Google TV to come with Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, Twitter, Napster apps

Google Inc has taken the wraps off a new website promoting the upcoming Google TV platform, with a special emphasis on the TV-ready apps set to arrive at launch. Among those promising to offer pre-installed Google TV apps are Netflix, Napster, Pandora, Amazon and Twitter.

The new Google TV site comes just a couple of days before one of the first Google TV-ready products, the Logitech Revue. Sony is expected to have a Google TV-embedded HDTV on tap for the holidays as well.

One of the prime features that Google has been touting for its upcoming TV platform is support for apps.

The Netflix app, for example, will let you tap into more than 20,000 streaming movies and TV shows, while a CNBC app will offer real-time stock tickers and video clips from the cable network. Users will also get streaming music from Pandora; movie and TV show rentals and purchases from Amazon On Demand; a photo gallery for viewing snapshots; full-screen Twitter; pro basketball stats from NBA Game Time; and subscription tunes from Napster.

More interesting is the news that Google TV device will get full Android Market access "early" next year - meaning you’ll be able to install just about any existing Android app onto your Google TV box. Google has also promised an SDK for Google TV-specific apps, again "early" next year.

Meanwhile, Google has revealed a list of websites that’ll be optimized for Google TV’s Chrome browser, ranging from TBS and TNT to the New York Times and CNN. You’ll also be able to watch Web videos on Google TV-ready sites from HBO, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim. Google TV’s Chrome browser supports Flash Player 10.1, which means Web pages with embedded Flash videos and modules will work.

The Google TV promo site also rattles through a series of features we’ve previously seen: a Google-powered search box that coughs up Web-based videos, local TV listings, or results from the Web at large; remote control apps for iPhone and Android devices, including the ability to search with your voice and "fling" a Web page from your phone to your TV; a customizable Google TV "home" screen; and picture-in-picture, including the ability to put live TV in one frame and a Web page in another.

Sony’s Google TV-enabled HDTV is also due later this year.

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