Google to enter the living room with Android TV

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25 (UPI) -- Google entered the TV set-top box market by launching Android TV Wednesday at the company's I/O conference.

The Mountain View-based company said the box will have software that it had developed and will enable smartphones and tablets to interact with television sets and help users search for videos, control the playback of video and play video games.

"TVs are fast becoming smarter and more connected," said Dave Burke, a Google executive.

Sony and Sharp televisions and other streaming boxes, including Apple TV and Roku, will come with Android TV software pre-installed in the coming months. The company said it wasn't abandoning its TV streaming dongle, Chromecast, and the box was a follow up to the dongle, which can be plugged into HDMI ports and stream videos, music and websites.

Chromecast is expected to receive an update that will allow it to stream a wider range of apps.

This isn't the first time that Google has attempted to create a software package for TV streaming. In 2010, the company launched Google TV, a software package the would give users access to television listings and full access to the Web on a TV. After that initiative failed, Google launched Chromecast, which has been partially successful.