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Google TV is becoming Android TV. Having comprehensively failed to set the world’s living rooms alight, Google’s goggle box is being rebranded to Android TV after the success of the Chromecast.
You could be forgiven for not knowing — or for having forgotten — Google TV exists. Remember the Kevin Bacon advert? No, not that one, the other one. Anyway, it’s an online-connected TV system that’s been kicking around for three years, finding its way into the odd Sony set-top box, or LG TV or Logitech kit but not many actual homes, a failure that cost Logitech millions.
Despite that, Google still wants to get into tellies: Google software powers both the new
Sony Smart Stick and Google’s own Chromecast, a brace of new USB sticks that plug into a TV or set-top box and give you access to the Internet while you watch television.
As Google prepares to unveil Android 4.4 KitKat — perhaps as soon as next week — Google TV is still languishing on the positively ancient Android 3.2. But the system may have been given a shot in the arm by boffo business for the cheap and cheerful Chromecast in the US, and with an update to more recent Android on the cards Google may well see the rebranding as a reinvigoration of efforts to take over your TV.
Can Google offer something that Sky, Virgin, Sony and the rest of the smart TV world can’t? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or flip the channel to our Facebook page.
