With the reinvention of television as a mass media device, it’s not surprising that a lot of top companies are looking to invade the living room. With the new console generation well under way and Amazon announcing its own media device recently, Google have stepped in to offer their contribution to the digital television age.
They’re calling it Android TV and it’s currently being compared to Apple TV and Fire TV (Amazon’s set-top-box). The announcement was made after The Verge managed to obtain documentation of Android TV, which depicts the Google media centre as an “entertainment interface, not a computing platform”.
According to the site, top video app developers are already developing for the system. However, Google are hoping to keep things simple and are urging these companies to “build extremely simple TV apps for an extremely simple set-top-box interface”.
Built on the popular operating system, Android, users will be able to interact with the device using a remote control or via voice-activated features.
Android TV is not the first time the search engine goliaths have attempted to break into the media of television. Back in 2010, the company released Google TV, which received mixed reviews. Some specialists referred to the device as “an incomplete jumble” and “interesting to technophiles, but not for the average people.” It will be interesting to see if Android TV will work in a similar vein to its predecessor, or if it will learn from it.
With an array of multimedia devices currently available on the market, will Google’s Android TV be able to find its feet in an industry that’s potentially in danger of being saturated by other platforms?
Gamer Headlines will be keeping an eye on any further developments. In the meantime, don’t forget to add us on Twitter for more news.