Sony outs Google TV set-top box
Android for your telly
Update Sony's Google TV-based set-top box will go on sale next month.
The NSZ-GS7 will be available to buy on 16 July. A version with a built-in Blu-ray player, the NSZ-GS9, will go on sale later in the year, Sony said, though it will arrive in the US first.
News of a European launch leaked in April in a report which claimed - and has now been confirmed by Sony - that the two boxes run the Android operating system.
As such, the box will be supported by Google Play, with the bundled set of apps - for the usual Google content services, YouTube and Picasa, and the social networks Facebook and Twitter - being added to over time with other TV-centric utilities, games and such.
Sony hasn't yet said how much the GS7 will cost, though it will begin taking advance orders later today, and will announce pricing then. We've just heard back from Sony: the price is £199, though retailers will be free to charge what they like.
Hopefully, it will be priced to avoid becoming the flop that the first Google TV set-top box, Logitech's Revue, proved to be. Logitech wanted $300 (£193) for Revue and at that point had no access to apps.
And Sony has a new, novel remote that sports a touchscreen on one sides and a Qwerty keyboard on the other. The box itself has HDMI for TV output, plus 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi and Ethernet for networking. There are two USB ports for hooking up external content storage.
The box will also tap into DLNA servers too, Sony said, but that will require a release TBC firmware update. ®
The GS9 has as built-in Blu-ray player
COMMENTS
Tjis us an anazung drvice!
-- Sent from my Sony NSZ-GS7 Google TV box
DLNA Player
It comes with a free DLNA app already installed
These companies just don't get it though do they? First Microsoft then Apple and now Google none of them have improved the TV viewing experience at all
Sir
It doesn't look like there's any way to hold that remote without pressing buttons.
£199?
I can't believe Sony seriously priced this higher than a PS3.
Expensive when Apple product is half this price!
When the competing Apple product is half the price then you know your doing something wrong.
When you make a product that can play bluerays and is more expensive than a more functional product that is over 5 years old made by the same manufacturer - then you know your doing something wrong.
Why are google releasing a product that is overpriced and will only be reduced to a application in the app market for everybodies old android phones with there HDMI and HD quality streaming abilities they will have in a year or so's time in ther sock draws.
If this was a USB stick I could plug into a xbox or a playstation of even a wii, then it would appeal, but would have to be cheaper. But it's not and in that it is expensive compared to anything remotely comparable. This makes me a sad panda and woudl iek to see the teardown on this kit so as the profit margin can be pointed at.
Sadly wont sell, we all know this given the price and will be given away with Sony TV's in a years time as a way to clear out stock.
So if you want one, wait until xmas when they will be way cheaper as nobody brought them.
