Google TV: It’s Actually Awesome, and Here’s How to Get the Most Out Of It

We've been using a Logitech Revue (now discontinued) for some time and can't say enough about it. It's a great system and being able to install some apps on your TV is a very useful function.

Today Lifehacker published this article I thought I'd share it with you all:

Source:
http://lifehacker.com/5917646/google-tv-its-actually-awesome-and-heres-how-to-get-the-most-out-of-it

Through the comments I saw that there is a Kickstarter project going called Pocket TV that will get you a $160 value system for $99. Check it out.

Here is a video from the Pocket TV Kickstarter project:

There's somebody else here... besides me... that uses Google TV?

I agree. I picked up the Sony Internet TV shortly after it released and paid too much for it (At least compared to other, non-internet enabled televisions) but then quickly realized how cool it is. All your favorite TV shows/movies/webcasts are integrated together and shows you how you can get access to them. Netflix, Amazon VOD, Crackle, YouTube, Android Market (I refuse to call it "Play Store", sounds like a 6 year-old-named it) and your cable/sattelite provider are all aggregated together. Plus you get a full-blown Chrome web browser and all kinds of dedicated TV/entertainment apps.

Do you like Kevin Bacon? (Who doesn't, though?) Well, you can "Google" him from the TV and get a list of every movie/tv show he's ever been in. Then you say "The River Wild" was awesome, let's watch that. Click it and if it's on TV anytime in the next 3 weeks you can record it or if not it'll tell you if Amazon, Crackle, Netflix or other providers have it for immediate streaming. Awesome.

On a slightly unrelated note, I have 2 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon.

Oh yeah, we are big time fans of Google TV.  We have the discontinued Logitech Revue.  We paid $140 but they were blowing them out at the end for $99 and can still be gotten on eBay cheap.  The newest firmware is awesome.

I don't know how many degrees of seperation I am from Kevin Bacon, but I am about one room separation from bacon in the fridge. 

I almost picked up the Revue before I decided "I want a bigger TV anyway, my birthday is next week and I'm a huge Google/Android geek." I use the features way more than I expected to. And it's really cool to use your Android phone as a remote. Listening to music in the kitchen and the remote is an entire 20 feet away? Just whip out your phone and crank the volume! It's also just as fun to change channels/mute volume from the garage while your wife is watching Chopped in the living room...

I am also a big Android fan so the Google TV was a easy sell to me.  I carry a Nexus One (still) and I think I have three or four of them.  Recently I installed the Cyanogen Mod 7 on one and it is really sweet...maybe it will be my daily carry soon.  For my next phone I am holding out for a Motorola Brand Nexus phone without the crapware and any UI changes.  Probably directly from Google so I don't have to pay a stupid full price or commit to another two years on my contract.  Pure Android.  Unless of course I find a sweet ROM. 

Nice! I started off with a Nexus One (I guess that unravels the "mystery" to my username, eh?) that I bought unlocked from Google. The limited 512MB internal storage started to become cumbersome after Flash and Maps started taking up so much space. I rooted it, repartitioned the internal space, installed an alpha 4.0.3 build on it, and... it was too slow and buggy. The N1 is a beautiful device (although now considered heavy, thick and small) and I just sold mine on eBay a few months back. I bought the unlocked Galaxy Nexus from the Play Store and although I wish it was an HTC phone (I'm not a fan of plastic), it's definitely a nice phone.

The rumor is that Google will announce FIVE (!) OEMs to each produce a Nexus device simultaneously. And that ASUS will manufacture a 7" Nexus tablet. I'd still love another HTC Nexus, but a Moto Nexus would be nice, too.

I like the weight of the Nexus One.  It's a solid metal body and the build quality is just great.  I agree with you on the memory.  I had to dump some apps after all the updates started bloating.  I only have two complaints about the Nexus One:

- The Trackball.
I hardly use it for anything else than a protruding indicator that there is email or a text.

- Facebook and Twitter
For a "Original Google Experience Device" I can't understand why I can't uninstall Facebook and Twitter, among a few others like Amazon MP3, without rooting the phone.  That was a sucky experience.

I always wanted to know if Facebook, Twitter and Amazon can be removed from the Galaxy Nexus without rooting.  Do you know?

My phone is old now and compared to the new ones the screen is small and that will be something I will want on my next phone.  I almost went for a Galaxy Nexus but the funky shape and the plastic turned me off after carrying a Nexus One for so long so I figured I'd just hold out until another generation came along.  I am curious to see who else will be represented in the Google Store.

What I would like to see is a Motorola RAZR Nexus phone.  I like the shape and build quality, but I do not want any manufacturers idea of what the user interface should be and I better be able to remove apps I don't want, like Facebook, Twitter and Amazon.  That makes the phone feel like a frigging Dell computer with all that crappy junk on them pre-installed.

I watch every thing from my ps3. Netflix, hulu plus. Cheap new releases from the ps store and blu ray player. havent paid for cable for over a year.  Been wanting a smart t.v. though sey one up at joes sports bar for superbowl, 80". Dope, arrons $120 a month

The Galaxy Nexus doesn't have any of that stuff installed by default. All it has is the core Google Apps and Google Plus, which is politely asks you to join (if you haven't already). Plus, with Ice Cream Sandwich you can "hide" apps from the app drawer through the settings. So even if there are apps installed that you don't want showing up you can disable them from showing in the launcher and even keep them from opening. Pretty nifty!

[quote author=chaseloc101 link=topic=1387.msg9611#msg9611 date=1339839006]
I watch every thing from my ps3. Netflix, hulu plus. Cheap new releases from the ps store and blu ray player. havent paid for cable for over a year.  Been wanting a smart t.v. though sey one up at joes sports bar for superbowl, 80". Dope, arrons $120 a month
[/quote]
My PS3 used to me my entertainment hub, too. I rented movies, bought TV shows, listened to music, did the Folding@Home, all the cool stuff. Then I got the "Yellow Light of Death" and had to send it back to Sony to get a new (refurb) unit. Since then I try to use it only for playing games or DVD/Blu-Ray, hoping that using it a little less will prolong the life. Granted, mine was a launch unit and likely had some "imperfections" that have been fixed in the newest models. The GoogleTV handles pretty much all the cool stuff the PS3 did for me including YouTube, webcasts and finding movies I didn't even know I wanted to watch.

Avoid Aarons like the plague. Those rent-to-own deals are horrible and you end up paying twice as much as the product is worth in interest. Either save up and pay for it all at once or put it on a low-interest credit card.

GoogleTV is a part of Google's IO conference this week:


Google TV website gets refreshed ahead of Google I/O
Via AndroidCentral:
http://www.androidcentral.com/google-tv-website-gets-refreshed-ahead-google-io

It looks like Sony and Vizio are both coming out with new GoogleTV boxes.  The Vizio product looks to also have Onlive capability.

Google with Acer are also making a Google Nexus tablet which could cost only $199.  It looks pretty nice.
Source:
http://www.androidcentral.com/nexus-7-real-see-it-now

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCnt__Qh95I[/youtube]

The Google "Q" leaks ahead of the official announcement:
Source:
Google leaks Nexus Q video and images ahead of I/O keynote
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/27/nexus-q-images-leak/

Definitely all cool stuff, but (thankfully) I don't want or need any of it. I already own a Xoom tablet and it should get the Jelly Bean update next month. Although the Nexus Q is an awesome idea I don't have friends to share it with. Besides, with Google Music on my GoogleTV I've already got that covered.

Now Project Glass looks interesting, but far too costly. ($1500 ?!)

Project glass looks like a personal street view car on your head where you collect the data for Google at your expense.

I'm still looking forward to some announcements about additional Nexus phones from other manufacturers than Samsung.  Come on Motorola or HTC!

EDIT:  You know what would really freak Google out?  If Apple made a Android phone.

Never, in ten thousand lifetimes, would such a thing happen. Although there have been a handful of people that managed to get a working version ported to old gen-3 devices. But back on topic, GoogleTV just announced some updates headed to us this "summer". (I use the term summer loosely, because as you recall we didn't get our "summer" Honeycomb update until November.

http://googletv.blogspot.com/2012/06/more-entertainment-choices-with-google.html

I agree, and like I said it would freak Google out.  But I remember a time when people said that about Apple's OS running on x86 hardware.

[quote author=Nexus link=topic=1387.msg10030#msg10030 date=1340912112]
But back on topic, GoogleTV just announced some updates headed to us this "summer". (I use the term summer loosely, because as you recall we didn't get our "summer" Honeycomb update until November.

http://googletv.blogspot.com/2012/06/more-entertainment-choices-with-google.html
[/quote]

I have just about everything I want already on GoogleTV.  Although I would like to see some of the home page widgets, Like "Beautiful Widgets" get ported.  It should be like the clock app in such that it moves around the screen in screen save mode to avoid LCD burn, but have the weather for the area(s) you choose.

One of the things I see listed is that they will bring SiriusXM radio, but that's a dead horse already.  People paying for radio?  I never understood that one.

Now this is cool:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmZGVwIa51Q[/youtube]