The next round of the Mac vs. PC cool commercial escalating arms race (I know Microsoft is not actually escalating, but I’m going somewhere with this, work with me) may be settled by a Linux box that will locate and play some better TV for you to enjoy.
Revenge of the nerds? For years Linux advocates had sand kicked in their faces by mainstream IT “experts”. “Linux is too nerdy” would run the familiar debate-ending tag line; “Nobody wants to trust their IT to a bunch of bearded, sandal wearing freaks…” And my own recurring favorite,” A lot of important connections were made at the show, while the Linux contingent sat in the corner shooting down aliens on their homemade computers…”
The condescending laughter ended when Google took Linux to the end of the telecommunications chessboard, and promoted that pawn to a queen: Android, Google’s open handset operating system guise of Linux, now runs a continuously increasing market share of smartphones from an increasing spectrum of manufacturers and carriers.
This week, the brash young monarch displayed some fresh powers, by crossing the board again, this time in just one move.
“Here we are folks — the multimillion-channel TV,” said Google project director Rishi Chandra during a two-hour keynote on Google’s Android operating system at the company’s annual I/O conference in San Francisco, California.
The platform will be available at Best Buy in the fall, US-only launch at first. TV watchers can search for content on TV much as we do on the web. And web content is fair game for the this TV offering, as well as DVR. Oh, and of course, TV. The device will be manufactured by Logitech with an Intel 1.2GHz Atom processor, 4GB memory, 802.11n Wi-Fi, dual HDMI-out ports, Dolby 5.1 surround sound and dual USB ports. Since we are in the world of open-source now, you will be able to hook up a webcam for 720p video chat.
With Android apps on your TV you can see a Twitter stream about a TV show scroll by, for example, while watching the show. You can organize your TV content like on Picasa, and for that matter, view your content on Picasa. And who knows what else! Is it possible to improve TV with apps? Philosophers have struggled with this question for ages, we are the first generation to find out.
But Google wins too, and big. “There’s still not a better medium to reach a wider and broader audience than television,” Chandra said.
Worldwide, 4 billion consumers continue to find refuge from the turmoil of information technology by basking in that soothing glow of perfectly connected yet perfectly solitary illumination…
“Videos should be consumed on the biggest, best, brightest screen in your house,” Chandra said. “That’s your TV.”
And it’s not just the biggest home entertainment market. It’s one that is fully and maturely monetized. And stable. Despite all the drama of web video, the spectacular success of YouTube, the Pyrrhic victory of a huge viewer market that no one knows how to monetize, the standards wars that make some phones Flash friendly and others — ahem — less so.., the old standby is still seated across from your sofa, tranquil as a stone Buddha waterfall, a bowl of potato chips in the demilitarized zone; your little living room Switzerland where the rest of the world is denied citizenship under any circumstances, and no matter how violent the programming, peace always reigns in the phosphorescent oasis…
Hi I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC, and though eye to eye we’ll seldom see,
on this for once we both agree: Nothing is cooler than to watch TV!
