According to documents obtained exclusively by The Verge, Google is about to launch a renewed assault on your television set called Android TV. Major video app providers are building for the platform right now. Android TV may sound like a semantic difference — after all, Google TV was based on Android — but it’s something very different. Android TV is no longer a crazy attempt to turn your TV into a bigger, more powerful smartphone. “Android TV is an entertainment interface, not a computing platform,” writes Google. “It’s all about finding and enjoying content with the least amount of friction.” It will be “cinematic, fun, fluid, and fast.”
This is Android TV
I look forward to the day when I have to explain to my mother-in-law over the phone the 15-step process required to watch a specific show on television (“switch to HDMI 3…now, find the Amazon remote, navigate to the FOX app…search for ‘Eye on Springfield’…oh, wait, I’m sorry, I was wrong—that’s a Google exclusive through their partnership with FOX 1…switch to HDMI 5 instead…now, get the Google remote and navigate to ‘Google Play Exclusives'”…etc., etc.).
Fun, fluid, and fast?
Sounds great. And I have zero confidence in Google’s ability to provide that.
Half that problem is solved already, with Logitech’s Harmony system (or the equivalent from another vendor, if anyone’s competing in that segment), whether it be a standalone remote with a touch-screen or the iOS integration box.
(I got one both because I hate having five remotes out, and because it’s much easier on the girlfriend to have a “Watch TV” or “Apple TV” or “Playstation 3” icon than remembering which input needs to be where on what, exactly as you say.
And they – and I assume the competition – can send the right IR or BT codes to control an AppleTV; I can only assume they do or shortly will work with a Kindle Fire TVtron or Google TV.)
The apps-and-search thing, well, that’ll only get better over time, as the APIs get wired up to centralized search, as is almost certain to happen – and to AppleTV as well as Amazon and Google’s boxes.
Third time’s a charm, huh?
It’s the other half that is the problem. My grandfather could never set up a Harmony remote. Multiple removes are only part of the problem.
Automatic input switching could help too. If you put a DVD in your player, the TV should switch inputs to the TV automatically. If you change the channel on your cable box, the input should switch to the cable box automatically.
im a software developer. setting up my Harmony One was a major, major pain that id never wish on anyone. this was some years ago, dunno if its improved…but move items around the screen menus required manually clicking “up” or “down” on dozens of menu slots…i wanted to stab my eyes out by the time i was done.
don’t you mean you look forward to the day that MIL can turn on the TV, pick what she wants to watch and it will just load up the appropriate app or file and start playing and it won’t matter to her if it’s an iTunes in the Cloud Stream, Netflix, Hulu Plus or whatever.
yeah I’m pretty sure that’s what you meant
Great, but where the fuck is it?
All I’d like is a streaming box that can get netflix with minimum fuss – who wants another shitty google box monitoring you in your front room?
What is this, the third or fourth attempt by Google? I worked on the first version of Google TV. Success has nothing to do with the hw, although in that case being hamstrung by an overpriced crap Intel processor did not help, nor the software interface. It has to do with the content. No-one has that solved yet. If Apple has indeed negotiated a content deal with Comcast, the Apple TV will stop being a “hobby” and be another pillar product in their portfolio.
The “winner” of the living room battle will be the company that can offer TV channels a la carte, without a cable/satellite subscription. Simplicity will be an added bonus, but I think there’s more demand for cheap than simple.
“What is this, the third or fourth attempt by Google?”
Right? But it sounds like their first TV-related attempt that will follow in Apple’s footsteps*, which seems to be the only Google strategy that ensures traction.