Google TV goes international, Sony NSZ-GS7 set-top box up for preorder in the US and UK

Google TV had a second coming-out party at CES 2012, where a number of manufacturers introduced new features for the television-based operating system, new devices running it, and other big plans. Eric Schmidt, in a fit of what turned out to be insanity, declared shortly before CES that Google TV would be on a "majority" of new TVs by this summer.

Well, that didn't happen. But there is a wave of new Google TV devices ready to hit the market, led by the Sony NSZ-GS7 set-top box. Sony previously sold only TVs with Google TV baked in, but the $199 GS7 adds the OS to the TV you already own. (There's also the $299 NSZ-GP9, which includes a Blu-ray player as well.) It features a new, more powerful processor, and thanks to Google's frequent updates, a hugely improved operating system with more apps, more features, and a simpler interface. Do the new hardware and new software work together to create a Google TV finally worth watching?