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Comigo Smart TV: Record and watch Freeview from your iOS and Android device

Comigo has announced its forthcoming Smart TV, an Android-based set-top box that’s compatible with both iOS and Android apps.

Once connected to your TV as you would a Freeview box, you’ll be able to set recordings from your phone or tablet on the go, stream programmes to your device or use your phone as a remote control for the set-top box.

It sounds great, like a mash-up between Google TV, SlingBox, Zeebox and Dijit on the Motorola XOOM 2 Media Edition. You’ll also be able to access online through the set-top box, access movies on demand, check Facebook and and create your own ‘watch lists.’

If that’s not enough, it also looks like you’ll be able to throw virtual tomatoes at football players form the comfort of your living room.

There’s potential for this to be taken further. We’d love to be able to pelt, say, Jeremy Paxman with rotten eggs, just because we could. It’d certainly take the edge off of Newsnight.

Comigo’s CEO is Dov Moran, the Israeli engineer formerly of M-Systems, who is credited with inventing the USB flash drive. 

“Watching television is rapidly evolving into a social experience with users in charge of the timing of the content they want to watch, accompanied by a desire to share the viewing experience with their friends,” said Moran in a statement.

“The technology is there, but so far the experience has been unwieldy and cumbersome and brings the social network, internet abilities and wide variety on Android-based applications to the TV viewers. Comigo’s smart TV platform provides ground breaking user experience and brings social media, internet abilities, and our wide variety of Android based applications to the TV viewers.”

No word on whether remote TV streaming is possible over 3G on the apps or whether you’d need to be connected to Wi-Fi. Also, there’s no word on what other connections are on the Smart TV box.

Comigo’s Smart TV set-top box and apps are due to be shown off at IPTV World in London this week; stay tuned for hands-on coverage of this over the next few days.

Update: Comigo just got back to us to say that streaming to phones and tablets will only be possible when you’re connected to the same Wi-Fi access point as the Comigo box from launch. However there are plans to roll out remote streaming over 3G in the future.

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