That’s right, Google TV still exists and companies are continuing to put money into the product. LG seems to be the leader at this point, already announcing that they have two new TV models (GA7900 and GA6400) with Google TV to show off at CES (pictured above).

Sporting dual-core processors, the OnLive app for cloud gaming, a thinner bezel, fancy new stand, and what appears to be a custom version of Google TV, LG is hoping their intuitive user experience at various sizes can meet more consumers’ demands.

No pricing information was given. 

The Google TV teamed announced that new update is headed to GTV units in the near future. The update is the first to introduce Voice Search to Google TV, allowing you to easily switch channels by speaking their names, find how-to videos on YouTube, or even search for general terms like “football highlights.” They also updated their content-finding system and are calling it PrimeTime. With this new version, you can sort through recommended or favorite movie and TV titles without having to leave your current show. No longer do you have to sift through pages and pages of content while missing what you were already watching. And last, the new YouTube app update that was released yesterday, makes syncing videos between your mobile device and TV easier than ever.

The update will rollout to LG devices this week. The rest of the lot won’t see the update for a bit. The Logitech Revue and original Sony GTV devices will likely not see Voice Search. 

If you are headed to Google I/O, you will be excited to learn that there is a new update to the official application that took place in Google Play last night. The update, targeted at people who will attend the event this year, includes new push notifications to receive “announcements and the conference schedule from the Google I/O team,” along with the ability to view the whole conference’s agenda. If you plan to watch the conference from home, the application can now be installed to your Google TV and supports full live streams of the conference through it.

Other than a few bug fixes throughout the application, the last update in the changelog is a little bit of a cute mystery:

[The update] Improves spacetime decompression algorithms; 29 total hours per day are now available to Google I/O attendees within Moscone West.

It could be Google being their normal slightly-geeky selves or they could be hinting towards something we’ll be hearing about at I/O. Well, we don’t have to wait much longer. Go grab the update from Google Play now.

Play Link

When Google announced that the new Google Play Store would start to roll out in the coming days and weeks, we weren’t sure which devices would see it first. I think it’s safe to say that Google TV units are the lucky ones, as my Blu-Ray version updated the minute I powered it on and opened the Market. From a GTV perspective, not much has changed other than the new logo and some coloring. 

A couple of weeks ago, a root exploit for the Sony Google TV units was finally discovered, giving a bit of life to a platform that even after Honeycomb, has yet to attract a wide audience. When it comes to rooting though, it’s a constant battle between devs and manufacturers who think that security is of the utmost importance. And rightfully so, rooting an Android device can be a bit troublesome to those that have no idea why they are performing such a task. What I’m trying to get at, is the fact that a new update has begun to push to some units that is thought to be a security fix to patch the previously mentioned rooting method.

One of our readers received it this morning, however, my Blu-Ray unit is showing that it is up-to-date. Rumor has it that the update will pop up for everyone starting Monday and will prevent you from rolling back your recovery and OS to the vulnerable version that can be rooted.

So if you want root on your Sony Google TV unit, better do it now before it is patched forever.

More at GTV Hacker.

Cheers IgotGAME and BostonB!

Owners of a Sony Google TV unit, you have root! It has been quite the wait, but with 4 USB sticks and a bit of GTV know-how, you can prepare your device for custom kernels within minutes. Actually, it’s not that simple, but it is also not the most difficult root solution ever created. It does involve flashing your system back to a vulnerable software release which then hijacks the upgrade back to a current version to give you a new kernel and root access. That was a mouthful.

Here is the list of goodies you will have after completing:

• Modified flash plugin with random per box flash string for Content Provider Bypass.
• Crippled update feature to prevent box from receiving automatic updates.
• Completely RW system, cache, and rootfs partitions
• Full ADB Root
• Removed signature checks on kernel / init scripts / init binary
• A few other surprises.
• BETA: Enable NTFS Support for Sony Google TV devices

Worth it? Hit up the source for full instructions.

Via:  GTV Hacker

Cheers BostonB and Jigga_Z!

Over the weekend, the Google TV team mentioned via Facebook (of all places) that there were “big” announcements coming today. And then last night, they posted to their blog that a decent-sized Youtube update was in the works, which we are all assuming is the “big” announcement. And not that we are disappointed by this because the screenshots of it look fantastic, but “big” just seemed like it would be more. Anyways, jump past the break to see what you will soon enjoy. 

Facebook, such a great outlet for making Google announcements…errr. Anyways, the Google TV Facebook page has come forth to announce that there will be big Google TV announcements tomorrow. No other details were given and to tell you the truth, we haven’t a clue as to what we might see or hear. A new update? Something that has to do with this rumored Google home entertainment device? A new partner?

Via:  Facebook, The Verge