Google is getting close to releasing a major update to its Google TV operating system that will add features from Google"s Android 3.0, or Honeycomb, mobile OS. GigaOM reports that the Android Marketplace already has apps available for download that are made specifically for the new version of Google TV. The apps include a number of news-based programs such as CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, CNN and more.
Other new Google TV apps in the Android Marketplace include one that streams content from other PCs to Google TV-based systems. Yet another app can display text messages and caller IDs from an Android-based phone onto the television. The new version is expected to be released by the end of September.
Google TV launched about a year ago but so far only two hardware companies that have embraced it. One is Sony, who have put Google TV inside three models of its Bravia TV line. The other is Logitech, which created the Revue set-top box with the operating system inside. Earlier this summer, Logitech cut the price of the Revue from $249 down to just $99. Last August, Google released an SDK that allows Android based developers to make programs for Google TV.
So far Google hasn"t announced any additional hardware partners for Google TV, although its executive chairman Eric Schmidt recently said that Google TV will debut in Europe sometime in 2012, and that more companies will release Google TV-based products in the future. He added, "We"re absolutely committed to staying, to improving Google TV."