Google announces Google TV

 
Google TV being demonstrated at the Google conference in San Francisco, Thursday, May 20, 2010. 

 
Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt (left), with executives from companies that are helping to bring Google TV to consumers during a presentation in San Francisco on May 20, 2010. From left: Schmidt; chief executives Shantany Narayen of Adobe Systemms; Brian Dunn of Best Buy; Charlie Ergen of Dish Network; Gerry Quindlen of Logitech; Howard Stringer of Sony; and Paul Otellini of of Intel.

 
Google TV at the Google conference.

 
Google TV is being demonstrated at the Google conference.

 
Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, left,speaks to Shantanu Narayen, chief executive of Adobe Systems, during a presentation at Google's annual I/O conference in San Francisco on Thursday, May 20, 2010. Google announced that it is leading a group of companies, including Sony and Intel, in an effort called Google TV.

 
Sony CEO Howard Stringer (left), and Intel CEO Paul Otellini smiles during a Google TV announcement at the Google conference.

 
Google CEO Eric Schmidt talks about Google TV at the Google conference in San Francisco, Thursday, May 20, 2010. Google Inc. believes it has come up with the technology to unite Web surfing with channel surfing on televisions.

Top Touch-Screen Technologies in 2009

Windows 7

The next version of Windows, Windows 7, will boast support for touch-screen interfaces. While touch screens may not be useful for heavy-duty office chores–cranking out memos or blasting through spreadsheets–they could make Windows a better platform for kiosks, tablet computers and home entertainment systems

iPhone

Apple’s iPhone kicked off the latest touch-screen fad. The iPhone’s innovation, however, isn’t so such its touch screen as the way the phone can be controlled by gestures, such as pinching and swiping, which could become the building blocks for a whole vocabulary of gestures.

Palm Pre

The struggling smart phone vendor is betting the Pre will help lead it back to glory. Like the iPhone, Pre’s interface can be controlled through gestures made on the gizmo’s touch-sensitive screen.

Sony DSC-G3

The headline feature on this camera is wi-fi, not its touch screen. In a connected world, this only makes sense: a photo is no longer really useful unless it can be sent to friends and relatives, posted to Web pages, or sent to a computer for editing. It also makes sense that such a device would have a touch screen, giving the user the ability to navigate wireless networks, and the camera’s features, when they need to

Samsung P3

Samsung’s P3 is more than just another iPod touch knockoff. Sure, this media player has a touch screen. Unlike the iPod or iPhone, however, Samsung uses haptic feedback to give a user a little reassuring vibration whenever a menu item is selected. The P3 will go on sale sometime during the first half of 2009.

LG’s Watch Phone

The idea of putting a phone on your wrist is as old as Dick Tracy. But it’s a place where a touch-screen interface makes a lot of sense, since there’s little room for buttons. LG’s Touch Watch Phone comes with 3G Video Telephony service, thanks to a 7.2 Mbps 3G HSDPA connection. It goes on sale in Europe later this year. Oh, and it also tells time.

ATMs

Touch screens have become common on ATMs and kiosk machines.

Asus Eee Top

Asus’ touch-screen tablet version of the "nettop" allows users to bop from one Web-based service to another with a touch of the finger.

Coke machines

Samsung’s interactive uVend machine has a touch screen display to let users pick out a refreshing beverage. Samsung worked with Sapient and Coca-Cola to create the machine.

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface was the star of the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008. While it’s gotten lots of attention, Apple has gone further and faster with its dinky touch-screen devices.