索尼多款多媒体新品面世，Google TV仍需期待

索尼日前在其总部首次展出了其多媒体新产品：包括带三维扫描全景模式的数码相机系列、带LED背光的立体LCD电视一族、基于Android的Xperia智能手机、支持电视接入“围墙花园(walled garden：一种控制用户对网页内容和服务进行访问的环境)”互联网视频服务的小型机顶盒(Netbox)等。但谷歌电视的缺席却很扎眼。

当然，我们要公平。谷歌电视原定于“今秋”推出的，现在也才过八月。

我们接着看。www.stuffwelike.com的博客因率先透露出谷歌电视的若干细节花絮从而领先于其它媒体。这是可能的，因为与在其它所有场合一样——谷歌在上月底于圣地亚哥举行的动漫展(Comic-Con——漫画书和流行艺术大会)上就力推其谷歌电视。所以，受邀的媒体希望从索尼这里得到有关谷歌电视的一些消息难道不合理吗？

谷歌一直与如下公司进行一些合作：与索尼就电视机和蓝光DVD与谷歌电视的整合；与罗技就在普通电视上增加谷歌电视功能；以及与其它公司的合作，如与Dish Network就整合DVR与谷歌电视的合作。

这是否意味着其它厂商会击败索尼，率先推出支持谷歌电视的产品？就这个冒昧的问题，索尼的电视营销产品经理Michael Patton答道：“索尼与谷歌已经合作几个月了。硬件也许也已到位，但我可以向你们保证，谷歌电视软件还没最后完成。”

作为网络电视的长期怀疑者(有时，我很遗憾自己在这个行业工作太久，以致记不清过去业界与此有关的所有那些失败了)，我一直在努力说服自己谷歌电视真的具有魅力。

但Patton让我明白了一件事。“谷歌是家搜索引擎公司，对不对？”他说，“谷歌电视会让你搜到你希望在电视上搜到的东西。”

简言之，谷歌电视所做的根本就不是把互联网引入电视。它是使电视具有搜索功能。

这意味着，在理论上，无论是直播电视、在线视频、播客或DVR内容，我都可以——迅速且毫不费力地——找到我眼下想看的。而这些内容的所在则无关紧要。

现在，这听起来很酷。

但我不知道谷歌电视(如罗技推出的新的谷歌电视机顶盒)会怎样无缝地与我家里已有的电器对接，包括我的：Cablevision机顶盒、DVD播放器(非蓝光)、液晶电视以及家中的MAC。当然，很有可能它们就是无法协同工作，因为我的这些“旧”对象没有Wi-Fi，除了MAC(虽然都是在过去3年内所买！)，且在未来惊心动魄的“家庭网络”愿景下，并没有其它办法将它们数字地连接起来。

我的问题并不止此。为使我下一台DVR支持谷歌电视，你觉得我家的有线电视运营商何时会与谷歌坐下来谈？好吧，让我们满怀希望。

不过，我们得承认，谷歌电视的确朝着正确的方向迈出了一步：它侧重的是我们许多人非常想要的功能——如万能搜索。

点击进入第二页：索尼的“新鲜货”

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另一方面，索尼的Netbox属于与谷歌电视完全不同的产品类别。是的，这个小机顶盒允许你的电视连接到索尼的Bravia互联网视频，包括：Crackle、YouTube、Netflix及其它一些。但它的“使命”是使电视能享有互联网上由“围墙花园”提供的音视频服务内容。其设计初衷并非是让你在万维网上恣意纵横、猎奇争艳。若你能到手一台的话，它会是件相当有用的玩意。

索尼还展示了一系列名为Xperia的索-爱Android手机，现在已经可以在美国通过AT＆T的渠道买到。Xperia用户可通过Android Market(相当于苹果的App Store)下载包括不同类型的键盘、桌面界面、甚至蓝光光盘遥控器等应用程序。

索尼的信息技术产品事业部经理Steve Medina表示，一旦将“遥控器”下载到手机内(这是个免费应用程序)，你的手机就变身为索尼蓝光播放器或电视机的遥控装置。

由于它是基于Wi-Fi、而不是红外线的，所以其工作不要求视域环境。换句话说，我可在隔壁房间将我老公在客厅的平板电视上正收看的波士顿红袜队(Boston Red Sox)的比赛调换为用蓝光播放器播放的我最喜爱的诸如“我表哥维尼(My Cousin Vinny)”等影片。

当然，我忘了。我们没有可由Android手机控制的索尼蓝光播放器。我也没有可施控的Android手机。但又有啥关系，我可以梦想，不是吗？

点击进入参考原文：My solar-powered driveway lights are a nice, cheap, science project, by Bill Schweber

《电子工程专辑》网站版权所有，谢绝转载

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Sony: 3-D sweep, Wi-Fi remote, netbox but still no Google TV

by Junko Yoshida

Sony opened on Broadway Wednesday (Aug. 25) but left Barbra Streisand – Google TV, that is – backstage.

Sony's media spectacle, at its headquarters, debuted a host of new products including a series of digital cameras with 3-D sweep panorama mode; a new lineup of 3-D LCD TVs with LED backlighting; Android-based Xperia smartphones; Netbox, a small set-top to enable your TV to get connected with walled garden Internet video services; and more. But conspicuously absent was Google TV.

Of course, let's be fair. Google TV is scheduled for launch "this fall," and this is still August.

But come on. The blog StuffWeLike had already scooped the rest of the media by showing snippets of what Google TV does. This was possible because Google demonstrated it late last month at -- among all places -- Comic-Con, a comic book and popular arts convention held in San Diego.

So, wasn't it reasonable for the invited media to expect something from Sony about Google TV?

Google has been working with Sony (TV sets and Blu-ray integrated with Google TV), Logitech (Google TV add-on for regular TVs) and other partners such as Dish Network (Google TV-integrated DVR).

Does this mean other vendors could beat Sony, coming out with Google TV-enabled gadgets first? To this impertinent question, Michael Patton, Sony's TV marketing product manager, said, "Sony has been working with Google for months. Hardware may be ready, but I can assure you that Google TV software isn't."

As a long-time skeptic of Internet TV (sometimes I regret I've been in this business too long to remember all the failed efforts in the past), I've been struggling to "get" the allure of Google TV.

Sony's Patton, however, clarified one thing for me. "Google is a search-engine company, right?" he said. "Google TV enables you to do what you expect in search – on TV."

In short, Google TV isn't about bringing Internet to TV at all. It's about bringing a search function to TV.

That means, in theory, I can find -- quickly and effortlessly -- what I want to watch now, regardless of whether it's live broadcast TV, online video, podcast or DVR content. It doesn't matter where the content resides.

Now, that's pretty cool.

But I have no idea how Google TV (a new Google TV set-top by Logitech, for example) could seamlessly work with devices I already have at home today, including my Cablevision set-top box; DVD (not Blu-ray) player; LCD TV; and MAC at home. Well, most likely it won't, because none of my old stuff (although I bought them all in the last three years!) has Wi-Fi (except for MAC); and there are no other means of digitally connecting them in the dread futurama of "home networking."

My problem won't stop there. When do you think my cable operator will start talking to Google so that my next DVR will come with Google TV? Well, hope springs eternal.

That said, let's concede that Google TV is taking a step in the right direction: It's focused on the very function many of us want -- such as universal search.

Sony's Netbox, on the other hand, belongs to a very different product category from Google TV. Yes, the tiny set-top allows your TV to get connected to Sony's Bravia Internet video, including Crackle, YouTube, Netflix and others. But its mission is in bringing to TV new content from the walled garden audio/video services available on the Internet. It's not designed to let you venture out in the Wild West alone, to seek thrills on the World Wide Web. If you could get that, it'd be a pretty useful machine.

Sony also demonstrated a range of Sony-Ericsson's Android phones, named Xperia, which is now finally available in the U.S. market via AT&T. Android Market – equivalent to Apple's App Store – lets Xperia phone users download apps including different types of keyboards, desktop panels and even a Blu-ray disk remote control.

Sony-Ericsson's Android phone: Xperia

Once you download on your phone a "remote control," which is a free app by the way, according to Steve Medina, product manager at Sony's information technology product division, your phone becomes a remote control unit for Sony's Blu-ray players or TV sets.

Because it's Wi-Fi-based, not infra-red, it doesn't require a line of sight. In other words, I can be in the next room to change the Red Sox game my husband's watching on our flat panel TV in the living room to one of my favorite movies like" My Cousin Vinny" on our Blu-ray.

Call me mean.

But of course, I forgot. We don't own Sony's Blu-ray player, controllable with an Android phone. For that matter, I don't have an Android phone, either. Oh, well. I can dream on, can't I?