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.
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