bluetooth

The Google TV platform has generated a fair amount of news over the past few days. Here is a round-up:

TiVo announced late Monday the availability of the TiVo Slide Remote, which features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The company is touting the new remote as facilitating progressive search on the TV--currently, TiVo users have to enter search terms via an on-screen keyboard. "This finger-friendly device strengthens TiVo's product offerings, giving consumers the best tools to find what they want more quickly," Jim Denney, TiVo's VP and general manager of product marketing, said in a prepared statement. "This is the first ever DVR remote with a full QWERTY keyboard, and we are certain that users will be excited to get their thumbs on it.

Here is a brief round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

Semiconductor company, Broadcom, announced Monday that LG Electronics has integrated its Bluetooth technology into its new LH70 line of digital television sets (which are now shipping), thus allowing consumers to connect those sets to devices such as wireless stereo headphones and--more interestingly--mobile phones. According to Broadcom, its Bluetooth technology will allow the new LG TV sets to act as wireless docking stations for MP3-enabled mobile phones and portable media players, thus enabling music and other audio to play over TV speaker systems. In January, Broadcom announced a deal to integrate its Bluetooth technology with TV sets from Sharp.