CNBC Real-Time for Google TV – Serving market data your way, all day long.

Guest post

CNBC’s sophisticated business and investor audience demands the financial news, real-time market data and analysis they care about when and where they want it, across multiple platforms. The Google TV platform allows the opportunity to provide our audience with a personalized experience directly on the TV screen.

The CNBC Real-Time App not only gives users access to real-time stock quotes – before, during and after market hours, directly from both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Marketplace, but also uniquely allows them to personalize stock watch lists and view related news clips on their stocks.

This past Friday, for example, CNBC Real-Time App users were able to decide if they wanted to double-down or take a pass on Zynga’s highly anticipated IPO. They could keep track of ZNGA’s moment by moment moves whether using the App, GTV’s built-in Chrome browser to access CNBC.com or, with one click, watch live CNBC programming.

For investors not focused on the latest IPO, CNBC Real-Time App users could watch on demand CNBC's editors picks for the most important news videos of the day. 

Your friends at CNBC

Qello: Bringing the concert experience to your big screen

Guest post from Qello

I’m more stoked than ever for the little shindig I’m throwing at my apartment this Saturday night. I’ve got my Google TV loaded with the Qello app and I’m ready to create an intimate concert right in my pad. I think I’ll choose Widespread Panic at Red Rocks, but then again maybe we’ll kick it old school with RUN DMC Live at Montreaux. Nah, I’m going to create my own concert setlist. 

So who’s this Qello anyway? Think of him as your friend who delivers the best live music experience whenever and wherever you want it. 

From screens small to large, the Qello state-of-the-art streaming HD concerts films application is now available across the Google ecosystem, meaning, we’re on Android smartphones, Honeycomb tablets, and now for the best live music experience you can get us on your big screen with Google TV. 

Whether you’re a little bit country or a little bit rock n roll, there’s something for everyone. We’ve got the largest library of HD concert films in the world, from the hottest new shows to an extensive vault of legendary concerts and amazing music documentaries. 

And with Qello Setlists, you can build your own dream show from thousands of hours of HD concert footage. For my soiree this weekend, I’m might kick it off with a little Frank Zappa, followed by the Pixies, then maybe get our hip hop on with some tracks from the classic Up In Smoke tour.

Google TV is the ultimate platform for the Qello experience, whether you want to entertain guests with an HD concert or just chill out and watch one of our award-winning documentaries.

And we promise to keep on keeping on so we’re always adding new titles to our library. But in the words of Cheap Trick - I want you to want me – so please let us know what you think below. 

You can find Qello in Android Market for Google TV.

Matt Carona, VP of Product, Qello

Buddy TV: Find what you want to watch in less than 20 seconds

Guest post from Buddy TV
At BuddyTV, we know how hard it is to find what to watch with your cable provider and services like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and others. You know the problem, there are a million things to watch but there’s nothing to watch right now. After a long day, you don’t want to spend twenty minutes scrolling through hundreds of channels and multiple applications to find what to watch. That’s why we built the BuddyTV Guide.

We make it easy for you to find what you want to watch in 3 ways.

1) Favorite your channels. If you’re like us, you only watch 10-15 channels, have your channel lineup only display those channels and not the hundreds of other channels that you never watch.

2) See your personalized recommendations. Based on what you’ve watched before, your personalized guide shows you the shows you can watch right now that you’ll most likely want to watch.

3) See everything. Don’t worry, you can still view everything if you enjoy channel-surfing as some of us do. You’ll never miss any programs that are available to you.

We’re very excited to be on Google TV. If you have an iPhone, be sure to download the BuddyTV Guide app. We’ve built an incredible integration with Google TV that allows you to use your iPhone (soon on Android phones) as a remote to control your Google TV. You can use the phone to:

Turn on your TV, tune your set-top box, control your AV equipment.
Use Tap-to-Tune. You can select a show to watch on the app and it will immediately tune your set-top box or your Google TV to the program you want to watch.
Participate in viewing parties and see more detailed data on the shows you are watching.
Do everything that is available on the BuddyTV Guide app on the Google TV.


Personally, Google TV and the BuddyTV Guide app have transformed how I consume content in my living room. I hope that you’ll experience the same!


Download the BuddyTV Guide App here in the Android Market.


Andy Liu, CEO, BuddyTV.com

Crunchyroll: Watch Anime and Asian Drama on Google TV

Guest post from Crunchyroll

(A series highlighting the most interesting new apps available for Google TV)

For all the anime and Asian drama fans out there, our Crunchyroll app has been optimized for the TV. The app allows both free and premium members to watch their favorite shows on big screens powered by Google TV. 

For those of you who are wondering what anime is, it is the Japanese abbreviation of animation. Different from Western-style cartoons mostly targeted to children, Japanese anime appeals to both younger audiences with light, G-rated content and to adults, with more complicated, mature themes. 

Crunchyroll has hundreds of Japanese anime titles and Asian dramas, across a myriad of genres – from shonen to shojo; fantasy to slice-of-life drama. The app also has simulcast titles  for the latest season (available usually an hour after first broadcast in Japan). 

My personal favorite is Gosick, a series full of mystery, history, and romance. One of the biggest titles we have is Naruto Shippuden, which is the No. 1 anime series worldwide. Directed by Hayato Date and produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo (who is also our strategic investor), you can watch new episodes every Thursday at 3:00 am PST right here on the Crunchyroll app on Google TV. 

There is no other streaming site out there that airs this fantastic series before we do, and it is amazing to see how the truly dedicated stay up to be first in line to watch it.

We also have hundreds of Asian dramas licensed from Korean, Chinese, and Japanese publishers. We have plenty great series for guys, like Behind the White Tower and High Kick.

To find out why Boys Over Flowers and Naruto Shippuden are so popular, download the Crunchyroll app to your Google TV now and start watching. 

A small prelude – we plan to provide 720p support early next year, so stay tuned…

Crunchyroll can be found in Android Market for Google TV.

Michelle Chen, Head of Product, Crunchyroll

Tips & Tricks for the Google TV Pro

10 Tips and Tricks

If you own a Google TV, we’re a little hurt that you’re reading this instead of enjoying a movie, watching YouTube or enjoying music videos on TV (like you did in the 90s).  Unless—of course—you are reading this on your Google TV. Don’t worry, though, we’ll get over it if you make us a promise: try all the tips & tricks  and then pay it forward. (If you don’t know what we mean by pay it forward, your fabulous Search for Google TV will take you straight to the answer).

Get personalized viewing recommendations.  Is "Glee" not your favorite show?  Want to see shows you'll like, not just what everyone else watches? Use star ratings to configure the TV & Movies app to give you the shows and movies you're interested in.  

→ Move the cursor over the show you want to rate and use number keys 1-5 to rate it.

Pro tip: customize Home. It’s up to you what appears on your Home -- any item in All Apps can be added. Put the apps you use every day here for easy access, or add TV channels or websites.

→ Press the Home key, then the Menu key, then select Customize home items. Select an item to move, remove or replace it.

→ Pro tip: add a TV channel or webpage to All Apps by pressing the Star key while viewing and selecting Add to home screen.

→ Pro shortcut: press the Home key then a number key (1-7) to open a Home item instantly.

Where are my bookmarks and favorite channels? They’ve got a new home. Press the Menu key or press and hold the Star key from Google Chrome or live TV to bring up your bookmarks and favorites. To bookmark a webpage or favorite a channel, just press the Star key on your controller.

→ Web bookmarks: in Google Chrome, press the Menu key and select Bookmarks.

→ Favorite TV channels: while watching TV, press the Menu key and select Favorite channels.

→ Pro shortcut: press and hold the Star key from Google Chrome or TV to access your bookmarks and favorites.

Pro tip: search your bookmarks and web history. Tell Google TV Search to access your browser history and bookmarks to give you another easy way to get to your favorite content. Explore other searchable items, including Google Music and Twitter.

→ Press the Home key, select All Apps, then select Settings. Scroll down to Search, then select Searchable items. Check the Browser box to include bookmarks and web history.

What channel number is CNN again? With thousands of channels, it’s a pain to flip through the entire guide to find CNN. Instead, just do a search on Google TV by channel name, be it CNN, FX, or CNBC.

→ Press the Search key and start typing.

→ Press the Star key to add a channel to your favorites or to All Apps.

Multitask!

→ Switching between apps is easy -- press and hold the Home key to bring up a list of open apps, then use the arrow keys to navigate.

→ If you’re using Google Chrome, press the Menu key and select Windows to switch between your open browser windows, or to open a new window.

→ Want to check some sports stats without missing a moment of the game? Press the Picture in Picture key. Click the Picture in Picture window to enlarge it or move it around the screen.

Follow your favorite actor. Next time Kevin Bacon makes a cameo on The Closer, just search for his name to see what else he’s in, even what’s on right now. Or, switch over to the IMDB app in Android Market to learn all you’d ever want to know.

→ Press the Search key and type ‘Kevin Bacon’ (it doesn’t have to be him, really) and select See all TV, Movie, and Video results. Select a movie icon to find out where the movie is available on the web, or if it’s coming on TV soon.

Just heard about a cool new show? Start with season 1, episode 1. TV & Movies identifies pretty much every episode of every TV show available and lets you know where you can watch it, whether it’s on live TV or the web.

→ Press the Home key and select TV & Movies.

Add a soundtrack to your slideshow. Start up Pandora, Google Music, or your other favorite music app and then hop over to the Photos app to show your friends your most recent bear wrestling and zephyr piloting adventures.

→ Press the Home key, select All Apps, then select Pandora.

→ Press the Home key, select All Apps, then select Photos.

Choose what happens when you turn on your TV. Go straight to Live TV, or launch TV & Movies or YouTube right at startup.

→ Press the Home key, select Home and All Apps settings, then select Startup application.

Visit our Help Center to learn more about the recent update. Happy surfing!

Daniel Pickens-Jones, Google TV User Support

The new and improved developer website

We’re excited to announce that our new Google TV developer website launched this week. Check it out at developers.google.com/tv. The new site boasts a cleaner home page and easier navigation so that people like you can develop for Google TV more effortlessly.

Access to the big screen has never been easier. The website includes a demo video that walks through the basics of Google TV. It also provides all of the resources that you need to develop Android apps, web apps, multi-screen apps and submit video sitemaps at your fingertips. If you need some inspiration, visit the case studies section or read up on some of our recent blog posts.

We hope you enjoy our new developer website.  Happy developing!

Catherine Liang, Google TV

The Big Picture from the Boston Globe

Guest post from The Boston Globe

(A series highlighting the most interesting new apps available for Google TV)

Every day, there are hundreds and sometimes thousands ofphotographs available to newspaper companies. However, space allows only a small number to be displayed in print oronline so much of this amazing photography does not reach a largeaudience.  Years ago, we at The BostonGlobe and Boston.com saw the value in these additional photographs -- and thestories that they told -- and created The Big Picture. 

The Big Picture is our popular photo blog, which can befound online at www.boston.com/bigpicture.The Big Picture highlights news stories through photographs -- photographs thatare high in quality and large in size. The photos that appear on The BigPicture take advantage of the maximum amount of screen real estate that isavailable and allows every detail of the photograph to be seen.

We are now very excited to bring The Big Picture to Google TVand allow our content to be seen on the largest screens found in today’s households– the television.

Now available in Android Market for Google TV, The Big Picture will immerseyou in the middle of current news events from around the world. Now instead ofcrowding around a computer monitor or mobile device, the images from The BigPicture, which is updated multiple times per week, can be seen in all its gloryand shared with friends and family while sitting around the TV. 


Domenic Vecchiarelli, Boston.com