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. 

LG TO SHOWCASE TWO NEW MODELS FEATURING GOOGLE TV AT CES 2013

ExpandedSmart Google TV Lineup from LG Provides the Most User-friendly Wayto Search and Discover Amazing Content

SEOUL, Dec. 24, 2012 – LG Electronics (LG) will introduce an extended Google TV lineup at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. LG’s new models GA7900 and GA6400 deliver an outstandingly intuitive user experience at various sizes and new design to meet more consumers’ expectations.

Google’s latest platform and LG’s redesigned Magic Remote Qwerty work together to enhance the effectiveness of Voice Search and the PrimeTime quick guide. The updated Smart Home also adds to the user experience by offering convenient, streamlined access to VoD, YouTube and more apps. Discovering exciting new content from the rich pool of choices available on LG Google TV has never been easier. Additionally, the premium model will incorporate LG’s advanced CINEMA SCREEN design for an undeniably
sleek and modern finish.

“LG is committed to providing diverse home entertainment options that offer the most satisfying user experience and the latest LG Smart TVs with Google TV do just that,” said Havis Kwon, President and CEO of the LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. “They deliver a stellar user experience by merging the latest Google TV platform with LG’s proven Smart TV technology. The result is a comprehensive system that is groundbreaking in its simplicity.”

LG Google TV aims to redefine the user experience. The platform offers the ease of use that recalls the simplicity of earlier television sets. The new Smart Home offers varied types of “cards” that act as folders for apps and other content. The new My Interest Card can even display useful information including real-time weather and customizable news.

The entire user interface can be navigated using the redesigned Magic Remote Qwerty, which combines a complete keyboard with the convenient benefits of the Magic Remote’s point-and-click control. The enhanced natural language recognition incorporated in the revamped remote is a perfect match with Google’s outstanding search functionality. The overall voice-based capabilities multiply the effectiveness of the PrimeTime quick guide to provide an unparalleled user experience and make browsing through the more than 100,000 available movies and TV episodes on LG Google TV a breeze.

LG Smart TV’s dual core CPU enables easy menu navigation, fast internet browsing and video streaming. The additional processor power allows the TruPicture XD Engine to process images quickly and precisely, resulting in richer colors, deeper contrast and greater overall picture clarity.

And LG has applied its advanced CINEMA SCREEN design to the premium model to offer a sleek, modern look. This design further minimizes width of the bezel, giving the TV a streamlined appearance while creating the impression of a borderless display. Along with the LG Google TV’s unique stand design, it integrates perfectly with interior design of a living room.

The LG Smart TV with Google TV offers superb connectivity options and can connect to a variety of devices wirelessly. With the latest YouTube app update for Android, smartphones and tablets can be automatically paired with Google TV over the same home network via Wi-Fi, making it easy to send videos from your device to your TV.

Gamers will be pleased to know that LG Google TV will offer the OnLive® app pre-installed, which transforms the TV into an incredible gaming platform without a console. The app makes hundreds of high quality video games available instantly from the cloud. Also offering CINEMA 3D TV functionality, the LG Google TV employs FPR technology to give movie buffs and gamers a great 3D effect without the distracting flicker.

# # #

LG to Introduce Two New Google TV Models at CES is a post from: Droid Life

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. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via:  Google TV Blog

New Google TV Update Introduces Voice Search to Your TV, PrimeTime Guide to Easily Find Content is a post from: Droid Life

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

Google I/O App Receives Huge Update – Push Notifications, Google TV Support and Full Agenda Now Ready to Go is a post from: Droid Life

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. 

Cheers Chris!

Google Play Store Update Already Arriving on Google TV Sets is a post from: Droid Life

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!

Sony Google TV Update Rolling Out, Thought to be a Security Patch for Root Method is a post from: Droid Life

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!

Sony Google TV has Finally Been Rooted. is a post from: Droid Life

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. 

What do you get with the new YouTube?

• Overall, works faster with smoother navigation
• New feature called “Discover” was added. Allows you to browse by categories.
• New channel pages
• See related videos in channels and more videos by the same user

Via:  Google TV Blog

Google TV’s Big Announcement is Another Youtube Overhaul? is a post from: Droid Life

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

Big Google TV Announcements Coming Tomorrow is a post from: Droid Life

I fired up my Sony Blu-ray Google TV tonight and was surprised to see an update available. It’s a decent size at almost 260MB, bringing with it performance enhancements and the ability to play 3D discs.

If you are not prompted to update, head into System Settings>About>System updates and pull it manually.

Google TV Update Available for Sony Blu-ray Player, Chrome Enhancements and 3D Disc Playback Included is a post from: Droid Life

Over the holiday weekend, I had a small budget to buy a new TV for my bedroom and maybe a cool something else to go with it. (Was thinking PS3?) I was budgeted to spend under $500 and I wasn’t really sure what I wanted but I know I definitely wanted a TV with WIFI and it had to be able to stream Netflix as well as some media off my network. To get the biggest bang for my buck, I was looking at a no frills 37” HDTV with a higher end BluRay player with wifi. As luck would have it, right when I thought I figured it all out, I saw a pile of Sony BluRay Players with Google TV built-in, for $199 each. I dropped the ‘SMART’ player player I had and headed to cash out. All in all, I spent right around $475 for the TV and the unit. Not bad for what has now basically become a smart TV with a WiFi  BluRay player.

When I got home, I unpacked and hooked up my new toys and it took me about ten minutes to set everything up and get it running. The longest part of the setup was the software update to Honeycomb for the player. It came with a qwerty remote, which I love, and the remote also doubles as a true universal remote. Aside from the full keyboard, the remote also has a touch sensitive cursor to fully navigate the screen like a mouse on a desktop. My only complaint with the remote is a lack of backlight. As far as the BluRay player goes, it runs great and I will leave it at that. It is a Sony, it is BluRay (their invention), it plays great. End of review for the BluRay portion. 

The Google TV portion of the player literally brings the term “smart-tv” to life. Now we all know that Samsung has a line of “SMART” TVs, and every other company out there has some “wifi enabled” options built in them, but those features are not even in the same realm as Google TV. Comparing those to Google TV is like comparing a Palm Treo to a Galaxy Nexus. (Nice name drop huh?) That may sound extreme, but it doesn’t take long to realize this is the truth. In my configuration, adding Google TV to a standard HDTV was literally like implanting a brain into the TV. In some aspects, it reminds me of the old PC days whereas the TV has become just a monitor again. Following a spent with this device hooked up in my bedroom, it only seemed fitting that I purchase another unit for our main entertainment center before the sale ended, which I did. My plasma in the living room was quite the opposite of the TV in my bedroom and I purchased it only 6 months ago. Unfortunately I paid extra to have a “wifi enabled” tv with apps on board and I only say unfortunate, because those apps and features will never be used again now that Android has taken a firm position in my living room. Unlike video game systems, you don’t just go back to older versions of windows on you PC to re-live the nostalgia. For me, I won’t be going back to the pre-installed junk on my plasma just for fun. It is with a sad bit irony that I can state, my 6 month old smart tv has become obsolete due to a product produced well over a year old. Figure that one out.

So what is it that is so great about Google TV? Where is all the magic in this little box? How did I fall in love with it? Google TV is so much more than just adding a browser to a TV with some hokey apps, much more. I am reminded of back in the day when they first added the interactive guide to cable? For you Gen Y and whatever, younger people since then, we used to have to purchase a TV guide or go to a special channel to see what was upcoming on cable back in the day, there was no interactive guide. Before you ask why we didn’t just use the web, it was because we couldn’t constantly tie up the phone line just to check AOL and Netscape, but let’s keep this story on track. The guide used to just scroll endlessly with an infomercial in the upper corner selling a 50 pack of hunting knives, or whatever, while you waited for your favorite channels to scroll by. If you missed your channel, you had to sit through all 700 channels again or you could just start surfing. Well, at some point, in the late 90s I think, our cable boxes got smarter and they added an interactive guide to them. (This time also marked the death of the little black boxes when everything went digital.) The guide was a huge step forward and while may not seem like a revolutionary thing now, take yours away and you will see how handicapped our cable boxes used to be. It is in this same fashion that Google is going to make its way into our living rooms. Google TV adds a diverse amount of function to everything I have in my entertainment center and it seems very natural in its place with my other components. When using the device, it is almost like adding a perfect functioning skin onto your basic TV. I have come to realize that this is what Blur, Whiz, and Sense are all trying to do. I said trying. keep up with me.) Google TV changes things from just letting me watch my TV, to actually using my TV. From the customizable wallpaper and app drawer, all the way down to the way it communicates with my cable box, receiver, TV, and home server, the integration is seamless.

It also happens to be user friendly for all levels. Using a media player connected to my TV that has every codec known to man, all the way to a search engine that finds what I want to watch by searching live TV, future TV, Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube, the Web, and even Google Rentals, there is never an excuse for not being able to find my favorite shows. For something that just was opened to the market a few months ago, there is enough to keep you entertained and informed for now and I find myself not spending as much time with the browser as I initially thought I would. I have a tablet and laptop better suited for surfing the net and when it comes time to share on the big-screen, the Chrome to TV plug-in will really shine. In addition to the Chrome to TV plug-in, all android devices have various remote apps and several other items that make their use even more fun in the experience of it all.

In the short weeks I have owned my Google TV, I have not only grown to use it constantly, I truly have come to love it. It reminds me of the Christmas season just two years ago when my Verizon upgrade date was up on my Palm Treo and I had been following a small movement for a new line of smart-phones running off a new operating system made by Google. The search engine guys?!? I took the plunge and bought myself a Motorola Droid because the commercials and the web compelled me so much. (I even ponied up and got my wife an Eris. ha! Old joke if you are an OG D1 guy.) I really didn’t know what to expect from my Droid but I wanted to be “wowwed.” It was less than 24 hours later that I was officially at that state. I then began an endless pursuit to find out what I could do with this device and many nights were spent poking into forums and through youtube videos rooting, romming, and bricking my phone over and over again. (God I loved SBF.) Those old phone days are long gone but my new Google TV is giving me this same type of experience all over again. Just like in the beginning, I am still spending countless hours tinkering, reading and tweaking to get that
perfect experience. With a broader adoption of Google TV on the horizon, I can’t wait to see what unfolds.

Almost forgot to mention, I still haven’t bought a BluRay disk yet, not that anyone in my house has noticed.

This was a guest post written by DL reader Pakman2k.

How I Fell in Love with a Sony BluRay Player with Google TV [Opinion] is a post from: Droid Life

Who said Google TV was a dead platform? After launching a major Honeycomb update a few months back, Google is ready to re-launch its TV product again this year at CES by adding on a handful of new and important partners. With more than 150 specific TV apps already available and improvements happening all the time, companies like Samsung, LG and Vizio have jumped on board and will start releasing Google TV products in 2012. Many of them will also have products on display next week at CES, a boost the platform is desperately in need of.

Here is what you can expect to see from these new partners next week and throughout the year:

• LG – We’re thrilled to welcome global consumer electronics leader LG to the Google TV family. LG will showcase a new line of TVs powered by Google TV running on their own L9 chipset at CES.

• Marvell – Also new to the Google TV family this year is Marvell, an innovative worldwide leader in chipsets. Marvell will be showcasing a new generation of Google TV solutions which will help bring more products across more price points to consumers.

• MediaTek – We’re also excited to partner with MediaTek, the leading Taiwanese chipset designer. MediaTek chipsets will power yet another wave of Google TV devices.

• Samsung – We’re excited to work closely with Samsung to bring Google-TV powered Samsung devices to market in 2012.

• Sony – We’re happy to build on our partnership with Sony. At CES, Sony will unveil new devices for the US and plans to offer Google TV powered products in several countries around the world in 2012.

• Vizio – Last year we announced our partnership with Vizio at CES. This year we’re excited to join Vizio as they hold private demos at CES showcasing their new line of Google TV-powered products.

Can Google TV make it this time around? With big time partners like these, I’d say they stand a chance.

Via:  Google TV Blog

Google Announces Google TV Partners For 2012 CES – Samsung, LG and Vizio Included is a post from: Droid Life

Logitech Revue owners may have a hard time believing this, but according to Logitech’s blog, the Honeycomb update will roll out to units starting this week. After what seems like almost a year of waiting, everyone with some sort of Google TV product will finally have the Android Market, apps, and a completely new experience on a product that got off to a pretty rocky start.

There doesn’t appear to be a way to force the update, but you can check as many times as you’d like in your Settings panel.

To see an overview of what you can expect with this update, check out this highlight post. Then be sure to check out our hands-on walk-through of it here.

Via:  Logitech, Google

Logitech Revue Honeycomb Update Rolling Out This Week is a post from: Droid Life

Since Google TV was updated to Honeycomb a couple of weeks back, their team promised to continue to produce updates that would enhance the experience. They appear to be living up to that promise as an update popped onto my Sony GTV box last night, bringing with it new YouTube and Photos apps. If the GTV team can produce new and useful features like this on a monthly basis, they’ll have at least one happy customer.  

YouTube App

Seems a little odd that the YouTube app would receive a complete makeover in such a short time, but we’ll take it. In this new version, you get playlists from your couch, subscription management, and the ability to add movies to your own channel.

New Photos App

I’ll admit that I had yet to play with the photo app before this update, so it’s tough to tell if the UI has changed or not. Google is telling us that they added a featured called “Discover” that pulls from your synced photo albums on Picasa and Flickr to create an animated and constantly changing collage. I’ve captured a collage in the making in the photo directly above.

Sorry Logitech Revue owners, still no word on when you will see any of these updates.

Via:  Google TV Blog

Quick Look at the New Youtube and Photos Apps for Google TV, Update Pushed Last Night is a post from: Droid Life

The Google TV team wasn’t about to let their newly released Honeycomb build for Sony GTV units miss out on all of the Google Music action from yesterday. An official Music app is now available in the Android Market for TVs, rounding out the access to your music collection. If you were looking forward to having Google Music become a part of your home theater system and HD TV, the time has come.

The app itself is just like the version that you all have on your phones now, but matches up more closely to the visual style of Honeycomb. Once you attach your Gmail account to it, you can cruise through all of your albums, jump into playlists, search for favorite artists, “thumbs up” songs, and more.  

You can read more about this release at the official GTV blog.

Cheers Jason!

Quick Look at the Google Music App for GoogleTV is a post from: Droid Life

The Honeycomb update for Google TV started rolling out to Sony TV units on Monday and is just now popping up for Blu-Ray units. Since we have the Blu-Ray version, we are just getting to it and wanted to toss out this quick gallery of some of the first things we noticed. So far, this update looks like it may blow past most of our expectations. In just a couple of minutes with HC for my TV, I can easily say that it has become useful for the first time in months. Things like the “TV and Movies” app and Android Market are essentially game changers in my opinion.

Jump on past the break to see what’s new. 

(Click all images for larger versions)

Apps and Home Screen

Whenever you press the “Home” button on your remote now, you get to the image on the left. It’s a quick shortcut menu of sorts that lets you jump into some of the more popular apps like “TV and Movies,” Netflix, the Market, and Chrome. With a simple click though, you can jump right into your entire app drawer. Everything is easily accessible in Honeycomb.

Market

Ahhh the Android Market on your TV. Does it get better than this? So far, there are just a handful of apps that I have had zero chance to explore, but can say that installation, search, and launching of them is super easy. It’s just like the market on your tablet or phone, but with a black background. One cool thing I noticed, was when you click install and jump out of the market, you get a notification progress bar on screen until it is done.

TV and Movies

Favorite feature by far. “TV and Movies” makes it ultra-easy to find your favorite shows and movies, tells you when they are own, and even lets you watch them instantly through things like Amazon and YouTube. You know if they are showing in HD, get to see descriptions of each episode, and can sort by category (comedy, drama, etc.)

YouTube

YouTube was given a massive makeover. Simple searches, new on-screen controls, HD sorting, and so much more were added.

Browser

Haven’t found a ton of differences in the browser, but will have to assume that it’s at least stable unlike the previous versions. New menus give you more options to tweak and play with, and my settings from pre-Honeycomb all seem to have been carried over (bookmarks being the big one).

Notifications

When apps are installed, your newly introduced inbox is filled with a notification for it. From the “Home” screen, you can access your notifications in the far left corner along with your most recently used apps.

I’ll have much more time tonight to dig deeper into this latest update, but so far am very impressed. The hardware side of things could use an upgrade and I would not call it “fast” by any means. Hopefully the GTV team has made enough software tweaks to make that a non-issue.

Google TV Honeycomb Update Quick Walk-Through is a post from: Droid Life