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back to article Google guns for Apple TV

Google is working on an in-home entertainment gadget able to stream content from the internet - or, at least, it's testing such a device in employees' homes. The online advertising company asked the US Federal Commmunications Commission in December 2011 if it could test "an entertainment device" with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on …

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  1. dogged
    Meh

    but.. wait...

    Apple TV is a joke at any practical level. Oh sure, if they actually make a telly* that might change things (i doubt it) but you'd have to be deep, deep in the "Personal Enemy of Xenu" level of the cult before you got one of these things for itself rather than as an XBMC box.

    *We still have only rumours about a telly. And yet there is already industry puff, PR and scrambling. If I were Apple I'd vigorously refuse to answer (planted) questions about working on a iFridge just to see what the industry press does.

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    1. jai
      Reply Icon

      yes, massive joke - I use it everyday, and the media I can't stream to it I send to the PS3 instead. But the AppleTV is the device of preference because it's so much quicker to start up and begin playing that the PS3 is.

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      1. Gary Riches
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        Same here. I have 2. 1 upstairs on the projector and 1 on the main TV downstairs. The downstairs one is used daily for Netflix and TV series. I stream pics to it too from my phone if the folks are round.

        Just because something is of no use _to you_ does not mean it is a joke.

        Could it better? Definitely.

        Is it good enough at the moment? Yes.

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        1. JEDIDIAH
          Reply Icon
          Linux

          No. It's a joke.

          No. It's a joke. Its' a joke because even it's biggest fans admit that you must violate the DMCA before the thing is actually useful.

          A proper video appliance should not need that. Certainly, such a device should be able to play your own user generated stuff without a lot of fuss or bother or special conversions.

          Apple also needs to discover this whole daemon/service concept. Using a desktop app as a "media server" is such an 80s sort of single user mentality nonsense.

          Yet another reason why you want to break the law and put Plex on your ATV.

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          1. a_been
            Reply Icon

            @JEDIDIAH

            What are you rambling about. I live in a free country, no DMCA here.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds great

    "You'll be able to turn on the lights after just 20 seconds of this ad"

    "You're running low on milk, here's a list of shopping websites selling milk"

    Plus soft-spoken messages from Google telling you what amazing discussions about Google+ you're missing out on by not logging into Google+.

    Where do I sign up?

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  3. It'sa Mea... Mario

    Where have you been for the last couple of years Tony?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/20/google_tv_annnouncement/

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  4. Kevin Fairhurst

    Home automation is nice in theory

    but in practice, having to replace all of your light switches and power sockets with (for example) PLN capable ones would be bad enough, let alone having to make sure that they were branded by your choice of fruit or robot to ensure compatibility...

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  5. jai

    no thanks

    for google to make money on this, they'll have to sell not only analytics on our tv watching patterns, but also bombard our screens with advertisments. no thanks.

    plus, is this article seriously suggesting that YouTube is the video content that they going to be driving this product's roll out with? they'll need a lot more than 30 second clips of talking dogs or kids off their heads on novocane.

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    1. Craigness
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Why not go on YouTube and see what it's got? They have plenty of Tv shows and movies these days, and loads of official music videos. Even the amateur stuff can be high quality.

      Google will have to do what others do to make money from Tv.

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      1. jai
        Reply Icon

        maybe there is quality on youtube, but i have.... seven devices already that i can watch youtube with, and those are just the ones within easy reach of my sofa where i'm watching telly at the moment. if i'm prepared to get up and walk around my flat there's even more. why do google think i'm going to pay for another one?

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        1. Craigness
          Reply Icon
          FAIL

          Seems like you'll find a reason not to like google whether it's based on ignorance or stupidity. Either will suffice for you.

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  6. John A Blackley

    Pardon my ignorance

    But is there a television out there with a built-in computer that will allow me to stream whatever I like from the internet? I mean an actual all-in-one piece of kit and not an x-box/pc/PS3 plus tv that I need to cable together.

    That's what I'd like to buy.

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    1. It'sa Mea... Mario
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      I'm not aware of one, however..

      You can get PC Monitors that havwe a TV tuner built in...

      Alternatively couple things for you to Google:

      RaspberryPI

      Fit PC 2

      Both are small enough to hang of the back of a TV and fanless. Quite a difference in price but listed both in case you were not keen on the bare-bones RaspberryPI.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Well most so-called "Smart TV"s from brands like Panasonic, LG or Samsung will stream some things from the Internet - but not everything. Dependends what you mean by "whatever you like"...

      That said their interfaces are usually atrocious and slow.

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    3. dogged
      Reply Icon

      @John A Blackley

      "a television out there with a built-in computer". "actual all-in-one piece of kit".

      I think there may be one or two, yes.

      This link is only for information. I do not advise ANYONE to buy from PC World. I active advise everyone not to buy from PC World, in fact.

      http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/all-in-one-pcs/706_7023_70023_xx_xx/xx-criteria.html

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  7. flipside101

    Ok count me as interested WHEN GOOGLES PARTNERS RELEASE ANYTHING IN THE UK, in teh mean time its raspberrypi and xbmc all the way

    A quick Poll which will come first Google TV or YouView :)

    pennys worth over

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  8. Rick Cross
    Thumb Up

    I Must Be a Google Employee

    I want my paycheck! I've had a Logitech Review (One of two devices known as Google TV) for a couple of months now. I bought it as a refurb via Amazon.com after the price drop from US$299 to US$99.

    Actually it is a lot better than I expected, it has streamed everything from my local media that I've tossed at it and works well. And of course it streams all of the usual suspects off of the internet. At $80+shipping, it is a very nice bit of kit. At $299+shipping I had no interest in even trying it.

    Now seriously, I imagine that the FCC request and article pertains to some new model of Google TV since the first one never took off. It failed so bad that Logitech slashed the price, though that is their fault as the failed to actually implement everything in the Google TV 2.0 specs, in effect crippling it.

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