Exclusive: This is Android TV

Several years ago, Google presented Google TV powered by Android. Now, according to documents obtained by The Verge, Google is ready to introduce Android TV by Google. A play on words you say? Not quite so since it appears Google has learned from its earlier mistakes and has adapted.

"Access to content should be simple and magical," reads one Google document, which adds that it should never take more than three clicks or gestures to go from the homescreen to enjoying a new piece of content.

Click to expand...

"Magical"? ... can't wait for all the Apple haters to jump on that one

So cable subscriptions die, replaced by Android/Apple set top boxes that pay extra fees to ISPs for better access to internet content....which is then sold piecemeal to consumers.... adding a middleman the original formula of nickel+diming.

Great

lilbabycat said:

So cable subscriptions die, replaced by Android/Apple set top boxes that pay extra fees to ISPs for better access to internet content....which is then sold piecemeal to consumers.... adding a middleman the original formula of nickel+diming.

Great

Click to expand...

Consumers have been screaming for à la carte service ... this is likely the price of that ... someone has to make money or there will be no content ... entertainment is a luxury, not a necessity, and luxuries always come at a premium

lilbabycat said:

So cable subscriptions die, replaced by Android/Apple set top boxes that pay extra fees to ISPs for better access to internet content....which is then sold piecemeal to consumers.... adding a middleman the original formula of nickel+diming.

Great

Click to expand...

There was already a middleman to the content. It was your cable company. People want to watch what they want to watch and they're tired of paying a lot of money for what they don't. I don't watch sports aside from hockey (for which I will happily pay the NHL for their online "center ice" package). Why should I be forced to have the NFL channel in my cable "package" even though I don't give two shits about football? But if it's there I am paying for it. That's bullshit. Why do you think ESPN can afford to run so many channels? Because the majority of cable customers have it but never watch it and are subsidizing the people who do. Think about how many people would love to have HBO Go but don't subscribe to cable and therefore don't have HBO. The whole ala carte deal seems custom built for how people on the internet want to deal with things.

Of course since the majority of people get their internet (in the US anyway) from their cable company the cable company in question is still going to want to get paid. Hence the extortion money until the FCC does it's fucking job!

This is like deja vu all over again.

Chromecast is a toy for getting people to watch more youtube. Set top boxes offer better experiences. The only future in it for this is if the Chromecast can multiply these set top boxes to other TV's in a household.

This could also be a play to make android the Smart TV OS of choice especially since LG is investing in WebOS.

Sometimes I wish I didn't have an HTPC so this kind of thing would excite me. Okay, not really.

Fuck the statement: "Access to content should be simple and magical".

Should access to content be simple, yes. "Magical", no!

Access being "magical" is just a euphemism for locked down and closed off. Fuck that.

This is good. I'm noticing a lot of content providers are starting to put more and more of their shows on Android apps the next day (day after airing). Comedy Central is one of them.

It's a smart move on their part, it allows them to force the advertisements into the app. Want the stream? Pay us or get ads.

Spidey329 said:

This is good. I'm noticing a lot of content providers are starting to put more and more of their shows on Android apps the next day (day after airing). Comedy Central is one of them.

It's a smart move on their part, it allows them to force the advertisements into the app. Want the stream? Pay us or get ads.

Click to expand...

And yet those myriad of chinese sticks and set top boxes linger is general obscurity. The situation isn't as 'magical' as it seems. Maybe plastering a brand name on one will make a difference.

There is a Borg joke in here somewhere.

Magical? They dusting it with pixie dust or something?

I wonder if they are finally going to use the sagetv stuff they purchased.

kbrickley said:

"Magical"? ... can't wait for all the Apple haters to jump on that one

Click to expand...

Someone needs to find the marketing copy writer that wrote that and punch him in the neck for even saying it and getting it out in the public sphere. I really hate this kind of hyperbole.

I really wish tehy would have just put more effort into GTV. HDMI passthrough is a good thing, especially for parents that can't switch inputs. All it needed was the horsepower of the amazon fire and Gtv would work fine.