My Crappy Life | Syed ™

Google TV is almost an afterthought at this point. The service lacks a real differentiating feature to make it a must-have item in your entertainment center, and at least one of Google’s partners decided to stop making set top Google TV boxes because they feel the software is premature. Still, companies such as LG are getting into the game recently, and yesterday Google partnered with Sony to unveil a new Google TV set top box.

This isn’t Sony’s first entrant into the Google TV series; the Japanese conglomerate was an early Google TV advocate, selling TVs with integrated Google TV service since the time the service launched. The next version of Sony Google TV will be special. Not so much for the Google TV service, but for the dual-sided remote control that will be included.

The Remote



The dual-sided remote features the customary TV remote controls on one side, and doubles as a full QWERTY keyboard when flipped over. The result is around the same size as a remote control, as opposed to the full keyboard sized remote on the original Logitech Revue, and the awkward controller on Sony’s original TVs.


The Box



The box is unsurprisingly less interesting, what with it being a big black box and all. The video above shows the box in action, though we’re told the unit was non-working at the demonstration. The box and included remote are set to be released sometime this summer, so we’ll likely be hearing more about it in coming months.

Until then, we’ll try to figure out why we actually need a Google TV at all. Meanwhile, you can watch the Google-Sony event in its entirety in the video below.