Sony Announces New HDTVs Powered by Google

Sony has announced the world's first HDTV powered by Google TV. The high-definition television gives you the ability to watch high-definition television broadcasts from your cable or satellite provider, as well as browse the internet, and run a variety of applications custom made for the device. The television also has built-in Wi-Fi, allowing it to be wirelessly connected to your home network without having to run an internet cable to the television.

In a press release, senior vice president of Sony's Home Division, Mike Abary said "Sony Internet TV is the world's first HDTV that combines the big-screen impact of television and full Internet search to deliver an unrivaled entertainment experience...Finally, you can seamlessly search your favorite TV programs and web sites on the same screen, at the same time."

The televisions are expected to become available soon at Sony Style stores, and on October 24th at Best Buy locations. Size wise, the televisions are going to be available in almost any size you could potentially be looking for:

24-inch NSX-24GT1 at an MSRP of $599.99
32-inch NSX-32GT1 at an MSRP of $799.99
40-inch NSX-40GT1 at an MSRP of $999.99
46-inch NSX-46GT1 at an MSRP of $1,399.99

I for one am fairly excited about the introduction of an internet TV. While you certainly can connect your television to your computer now to get the internet experience, a television built specifically to handle apps and internet content certainly sounds preferable. In the long run the TVs are priced in such a way that they will also be more affordable, depending on what kind of computer you currently have hooked up to, or plan on hooking up to your TV.

Pre-installed applications on the Sony television include Pandora for listening to tunes, as well as Netflix for streaming videos. The Netflix option along is almost enough to persuade me to purchase one of these. While I can certainly stream Netflix and Hulu now to my television from a connected PC, it would be considerably less of a pain if the functionality to do so was already built in. Starting in 2011 the televisions will also be able to support apps from the Android market.

If you want to surf the web and watch TV at the same time the TVs have a "Dual-View" function, allowing you to surf the web on part of the screen and watch programming on the other part. Remotes for the TV are also a little different than your traditional remote, sporting a QWERTY keyboard for typing similar to what you might find on a mobile phone.

What do you think of the new Sony Google TVs? Do you see yourself buying one?