Google Encourages Android Apps on Its TV Platform
Android Market is coming to Google TV, and Google is offering a preview of its Google TV add-on for the Android software development kit (SDK).
With the upcoming operating system update to Honeycomb, Google TV devices will be Android compatible, which means developers can build Android apps for TV, optimize existing mobile or tablet apps for TV, and distribute those apps through Android Market. ??While the add-on does not contain all features of Google TV, it enables developers to emulate Google TV and build apps using standard Android SDK tools. It also provides new APIs for TV interaction, such as TV channel line-up.
Google TV emulation is currently supported on Linux with KVM only, but Google is working on support for other operating systems. Through KVM, it’s been able to create a fast Android emulator for TV. ? ?Apps that require features not supported on Google TV won’t appear in Android Market on Google TV. For example, Google TV-based devices do not have a touchscreen; hence apps that require touchscreen will not appear. Conversely, if the manifest says touchscreen is not required, the app will appear.