Google’s I/O Developer Conference featured some interesting news about an Android@Home home control offering, but the Internet giant also offered a glimpse at a coming upgrade to its much-maligned Google TV platform. The update includes the Android 3.1 Honeycomb software, as well as new features and support for the Android Market app store.
NewTeeVee has more on the interface features:
“The Google TV user interface is a huge step forward from the software that was released last year. Software engineer Jason Bayer said the new look and feel comes as a result of some tweaking of Google TV, including optimization to simplify the user interface. “We cut out a lot of unnecessary features and want to get people straight to their applications,” Bayer said.
Should we call this an upgrade or a revamp? How about just a better product overall than Google first came to market with last year? Among other updates, the Android Market functionality was curiously and frustratingly not part of the earlier version, but could be the biggest key for Google to be successful in the TV services sector. Though, it still has some catching-up to do.