2012 looks like being the year smart TVs lived up to their promise. The lurking threat of Apple on the horizon has made TV makers raise their game and in this video from CES we take a look at Sony's quirky new remote for its Google TV devices.
Hit play and you'll see the remote has a taser-ish design, with the usual array of buttons on the front and a laptop-like trackpad for controlling an onscreen cursor. Turn the gadget over and you'll find a backlit Qwerty keyboard for typing in URLs, usernames and passwords.
An accelerometer turns off the buttons on the side you're not using, so you needn't worry about pressing the wrong thing at the wrong moment. If you're fed up of buttons altogether, a mic and voice recognition lets you talk to the thing instead.
The remote comes with Sony's new Google TV-equipped media and Blu-ray players, which should be coming to Europe in the summer, although there's nothing more specific yet. Google TV lets you use bespoke apps for YouTube and the like, and access on-demand movies through Google's own services. It's not yet come to the UK, so this would be a first.
Other home-cinema highlights from this year's CES include LG's Google TV, Lenovo's Android telly and LG's ridiculously thin OLED TV. For more, check our sister site CNET.com's CES homepage, and let us know what you think in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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