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Google TV 2.0 Review, Tweaks, and Screenshots

Posted by samzenpus on from the check-it-out dept.

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."

8 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Original Google TV fimware update by psergiu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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 ?

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    1. Re:Original Google TV fimware update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      By Google TV box , do you mean Logitech Revue? Then yes, the update was released towards the end of last year. If you do not see the update, go to Settings --> About --> Software Update. You should get a message saying Update available. Click that and you should have the update at the end of it.

    2. Re:Original Google TV fimware update by Kamiza+Ikioi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I bought a Logitech Revue, and we've finally received the last update. We probably won't receive the next. Then again, the hardware is a little light to provide much else beyond what it does now. For $99 it was an awesome deal. It's a huge step up from BluRay's that play Netflix and Pandora, and easier than Roku (in my opinion, your mileage may vary).

      I might augment it when Simple TV comes out (the OTA DVR featured at CES this year).

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      I8-D
  2. Re:Google TV problem by TechGuys · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well that just the same old elitist "nothing but junk on TV" line. In my opinion there are plenty of good shows on TV, in fact more than I even have time to watch. Saying that there is nothing good to watch is pretty much the same when old people are crumby about how everything was better before and teens can't behave now. Now I get off your lawn!

  3. What is the point of Google TV? by Jagen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:What is the point of Google TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I had the same thoughts as you when it first launched. I was in the room at I/O when they announced it and my comment to my co-worker was, "unless they're giving one to everyone, there's no way I'd ever buy that." They didn't give us one that day, but a few months later an email arrived offering developers like me a free Revue.

      I've since come to really like it. It's one of two boxes I know of (the other being TiVo) that are not delusional enough to believe that Cable/Satellite is going away any time soon. Whereas Roku, AppleTV and all the others require that you switch inputs to go from traditional TV to streaming, GoogleTV treats TV as just another source. It's really nice to be able to quickly pause a movie and check IMDB to figure out where I've seen an actor/actress. And it's really nice to be able to pause TV to pull up a YouTube or other internet video. And it's really nice to be able to turn off the TV from another room when people forget to turn it off (happens pretty frequently in my house.)

      Even in 2.0, GTV is really rough around the edges...there's just a ton of things that need improvement. But unlike the other devices that are already more polished, GTV has an obvious set of features that will be easier to address. For that reason, I think it's got a lot more potential than the other options.

  4. Google TV Honeycomb sucks!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    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!!

  5. Re:Google TV problem by pseudofrog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here we go again.

    Every time I click on a news story involving Google, I'm all but positive that the first post will be:
    a) Posted with a 2.5+ million UID
    b) Over 100 words long, yet still posted the same minute the story goes live
    c) Negative towards Google

    Here we go again. Welcome back CmdrPony / InsightIn140Bytes / DCTech. Happy shilling. Hope you karma manages to hold out for more than 4 days this time.