Logitech Revue is the company’s set-top box that will help the Google TV service launch (alongside TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony).

The contest is looking for a "social media rock star" to help promote the device. Google’s YouTube is pretty excited about it (as the device will no doubt bring a great deal more YouTube video watching to living rooms). You can read the official rules here, but YouTube Product Marketing Manager Peter Sherman sums it up nicely:

If you can prove that you are a true social influencer with a passion for the new universe of TV and video that Google TV will offer, Logitech may select you to become a Logitech host and pay you to spend time in one of their lofts in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. Your mission will be to host a bunch of parties, show off the technology, and spread the word through your social circles.

Naturally, YouTube is encouraging its users to nominate themselves.

NewTeeVee looks at a new report from iSuppli, which finds that Internet TV is more popular than 3-D TV. That could mean good things for Google and all of its Google TV launch partners.

The concept is a product of Best Buy partnering with CinemaNow, the same company that Blockbuster has dealt with to offer movies through set-top devices. According to Variety:

Details on how exactly Best Buy would benefit from a potential partnership with CinemaNow, and others, are still being finalized. But one possibility is that Best Buy would market and sell Web-enabled devices — from TVs to Blu-ray players — that would include built-in access to CinemaNow’s library. Such devices may roll out as soon as this summer. Best Buy would presumably share in the revenues generated from downloads or streaming with CinemaNow or another provider.

This could get interesting, considering Best Buy has recently launched its Remix program, which includes both an affiliate program and an API. What this really means is that Best Buy will be getting more traffic. Best Buy is already largely benefiting from the void left by Circuit City, as Hitwise recently pointed out.

The Best Buy/CinemaNow service is said to be going into effect in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, Google will have its own set-top devices in the works. The video industry is going to get really interesting over the next year or so.

"Overall, it looks like Android is going to have a very, very strong year," Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying during Google’s earnings call. More from Schmidt (via Seeking Alpha):

There are announcements happening between now and the end of the year that are quite significant from operators and new hardware partners in the Android space, which I won’t preannounce except to say that they really do fulfill much of the vision that we laid out more than a year ago.

On the netbook side, there are a number of people who have actually taken Android and ported it over to netbook or netbook-similar devices. So we think that’s another one of the great benefits of the open source model that we’ve used. We’re excited that that investment is occurring. And again, largely outside of Google, which we think is great.

Six or more Android phones are rumored to be on the way this year from Orange. The operating system is even going to set-top box form, courtesy of Motorola.

Now that is interesting. This device, called the "au Box," will play DVDs and CDs, transfer music and video to a mobile device, and rip/store files according to InformationWeek. It will be interesting to see where this leads. So far, it’s being made for a Japanese ISP – KDDI. I would assume that more will be on the way eventually.

Netflix already streams movies and television shows to Roku devices, Xboxes, and Blu-Ray players from LG and Samsung. Now with TiVo in the mix, they’ll reach an even wider audience, although Tivo may really be the one that needs the competitive boost. Chris Albrecht at NewTeeVee writes:

Perhaps TiVo needs Netflix more than the other way around. TiVo has been hemorrhaging subscribers over the past year and a half. According to TVbytheNumbers.com, the DVR maker had 3.6 million subscribers in July of 2008, the same level they had in July, 2005.

Netflix on TiVo will be available to TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL owners. The two companies will start testing the new service today in “several thousand” U.S. households, and anticipate it to be widely available in early December (read: “Hey! Please ignore your cable DVR and buy a TiVo this holiday.”).

The Netflix TiVo service will become widely available in December (just in time for the holidays?), but will of course require users to have a Netflix subscription. If they want to make this really enticing to those who aren’t already subscribed, they might want to consider kicking some content partnerships into gear like they did with Starz.

They’re still going to have to beef up their streaming catalogue before this truly becomes a draw to outsiders. For those of us who are already Netflix subscribers, more ways to access the content are always welcome.

Sling Media is mostly known for its "SlingBox", a piece of hardware that lets users stream their regular TV signals to wherever they want. Its "Sling Catcher", which allows TV signals to be transferred from room to room in a user’s house is getting ready to ship as well.
 
Sling.com will combine streaming content from as many as sixty partners with the home television streaming capabilities of the Slingbox, which includes "on demand" and DVR content – the whole enchilada. In other words, if this is all it’s cracked up to be, Hulu, Joost, and others better be thinking of new edges as well, or at least adding the home-TV concept into their current packages, and partnering with as many content providers as possible.

As I’ve said nearly every day this week, I believe, we are seeing strides made every day toward a future of online video domination, and this offering from Sling looks to be the latest piece of the pie, and potentially a pretty big one at that.

It’s not even launched yet though, so I’m not going to hype it up anymore than that. Just suffice it to say, I’m intrigued. I can’t wait to see what video news surfaces tomorrow. I’m still pretty excited about the Netflix Starz partnership, if just for the simple fact that Netflix seems to be taking the expansion of its streaming content catalog more seriously.  TechCrunch has a look at an email Sling sent to its Beta invitees, and Mercury News has more details on the SlingCatcher if you’re interested.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that 6.5 million users tuned into coverage on mobile platforms via NBC’s WAP site. This is really a testament to the true popularity growth of online video, and people wanting it wheverever they’re at. This is the beginning of a future hinted at by Vint Cerf the other day on the Official Google Blog, and further proves that truly on demand video is what people want, and online is where they’re getting it.

Mike Sachoff reported yesterday that online video viewing has doubled over the past year, in large part due to the growth of broadband use. More and more providers are starting to offer more on demand video online (like Amazon and IMDB for example) , and a future of set-top boxes is looking pretty plausible. NBC seems to recognize this as much as anybody, between its stake in Hulu and its willingness to work out a deal with Apple recently to keep its popular shows available on iTunes. Shows are even making it online before they air on television in some cases.

Another indicator of the increasing importance that online video is going to have, is that the FCC has even expressed interest in getting Cable TV providers to lower prices for service. It makes total sense if you can get everything you want to watch online for free, as it appears to be increasingly easier to do.

I think we are only in the early stages, but there is no doubt that a video revolution is in the making. The norm is going to change, and technologies are going to be rendered obsolete. Online is where it’s going. This isn’t a new idea. We’re just finally seeing it really happen. Just wait until all programming becomes available. I’m seeing strides made just about every day.