Official: Google TV is getting updated to Android 4.2.2. Jelly Bean
With the big Google I/O keynote ending just moments ago, Google announced a lot of new amazing products and services but there was something they left out. No, we’re not talking about the Nexus 5 — we’re talking about Google TV. Yes, Google’s red-headed stepdroid was all but left out of today’s big announcements, leaving some — like our resident Google TV evangelist Edgar Cervantes — furious.
The official word straight out of Google IO 2013 is that the Android-for-television platform will soon be updated to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. This software update is actually a pretty huge jump for the platform as previously Google TV was “up-to-date” running Honeycomb. This means that Google TV will skip over Ice Cream Sandwich completely, and finally catch up to its smartphone and tablet counterparts, putting them all on an equal playing field for the first time ever.
In other news, Chrome was also updated for Google TV, also bringing it to the same version number as is found on smartphones and tablets. Chrome for Google TV will get the same treatment as mobile Android devices, following the same 6 week update schedule as well.
So when can you expect Jelly Bean to hit your Google TV? Google mentioned that they’ve been working closely with manufacturers to push out updates in a much more timely fashion with firmware updates hypothetically rolling out to televisions weeks after Google releases them. Of course, as so often is the case with Android, some of these televisions have skinned Android, so it could sometime before you see Jelly Bean rolling out to your television.
We can only hope that with this update more Android developers will be enticed by the platform and begin releasing bigger and better apps for Google TV. When it comes to new Google TV hardware, TCL is promising a 4K2K television packed with Google TV to be released later this year. The television is actually being shown off at Google I/O, so be on the lookout for our hands-on video coming soon.
[via GTVSource]