While the big whigs at Apple continue to downplay the possibilities of their considerably self-neutered product Apple TV, Google seems to be going full steam ahead with their version of the web on the boob tube. Google TV will be a joint project with Sony and Intel. It will feature a Chrome browser and Intel Atom chips most likely. There are several dozen WebTV set top boxes out there right now, but most of them fail to integrate the web on TV the way a couch potato really wants it. Seamlessly. If there’s any company out there that has the ability to pull this off it’s Google. Picasa, YouTube, Search and even Buzz all have obvious potential on the silver screen. With the right partnerships in place, Google TV has a real chance to revolutionize where Apple TV, Roku, Microsoft, Boxee and others just kind of did their thing without much fanfare.

Google is already beta testing Google TV apparently with Dish Network who is staying quiet about the whole thing.  There is also a rumor that Logitech is producing a remote with a keyboard input on it for the device.

As for the pertinence for our industry, this is an exciting opportunity for content producers, such as you folks reading this, as it poses yet another delivery method for video productions.

Source: New York Times