After we got our delicious helping of Froyo for the mobile handset side of the Android universe yesterday, Google dropped another expected bombshell on us: Google TV. There were a lot of cool features demonstrated live on stage, but Logitech had one of the most interesting pieces to this nice, big puzzle: the invent of their Harmony Remote app for Android and a companion set-top box.
While we’re not seeing much different from what Google showed the 5,000 (and whoever was watching from home) people at the keynote, Rob was able to get some up-close and personal time with the app. Initially, they had to demo the iPhone version of the app because someone thought it’d be a good idea to run off with the Nexus One, but the experiences are essentially the same (and we do get a bit of a sneak peak of the Android version at the end).
The STB receiver Logitech’s offering can communicate with the remote and interface with your home theater’s main input receiver allowing you to power-on all of your home entertainment devices easily from your phone. The app replaces the need for a dedicated remote as you’ll be getting all of the functionality you’d expect from a Harmony remote, and then some.
One cool thing about the Harmony app is that it doesn’t just control things on the Google TV side. The demonstrator showed us that you could control all of your equipment as if it were being controlled by the device’s native remote. We saw this working with Tivo and I couldn’t find anything to toss rocks at. There are also some gritty details regarding how connectivity works between the app and more than one setup in your house (in case you need to control multiple home theaters). Check out the full video below to see all of this in action.