Canonical Showcasing Ubuntu TV This Week

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

Canonical says it will finally showcase Ubuntu TV this week in Las Vegas during CES 2012.

On Monday Canonical said that it plans to show Ubuntu TV, an upcoming service the company defines as a "concept design" and a "vision on how TV will work in the future" at CES. The news arrives as Google and its partners begin to roll out products based on Google TV 2.0, and as Apple insiders claim that the iOS company is currently working on its own Siri-laced TV project.

"With no cables, no boxes and no hassles,  the goal is to un-complicate television for the average viewer while delivering to him or her all the services and options that they are becoming used to," the company said in a blog.

According to the just-launched Ubuntu TV website, Canonical's upcoming platform will pack "everything you want in a TV, in a TV." Features include easy integration of broadcast, online services and applications, millions of movies and TV shows streamed on demand over the web, a modern broadcast TV experience (search, watch, record and play), and get this -- a shared-screen experience with iOS, Android and Ubuntu devices.

"Second-screen experiences are an emerging trend in broadcast television," reads the Ubuntu TV website. "Link phones or tablets to Ubuntu TV, presenting related content to viewers while they watch. Provide information on movies by the same director, for example, or the reaction on Twitter during live shows - without any distraction from the action."

Ubuntu TV will support touch-based input and allow smartphones to work as a remote control. It will also connect with Ubuntu One, Canonical's cloud service for storing photos, movies, music and other files.

"Wherever your customers keep their content - in the cloud, on a Windows PC, or on their phones, Ubuntu TV brings it all together in the living room," the company adds. "Personal videos can be streamed straight from the cloud to the TV, as can slide shows of holiday photos. It's a connected world, and it’s a personal world. Ubuntu celebrates both."

Canonical is now calling on manufacturers to check out its new Ubuntu TV demos, and to stop by the booth during CES 2012 this week. To see what Ubuntu TV will likely offer, head here.

Kevin Parrish
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Scoregie
    How can you uncomplicate TV u plug it in and pick up a god damn remote? thats complicated.
    Reply
  • freggo
    It's quite amazing how far our simple TV has come. Now if only the content could match it :-)
    Reply
  • kcorp2003
    Not sure this is for me. i got a basic tv with basic channels. i rent movies when i want to see something or go to the theaters besides that i watch all my shows/series on the computer.
    Reply
  • vertigo_2000
    Grandma and grandpa are not going to like this.
    Reply
  • crunchydoodle
    This sure looks a lot like Microsoft Media Center which I use for TV, DVDs, video and photo slideshows. What about the Electronic Program Guide updates? Who will pay for that? I assume this software will be free, as ubuntu is.

    For the record, I am a grandfather of six and about to be the great grandfather of two. Grandma has her own HTPC with W7 MC, two ReplayTV boxes and an XBOX 360 for being an MC extender for the CableCard MC box I have in the livingroom. I like this. :)
    Reply
  • acasel
    Thanks to android the LINUX is getting more developed..

    Who knows in the near future, mainstream computers are LINUX based. :D
    Reply
  • joytech22
    Will this be a downloadable distribution, and will it be available in Australia?
    If both are yes, I will purposely build a HTPC based on the E350 (Or a Llano system depending on requirements) just to see what this service is like.

    Also in the video when it said "All your movies" and "All your TV" I sort of expected "Belong to us". >.
    Reply
  • ap3x
    acaselThanks to android the LINUX is getting more developed.. Who knows in the near future, mainstream computers are LINUX based.
    Ubuntu has been making linux better way before Andriod existed. This is nice although this does not seem to be something new. The interface is not bad.
    Reply
  • doorspawn
    "how TV will work in the future"

    It won't exist in the future. The "watch what we want you to when we want you to" and "no saving what we send you" concepts are doomed. They are only being preserved by immense legislative efforts, but slowly the tide is turning and once they're gone, those concepts will never return. Consumers would never let them.
    Reply
  • moonzy
    No one said "Boom!"
    Ah, I will. Boom!
    Reply