Yesterday, Google waved goodbye to its decade long brand of Chromecast dongles and sticks. It introduced the next generation of its streaming efforts. This now includes its new Google TV Streamer set top box.
Google TV was spotted a couple of weeks ago in leaked images. The company made an official announcement of the new set top box. It’s designed to compete more directly with the Apple TVs, NVIDIA Shields, and dedicated cable solutions. This announcement comes alongside a fourth generation of the Nest thermostat.
Google’s former efforts tended to hang off the side or back of most TVs via their HDMI ports. Instead, the Google TV is intended to rest under the TV. It is mostly out of sight.
We designed Google TV Streamer to sit in front of your TV, rather than tucked behind it, to improve connectivity across your smart home devices.
Google executive
This year Google is looking to offer a more robust streaming experience over its old Chromecast efforts. They have beefed up the specs that come with the Google TV. It now comes with 32GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. Additionally, it has an updated processor.
Serving as more of a set-top box, the Google TV will also support an HDMI 2.1 port, a Gigabit Ethernet choice and a USB-C slot that can also support power out.
Google is also tweaking its Google TV interface. The hardware will gain artificial intelligence support. This includes improved content suggestions. It will also offer new experiences like summarizations.
Google is also leveraging this upgrade to nudge users into utilizing more of its Google Home services. They have introduced a new built-in smart home hub. This hub appears as an easily accessible panel in the UI. It can take advantage of the onboard Matter and Thread border router support.
To keep the remote from slipping all over the place, Google gave it a textured back for better grip and added a customizable button that allows for quick action mapping by the user. Google also had the forsight to add soundboard onboard so users can ping their remote if happens to slip into a couch cushion or get left in another room.
The new Google TV will be double in price to the earlier Chromecast price tag, running a $99.99 bill, and will be the only game in two when it comes to streaming devices from Google. The company said it will support current and older Chromecast devices with software upgrades for a time. Going send, it will only sell the new Google TV Streamer.
The Google TV Streamer is now available for pre-order and will be officially sold starting September 24, 2024.
