You may or may not have heard, but Google is getting close to releasing a new product: the Google TV.
[insert random photo of an old television with the Google logo stamped on it]
It’s a television that has a computer built into it, presumably running the Google Android OS. They’re partnering with Intel to handle the chipset, Sony to handle the TV development (and production?) itself and Logitech to handle the peripherals (Mice, QWERTY keyboards, speakers, etc.). The Sony bit is interesting, and a good move on Sony’s part, as many have already commented on Sony’s slowing development in the Television industry.
All in all, this sounds like a pretty slick development, though I’m concerned about my beloved PC. A post over at Gadget Lab brings up a good point that if you have a computer in your TV and one of the myriad smart phones or new tablets, why would you ever need a personal computer? If you’re a PC gamer, you’ve already noticed a steady trend of game publishers creating more and more games exclusively for consoles such as the XBox or PS3. It allows game developers to max out the graphics without having to optimize it for lower-end PCs (not everyone can afford the hardware for a beefcake PC), and it reduces losses to pirating in the Great Computer Game Sea.
I’m saddened because I love my PC. I take care of it, and it takes care of me (get your mind out of the gutter). To see it slowly but surely lose all it’s supporters, those old friends that had brought it so high in years before, is a damn shame. While it’s certainly not the end of desktops or laptops altogether, which will still be superior for design and development for the foreseeable future, it could mean that publishers across the board, not just gaming companies, may start putting less effort into software development for your desktop or laptop, focusing instead on all these wonderful new toys.
What I find funny is that we’re basically reverting back to older times, but with better tech. The whole reason PCs (whatever OS you use) became so big was because they brought together all that amazing computing power to everything you needed, eventually pulling almost everything you could ever need, technologically speaking, into one relatively compact machine. Hell, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that people were all excited about being able to watch actual television on their computers. Now, we’re fragmenting the personal computer into smaller, more digestible parts. Your gaming is handled by your consoles, your movies and television are handled by the tv itself, and you can do all your internet browsing, text editing, and play with what will probably be a host of other great applications, through the Google aspect of your TV (Google is also releasing a set of top boxes that can bring the power of the Google TV to your preexisting television). Your mobile needs are handled by your smartphone or tablet, which are slowly becoming little super computers by themselves.
I was talking to someone about this, and they said “Yeah, but eventually they’ll manage to cram all of that into the TV itself, and it’ll handle all of the gaming TV, movies and application interaction you’d need.” To which I replied “Aren’t we taking a hammer to something that’s already doing that?”
Posted by Ben Paddock