It's doubtful many people would pay a few hundred dollars for a TV remote but Sony is hoping, at the very least, those looking to shell out that much for a new tablet may want one that doubles as a super powered remote for the TV in their living room. Our Adam Balkin has more on TV Sideview, the Sony developed app that turns a tablet into a remote.

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It's doubtful many people would pay a few hundred dollars for a TV remote but Sony is hoping, at the very least, those looking to shell out that much for a new tablet may want one that doubles as a super powered remote for the TV in their living room. Of course, it’s just announced Xperia Tablet Z is more than that. Sony bills it as the thinnest 10 inch tablet on the market, with a screen that developers say is more colorful than most other tablets.

“It's a high definition screen, so 1920 by 1200; but, we also support a wider color gamut. And what that means is, when you're looking at a picture the colors come out more vividly and more naturally,” said Ty Takayanagi, Sony Electronics.

As Sony tries to break into an extremely competitive market, it has included in this tablet something you might not expect to find on a tablet, an infrared port, the same kind that's on your traditional TV remote. It works in tandem with a Sony developed app called TV Sideview.

“What it is, is a visual television guide. So, it'll show you visually what's showing on TV, as we speak now. And if you want to learn a little more about the program, just tap on it and it'll give you additional information on the cast and crew. So, you can find out more about the actors and actresses. There's another capability called the voice search and you can basically talk to the tablet and say, ‘look for Spiderman related content;’ and, it'll look up content through the internet as well as the television guide,” said Takayanagi.

You then just flick the show up off the tablet and it appears on your screen. Because it's infrared, it does not have to be a Sony TV to work. The android powered Xperia Tablet Z is due out by the end of May, costing around $500 for 16GB and $600 for the 32GB version.