LG Teases Google TV-Powered Television as CES Looms

LG, meet Google TV, and the rest of us, meet LG’s Google Android-powered high-definition television a couple days before the company rolls it out in full regalia at CES 2012. That’s a shot of it up top, and yes, I think the interface looks a little unwieldy, too — almost a mishmash of what Microsoft’s doing with its tile-based Metro interface and a left-right master navigation bar to keep you from getting lost in sea of tiny bookmarks and icons. (I’m hearing the set will in fact support both the default Google TV overlay or an LG-tweaked version — I’m not sure which we’re looking at in the shot above.)

LG says it’s an all-in-one set, something it’s calling an “LG Smart TV with Google TV,” so it’ll have some LG logic either integrated with, grafted onto, or working sidewise with Google’s Android- and Chrome-powered interactive television standard. It’s said to run on LG’s own L9 chipset, about which I’m finding nothing else online save an ocean of press release repeats (Is it ARM-derivative? If not, does it afford LG an edge on pricing?). There’s been no word yet on screen size(s), but we’ll have that info in just a few more days.

(MORE: Google TV May Soon Be Able to Sidestep Blocked Content)

The TV will support 3D, specifically LG’s “Cinema 3D” technology, meaning all you’ll need is a pair of battery-free “lightweight” stereoscopic glasses. LG’s also talking up its “magic remote QWERTY” interface, which I was prepared to write off as meaningless “magic” marketing-speak (onscreen keyboards tend to suck equally), but then noticed it refers to LG’s voice- and gesture-controlled remote with microphone and QWERTY keyboard (I’m assuming on the remote itself, but maybe I’m wrong about that). Move over, Kinect!

With this announcement, LG joins Samsung, Sony and Vizio in offering Google TV products, so things are looking up for the format from the electronics manufacturing side. The trick for Google and its partners remains getting content on these sets that consumers are into (some keep calling that “quality content,” which sounds wrongheaded to me — I’d rather call it “whatever the masses are jonesing for”).

In any event, it’s telling that LG’s still planning to release Smart TVs based on its own NetCast-based design in tandem with these Google TV-powered sets. Companies like LG are hopping on the Google TV express with a “money talks, bull-stuff walks” approach, no doubt waiting to see how buyers respond before committing with more authority to the platform.

Apple TV to come in 3 sizes, top out at 55 inches, report says

The rumor mill is heating up around Apple's television plans, and now, a new report claims to have information on the device's screen sizes.

Citing anonymous sources in Japan who work at a "major" company working on the set's production, Australian technology site Smarthouse reported on Sunday that Apple television buyers will be able to choose from three screen sizes, ranging from 32 inches to 55 inches. In addition, the sources say that the television will ship with the same Apple A6 processor expected to come in the iPad 3.

On the software side, Smarthouse's sources say that Apple has built entirely new software that will allow users to "call up programs" with the company's Siri virtual personal assistant application.

Talk of Apple producing a television has been making its rounds for years. Back in 2009, for instance, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that he believed the tech giant would sell its first television by the end of this year. Since that hasn't happened, Munster has revised his schedule a bit, saying now that the television will likely launch by the end of next year.

But Munster hasn't only speculated on the set's launch. Last week at the Business Insider Ignition: Future of Media conference, Munster said that Apple firmly believes consumers want an all-in-one television that isn't tied down to external boxes. He also predicted that Apple would sell its line of televisions for twice the price a comparable alternative.

Like Smarthouse's sources, Munster believes the televisions will come with Siri support and a few different screen sizes.

Apple hasn't said that it will, in fact, launch a television. However, those who have been hoping for it became a bit more confident about the possibility earlier this year when Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography revealed that the Apple co-founder was not only thinking about a television, but found a way to make it match his vision.

"I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Jobs told his biographer. "It would be seamlessly synched with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."

In an interview with CNET last month, however, Isaacson said that an Apple television wouldn't launch anytime soon.

"He told me it was very theoretical," Isaacson said of Jobs. "These were theoretical things they were thinking about in the future."

Bloomberg reported in October, citing sources, that Apple has tapped iTunes creator Jeff Robbin to head up the television's development. Those sources said Apple currently has a TV prototype, but there is still a possibility that it won't go beyond that stage.

Apple did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment on the Smarthouse report.