't support apps. [via Engadget]

It remains to be seen how the public will take to Google TV. Products like the Logitech Revue are likely going to be too expensive for the average consumer, but if Google TV comes pre-loaded on Blu-ray playeres and new TVs, then it could definitely catch on. Netflix has done an amazing job integrating itself into almost every TV-connected device out there, and they've gained millions of new customers as a result. If Google can do the same thing, then it will really take off.

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I honestly don't know how much I would use something like this. If I bought a TV that included it, I might use it occasionally, but I really doubt I would go out and buy a separate box for this. This could be useful if you already do a lot of TV watching online. I think this would be amazing if it combined all of these search functions with actual media center/DVR capabilities.