Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Google Launches 'Google Play Movies & TV' App, iOS Chromecast Users Gain Alternative to iTunes

brinary001 said:
Nice! It's good to see Apple letting up a bit on competing services. I think I'll switch to using just Play media content ass opposed to iTunes purely for the convenience of streaming to just about any device besides just Apple's. :rolleyes:

----------



Because Apple has a plug in their butt that limits streaming iTunes content to just Apple products. You can actually get Play content on something besides an iWhathaveyou. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Just hope Google figures out how to make money from it. If not, it will be discontinued and your content will be unavailable. They kill stuff often. Every iTunes Media I have purchased since the iTunes Store first opened is available for me to stream or redownload. Try getting back the content you uploaded to one of the many google cancelations.
 
Lol this solidifies it, the iPhone is best android phone on the market. We get all they're google apps.. That was my biggest issue before switching back to ios.
 
genovelle said:
Just hope Google figures out how to make money from it. If not, it will be discontinued and your content will be unavailable. They kill stuff often. Every iTunes Media I have purchased since the iTunes Store first opened is available for me to stream or redownload. Try getting back the content you uploaded to one of the many google cancelations.
Click to expand...

Name one popular product Google killed that was regularly in use. The only one that caused a stir when it shut down was Google Reader. The rest? Buzz and Wave weren't used all that much, and their functionality ended up being rolled into other services.

I call shenanigans. Name one of their services you used that was suddenly shut down. Name one you used where your suddenly found your content unavailable to you without warning.
 
SeattleMoose said:
I try to avoid everything Google...

Their business model was based on "free" products from Day 1. "Free" turned out to have a huge price tag....privacy. And so it continues today.
Click to expand...

My grandfather told me years ago, that if you're using a service, and you're not paying for it, that you are not the consumer, but the product.
 
Rayd5365 said:
I see no mention of being able to download content to the device for offline viewing.
If so, this is worthless on a plane, and certainly no replacement for iTunes.

<edit> I see the article specifically says no offline viewing. Worthless to me.
Click to expand...

So much harder to insert adverts in downloaded material of course, much better to stream it so they know where you are and can sell local adverts too
 
I'm not sure I understand reasoning behind the negative comments.

This is a free app. It is not a required install. If you don't like it or want it, there's nothing compelling you to use it.

Of course iTunes is better on iOS devices. There is pretty much no reason at all to get this if you only own iOS/Apple devices. I suspect Apple's policies are behind the fact that there's no local storage, because there's absolutely local storage for Play movies on Android devices.

However, if you have any Android devices, you're likely to have some Play content - contrary to what seems to be the belief here, people do buy content outside of the Apple ecosystem - and this app lets you play it on your iOS devices or stream it on a Chromecast. I don't see how this is a bad thing.

Also: why all the talk about lack of privacy? How is buying/renting a movie from Google any different at all from buying/renting one from Apple?

----------
sir1963nz said:
So much harder to insert adverts in downloaded material of course, much better to stream it so they know where you are and can sell local adverts too
Click to expand...
Um, what? There are no advertisements in Play Movie streams.
 
brinary001 said:
Nice! It's good to see Apple letting up a bit on competing services.
Click to expand...

It would be interesting if it worked the OTHER way - Google allowed Apple services. But that will never happen. Apple is more open than the competitors - funny how the haters want to believe otherwise.
 
SPUY767 said:
My grandfather told me years ago, that if you're using a service, and you're not paying for it, that you are not the consumer, but the product.
Click to expand...
When you buy/rent content, you're paying for it and are the consumer. Your point?
 
This needs to support Airplay (live Amazon Prime does) for it to be an attractive option for me to use. I won't buy content if I can't play it on my TV. Apple has made an Apple TV a very compelling accessory to my iDevices, so it has become my go to streaming box for the majority of what I watch.
For the record I have a Chromecast, but the lack of support for remotes makes it cumbersome for long format playback.
 
Last edited:
Carlanga said:
you can't buy stuff directly anyways
Click to expand...

Even the article perpetuates this fallacy; Apple does not block apps or other vendors from selling things through their apps; Apple does require that those sales be done via in-app purchasing. Valid or not, this is an important distinction in my opinion.

Honestly, I think in-app purchase requirement is consumer-friendly, in that it allows customers to not have to provide finical information to every vendor and all app sales can be monitored and reviewed from one location, your iTunes account.
 
bbeagle said:
It would be interesting if it worked the OTHER way - Google allowed Apple services. But that will never happen. Apple is more open than the competitors - funny how the haters want to believe otherwise.
Click to expand...
Right. It's Google that's disallowing Apple's services. Of course. Because Apple has published the code to allow those services outside of Apple servers. Why don't others use iMessage protocols? It must be because they are open but yet no one else will implement them. How about iTunes? Surely the DRM on anything video-related is easily used by other companies.

Apple is not even remotely, not even vaguely open. None of the big guys are. Not Apple, not Amazon, not Google, when it comes to DRM'd content and provider-specific protocols.

It is core to Apple's business model that you need to buy an Apple product to access most of the Apple content. Music can be moved around, but little else.

----------
SirLance99 said:
I buy a movie or two from Play Movies almost every week.
Click to expand...
Movies, music, or some other content, every week. Same here.

----------
dandy1117 said:
Even the article perpetuates this fallacy; Apple does not block apps or other vendors from selling things through their apps; Apple does require that those sales be done via in-app purchasing. Valid or not, this is an important distinction in my opinion.
Click to expand...
What you mention does, if fact, effectively prevent the purchase via the app, because Apple takes 30% off the top. That's essentially all the profit Google would have made, so there's no reason to give it to Apple when it's pretty easy to purchase via Safari on your iOS device anyway.
 
dandy1117 said:
Even the article perpetuates this fallacy; Apple does not block apps or other vendors from selling things through their apps; Apple does require that those sales be done via in-app purchasing. Valid or not, this is an important distinction in my opinion.

Honestly, I think in-app purchase requirement is consumer-friendly, in that it allows customers to not have to provide finical information to every vendor and all app sales can be monitored and reviewed from one location, your iTunes account.
Click to expand...

Lol it's NOT a fallacy. The app doesn't have in app purchase. They don't do it because they would lose 30% of the sale which is how much apple takes from app purchases. If they made it a requirement then you wouldn't see many apps that are out there today ;)
 
samcraig said:
Lazy?

Is Apple lazy because they don't support chromecast? Why would Google support an Apple protocol?

As for offline play - it's entirely possible they haven't made the rights agreement for that (yet). That's not necc being lazy. Unless you have details we don't.
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly, devices do NOT stream to the Chromecast. Rather, the Chromecast checks what the device is viewing and pulls it by itself from the Internet. That would explain why there is no offline viewing. Or has that changed?
 
Renzatic said:
Name one popular product Google killed that was regularly in use. The only one that caused a stir when it shut down was Google Reader. The rest? Buzz and Wave weren't used all that much, and their functionality ended up being rolled into other services.

I call shenanigans. Name one of their services you used that was suddenly shut down. Name one you used where your suddenly found your content unavailable to you without warning.
Click to expand...

YouTube :p
And I mean the site suddenly sucking so bad that a bunch of people (including me) abandoned their channels, not media being pulled for copyright violation.

----------
osx11 said:
Let's start an Anti-Google campaign and switch our default search engines to Yahoo or Bing.

The more people use alternatives, the better they will get.

I just switched. Feels good!
Click to expand...

Nope. What's wrong with Google's search?

----------
Asuriyan said:
Why would anyone at all pick this over iTunes?
Click to expand...

Anyone at all with a Mac*
 
Last edited:
What is the point of this, you can already watch all your purchased or rented content on the iOS Youtube app? I'd rather have seen an iPad update to the Google Play Music app, which I'd be using all day at work if it didn't look like complete a..on the iPad.
 
Good. Maybe this will get Apple to fix the big piece of bloatware that itunes has become. I remember the days when itunes "just worked." You had your songs, you had your albums, you had your movies, it was all simple, simple, simple. I don't know what happened to that itunes -- we all make fun of the anti-intuitive GUI of Windows 8 but itunes is Apple's version of Windows 8. Big, bloated, hard to use, anti-intuitive, really kind of a pain in the ass. I avoid opening it on my computer unless I'm doing a backup/sync and I only use the iOS version.
 
Renzatic said:
Name one popular product Google killed that was regularly in use. The only one that caused a stir when it shut down was Google Reader. The rest? Buzz and Wave weren't used all that much, and their functionality ended up being rolled into other services.

I call shenanigans. Name one of their services you used that was suddenly shut down. Name one you used where your suddenly found your content unavailable to you without warning.
Click to expand...

Picasa albums
 
Eff you, see Kay Google!

Google is evil. Period. You let Google in, you deserve everything that you get.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back