Meetup on Google TV in Google Campus.

Agenda. Photo by Paul Masquelier.

This meetup on December 1 was with an agenda shown in the picture to the left. Unfortunately, as happens to the best of us, it was not possible to set up the demo in time, and this paved the way for a substantially longer, and livelier, Q & A session after the presentation.

Before the main presentation, there were several announcements:

1. A Winter 2011 course at Foothill College on Application Software Development with AJAX by Elaine Haight
2. A Winter 2011 course at Foothill College on Using Cascading Style Sheets for Design by Newton Chan
3. Job openings at Logitech by Pat Ransil
4. Job openings at Appirio by Iein Valdez

Andres Ferrate and Daniels Lee, Developer Advocates in Google, discussed salient features of Google TV by showing several Google TV applications, built using the Android SDK, scheduled to be released in 1Q 2011:

Andres Ferrate. Photo by Paul Masquelier.

Daniels Lee. Photo by Paul Masquelier.

1. YouTube
2. Chrome
3. Flixster
4. Chow
5. Cartoon Network
6. MeeGenius
7. Net-a-porter
8. Vimeo

In these days, where several HTML5 enthusiasts advocate the use of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript combination for creating rich Internet applications, why Android SDK for Google TV applications? It must be that the HTML5-CSS3-JavaScript combination comes up short somehow - ? - in creating Google TV applications.

Several interesting aspects of man-machine interface design were also mentioned:

1. Leanback experience, where the TV viewer would have no reason to lean forward, and can operate the contents on the TV screen by leaning back on a couch.
2. 10% minimum padding is recommended in the use of the TV screen real estate
3. An aspect ratio of 16:9 is recommended for effective viewing.

A final interesting part of the evening was the use of software called JUG Spinner Wheel to select winners of raffle of 4 Logitech Revue devices from among the attendees of the meetup. After all, what is a technology meetup if technology is not made use of to the hilt? The attendees' list must have been automatically captured by the JUG Spinner Wheel!

Overall, a very satisfactory introduction to Google TV and its applications.