SONY HAS begun to issue invites for a media event in New York in two weeks at which it will launch the “world’s first internet television” – fuelling speculation that it will unveil the first Google TV device.

Google had confirmed Sony as one of its main partners for the Google TV project, which some of the web’s more commonly-used tools into the TV viewing experience – allowing users to tweet about the news while watching it on the same TV set, for example, or to check a fantasy football team’s performance while watching a game.

The Sony TV, according to TechTree.com, is expected to run an operating system similar to Google’s Android software for mobile phones, and will allow web browsing through the television itself.

Google is also expected to manufacture individual hardware boxes to ‘plug in’ to older TVs, while Sony’s model will have the software built into it.

Google’s product is intended to compete with the new iteration of the Apple TV product, which streams iTunes content through a user’s computer and onto their television.