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Google TV 2.0 Review, Tweaks, and Screenshots
DeviceGuru writes "Google and its Google TV 2.0 partners made quite a splash at CES this week. As a followup, this detailed blog post at DeviceGuru reviews Google TV 2.0's features, specs, apps, and flexible new user interface, and shows how you can add customized folders and shortcuts to the home screen for accessing hundreds of favorite apps and websites within a couple of mouse clicks."
Anyone who has ever used or read about the original Google TV would know that the problem wasn't about technical details, lack of customized folders and shortcuts or user interface and apps. You know what it was? The lack of content! Since Google didn't work out deals with content providers, all of them just started blocking Google TV. I don't care about whose fault it is, but since Apple TV and all the competitors have worked it out (hell, even Microsoft with Xbox360!), there is no point in buying Google TV! The worst part is those who bought the original Google TV could not know about it beforehand, and soon found that there is absolutely nothing to watch apart from some stupid YouTube clips.
Another funny thing is that they're adding tracking and suggestions to Google TV. Can't wait for those "did you mean to watch this instead?" questions!
So what Google should do is stop playing with new user interfaces and features and actually work out the core feature, having content to watch!
What about the early adopters who bought the original Google TV boxes - is there a firmware update available to bring the new features to them ? Or they are supposed to chuck them to the garbage bin and buy new ones ?
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
The link in the summary says one thing from google. Here's a thought from someone who isn't from google saying something about google
http://gigaom.com/video/google-tv-ces/
The last paragraph reads
While it’s clear that the CE industry needs to do something to fight fragmentation between the dozen or so smart TV platforms, it seems unlikely that Google TV will be its savior in the near future. Google might have more partners than it did a year ago, but they’re hardly adopting the platform en masse. Unless something drastic happens, don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Very poor of slashdot to drink the Koolaid like this.
Watch those corners
I think everyone knows that HoneyComb (Android 3.0) is a stop gap Google made because Ice Cream (Android 4.0) wasn't ready. Since HoneyComb is a code dead-end, that will be abandoned after Android 4.0 comes out, isn't it clear we should wait for a Google TV based off Ice Cream or a later version of Android?
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
I have a Logitech Revue with the new Google TV 2.0 and I still don't have access to many of the Streaming Channels I have on my Roku (like Hulu plus). The DLNA Media Player doesn't work, menu navigation is cumbersome, and the search feature doesn't work with Netflix. It just doesn't seem polished for TV. It's like using my Android Phone on my TV and having to navigate with a touchpad keyboard, not something my kids or wife could easily use. I think Google missed the boat with this one!
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
I've heard the article, seen the videos, digested the spiel, but I still don't see why I'd want a Google TV box.
It's a standalone box that isn't a DVR, isn't a games console and doesn't play physical media like DVDs/BRs. And it was $300 at launch, did they seriously think they had a winner there?
It seems to be a solution to a problem that no one else thinks is a problem, if it had a least been integrated with a physical media player, or DVR (and I mean been a DVR, not sort of linked up to an external unit), it could have been justified as a replacement for something I already had, as it was it was just another expensive device wanting one of the limited HDMI ports on my TV.
I had this update pushed to my google tv and it is the worst piece of software bloat I have ever seen in my 18 years of software career. Browser keeps crashing, flash player crashes, media play keeps indexing and never ends. The HDMI HDCP protection causes TV output to go blank every few minutes. I am almost getting ready to throw this piece of Junk HW and SW out!!
I saw this demo'ed at CES and Google made a serious mistake in capability. it turns out you can run only a small set of applications available on the market on Google TV 2.0. The reason for the limited selection is that Google TV 2.0 doesn't support touch/multi-touch. I asked the Google TV person why they weren't supporting multi-touch (at least 2 finger touch) from Bluetooth keyboards/keypads that could provide this capability and hence open up pretty much the full market to Google TV 2.0. he said the capability wasn't in the OS/libraries at all because some OEMs - he specifically mentioned Sony - couldn't support it in their devices. What an amazingly stupid decision. Build the capability into the OS and let the manufacturers with half a brain support it. Users will get most of the market apps and developers will have their lives made simpler as opposed to having yet another Android fragmentation issue to deal with. A truly stupid decision.
Uhm, since when Google TV is about consuming some content from the internet? It's an operating system for TVs! TV vendors are jumping on "let's have a TV OS" bandwagon, which is a great thing. (and no thanks, I don't want to have a separate ugly box, with its own power supply and yet another hdmi cable; "original Google TV" wasn't for me for exactly this reason) It's a big thing for TV manufacturers, TV officially turns into yet another PC. But there is next to no point for people who're ok with buyng yet another box to plug it into TV. There are plenty of options, with streaming, internet browsing (heck, even recording) and what not. Pretty much any device with some sort of arm CPU cand do most it, not mentioning, cough, HTPC.
It doesnt even change from country to country. Indeed, you get 100 channels, and at most 10 out of that 100 is some watchable stuff, with 3 that out of ten are the real sellers that are put there to make people buy it (sports, some documentary channels, some major mainstream stuff), and rest 90 channels are just shit.
even discovery channel had splintered itself to around 10 channels and diluted its content by spreading its noteworthy programs to those 10 channels, and 'marketing' them separately.
really.... sometimes i think that we need to shut down all 'marketing' departments to make the world a better place.
Read radical news here
There was no mention of support for common networking protocols such as CIFS (SMB) or NFS file systems. I need the ability to navigate and play my networked media files just like I can through any computer attached to my network. DLNA was mentioned, but DLNA's file restrictions make the networking protocol totally useless. DLNA is defective by design.
It's nice to see that MKV files are supported, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way to directly access the files over a networked connection.
Great article by DeviceGuru, but he didn't look at the software remotes like Able Remote: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.entertailion.android.remote With this app you can use your Android phone as a remote control for Google TV.
So, you're suggesting they stop working on things they can control and send all of their people to the broadcaster waiting rooms?
It's not a Google should do this or Google should do that. The studios and broadcasters are actively blocking Google TV from even using Hulu or NBC.com.
This isn't a Google issue. Just like if Sony told Apple to go stuff iTunes, there would be no Sony music on iTunes. The Beatles were not on iTunes for a long time, and it wasn't the fault of Apple. They didn't want on iTunes for whatever reason.
If the networks don't want on Google TV, there isn't a damn thing in the world Google can do. The broadcasters don't even want Google to purchase Hulu, which they've shown interest in buying, but only if they have content deals extending long enough to prove it's worth anything.
You say "since Apple TV and all the competitors have worked it out (hell, even Microsoft with Xbox360!)". There are three problems with this. #1 - Apple doesn't run a competing service like YouTube. #2 - Microsoft owns a part of a broadcaster, but has no viable content business of their own seen as a threat. #3 - As far as I know, those other services are either A) Rentals (iTunes) or Subscription (Netflix).
And, unless you ignore the fact that Amazone video and Netflix among many others are available on Google TV, Google TV offers at least as much.
So, what do you want? An HBO Go App? Sure, you can get that, but only if you have an HBO subscription already. It doesn't matter if you are on XBox, Google TV, or iTV.
Some companies like HBO have said, point blank, they will never, ever offer a la carte.
So, let's back off a bit. Google is selling an interface. All they have power over is the interface. Telling Google to force broadcasters to provide content is like telling them to force cellphone carriers to provide unlimited data to all Android devices.
Not gonna happen.
I8-D
The advertising market for video played back on a desktop PC and that for video played back on a television are very different. Incumbent professional video providers see a version of Firefox designed for desktop (as opposed to set-top) use and assume that it must not be someone in a recliner, because conventional wisdom is that only a tiny minority of people have media center PCs, home theater PCs, set-top PCs, or whatever you're calling them this week.
I have a Revue purchased late last year for $99 and upgraded to 2.0. Here are my answers to some of the issues posted above.
1) CIFS/SMB easily supported using File Expert. Sees and opens the SMB shares on my Ubuntu media server just fine.
2) DLNA also works. The Logitech DLNA client works just fine with both MiniDLNA and Media Tomb. The limitation is the codecs supported by Android. If Android will play it you can get it via DLNA.
3) Plex is even easier. Set up a plex server, install plex on the Revue and, voila, streaming video. Plex promises that shortly (ha) it will overcome most codec limitations.
That said I don't want to watch Hulu or some of the other sites others are interested in. I want Amazon streaming video (well supported) and ESPN. Amazon is well supported and ESPN is reasonably will supported. The problem with ESPN is in Flash and, as I understand it, is partially a problem of Adobe, Google, ESPN and hardware. There are some glitches on all fronts, one of the most important is that when Flash sites are coded they make assumptions about the minimum level of hardware available on the client (memory, processor speed, storage) that the Revue does not meet.
So for me its a win. Amazon + 90% ESPN + excellent integration with my Dish box + full web browser + personal movies and photos. Your mileage may vary.
If you root your google TV (thus voiding the warranty, at least in the Logitech Revue where it required soldering to root the box) you can trivially hack around this problem.
Once the box is rooted, you just change the flash player ID. Then Hulu and their droogies can no longer can tell you aren't a Windows PC running IE, so you aren't blocked.
Refusing to actually understand and abide by the Open Source value proposition is what sunk previous versions of Google TV. If logitech had an "SSH login enable" checkbox on the revue (the way they do on the Squeezebox, which is an awesome linux-based platform) end users would just solve the problem for them, free of cost and free of legal liability for the vendors, and Hulu would have to suck it up.
If the target audience was people who wanted apps/gaming - they probably would already have a PS3, Wii, or Xbox.
Except unlike Apple with its iOS developer program, Sony and Nintendo appear to have no way for the general public to sign up and develop "apps". And as far as I can tell, Xbox 360 "apps" have to be games and nothing else.
It appears to be Market-only, which sucks for people who recently bought an Archos 43 and don't yet have a $420/year smartphone bill or even a Samsung Galaxy Player in their immediate budget.
The problem with GTV1.0 (apart from being available almost no place, and an exorbitant cost) was
1. They did not have the market on it - and actively fought people from sideloading
2. Had done absolutely nothing to make a powerful LOCAL media player
So you couldn't watch much online and nothing offline, and so you had an expensive piece of crap.
This time it seems they will allow people to install (and thus the hackers of the world can bypass any block)
But if they don't get it right this time there is no point in them trying a 3.0 version
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I'm so excited I get Gmail, Gcal, GoogleMAP, googleVOICE, and in one convenience FOLDER? Folder???? meh...
I work the phones, helping people operate their new TVs. I have a career based on the "90 day free tech support" sticker on the box.
Yesterday I had some crazy grandma calling me asking how to use the remote to read her email while watching American Idol. It turned out that she had her TV fixed at 480i, and so nothing could scale properly and be usable! She said that she wanted everything "bigger". I told her that forcing everything to 480i would result in low quality and poor scaling, and that she should keep it at 1080 or get a bigger TV.
Then she yelled at me and said she couldn't afford a bigger TV and that she also misses channel 68! I told her flat out that she was a product of a failed public education system, and that she shouldn't even own a TV.
What I really really wanted when I bought my Sony Blue Ray Google TV box (and I knew I might be disappointed) was the ability to hook a web cam via USB and SKYPE using my 60 inch TV. As suspected, I was totally disappointed. I still have to hook my laptop up with wires all over the place. There's no apps for Skyping that I could find. Skype apparently has their own hardware market for Skyping from a TV and doesn't plan to share it with Google TV. Their devices cost a ridiculous amount of money for one solution only skype app in an imposing web cam. We got a long way to go..
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
I own both an AppleTV and a Roku XDS. The Apple has only HDMI output and Ethernet, and will do really annoying things like quit providing Internet Radio within just a few minutes if you turn off the HDMI monitor.
The Roku XDS has HDMI+audio, composite, component, analog audio, digital optical audio and USB ports, along with WiFi and Ethernet connectivity. And it works just fine if you tune in, say, the (totally awesome) 1rockfm* stream, and then turn off the monitor.
The *new* Roku looks more like the AppleTV, it's missing all that glorious connectivity; that lack sent us to EBay recently looking for another Roku XDS.
The very first thing that comes to mind when I hear about new set-top boxes is connectivity. Because what use is one of these if you can't hook up to it? And why should I have to keep my video monitor on in order to listen to an audio stream?
*not associated with 1rockfm other than it's my favorite rock station
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
The only console environment whose development is roughly as open as iOS or Android, the platforms most commonly associated with the term "apps", is Xbox Live Indie Games. This environment is far more restrictive than the native environment in which Netflix runs, and console makers are very selective of who is allowed to develop applications for this native environment. Only established companies that have already built a reputation within the industry on another platform can develop for the consoles. This other platform is usually Windows or more recently iOS or Android, where startups compete on a much more even playing field with incumbents. So if you are an indie video game developer, and your first video game is one in a genre that would be best experienced on a television, tough droppings.
All this discussion above is missing the point about owning and watching TV. The key differentiation factor nowadays is not content or interface ! These have become commodities, so a Google TV will bring nothing new to the market, except that I can now use all Google Android apps from my TV set...meh ! The fundamental factor is that nothing revolutionary has happened to way we watch and interact with our tv sets since...ever ! A Tv set nowadays is not about how many channels I have, nowadays is about how big it is and picture and sound quality...so think about it, who in the industry is more concerned about picture and sound quality ? Apple and uncle Steve (R.I.P.) have been thinking about this problem and they will bring something to market that will change the game completely, think about a Human User Interface where you could talk to your tv (Siri) and use 3D gestures to control the TV set, something like that will bring people in front of the TV again and make it fun to use...as for the content Apple already has it via iTunes.