I started to reply with own comments but wound up writing an essay which I just posted.
Google TV itself is nothing new. After all weâve had Media Center on the PC and similar applications on the Mac and Unix. Weâve had Hulu and stand-alone boxes.
But Google does bring something new to the table in bringing a number of skills and relationships together. It also spooks those the traditional TV business types who were experimenting with Hulu and now find events moving far faster than they expected. We need to remember that TV is a business model thatâs not about technology and not about video clips (or programs) in isolation. Itâs an entire ecology.
One surprise today was discovering YouTube âleanbackâ. I havenât had time to play with it much but it seems to be a step towards the âhands offâ model of TV viewing that we are used to in seeing whatâs on rather than having to think about what we want to watch.
The real significance comes when we start to use the large screen TVs as video surfaces in novel ways for rich experiences. We already see a little of this in gaming platforms.
But why stop with TV. Why do we still call connected computing devices cell phones?
First we need to understand what has happened to the world of âdonât change that channelâ. http://rmf.vc/?n=WhatIsTV.
From: Dave Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net]
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 12:14
To: ip
Subject: [IP] My first week with Google TV
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jonathan B Spira <jspira@basex.com>
Date: November 12, 2010 10:03:02 AM EST
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: My first week with Google TV
Hi Dave
Now that I've had Google TV for a few weeks, I've been able to put my thoughts down on (virtual) paper.
I've hooked up countless devices to my various flatscreens in an attempt to bring the world of IPTV to the big screen. The ones I liked the most up until now were Wherever.TV and the original Apple TV (clearly these two devices were very different but they both fulfilled their respective missions very well).
Several laptop or desktop to flatscreen hookups were less than satisfactory. I also have a Panasonic flatscreen that has a very limited walled garden.
So I looked forward to getting my Logitech Revue with Google TV, which finally arrived late last month. After a quick (13-minute) setup, I think we have a winner. With the somewhat notable exception of content on major network sites (as has been discussed here in IP land), you can pretty much go anywhere and watch anything on the Net using Google TV.
I was able to watch streaming and archived TV programs from networks in Germany, Austria, Italy, and other countries with relative ease and the keyboard/remote is excellent. (Of course, one can watch programs from other countries as well - those just happen to be the ones I chose.)
My complete review is available online - with my photos of Google TV in action - for those who are interested.
Regards/Mit freundlichen GrÃÃen/SzÃvÃlyes ÃdvÃzlet/Cordialement/Cordiali saluti/Saludos/VÃnliga hÃlsningar
/s/ JonathanJonathan B. Spira
CEO and Chief Analyst
Basex, Inc.
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