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Google Preparing 'Android TV' Set-Top Box with Native Apps, Simple Interface, Voice Search
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With Plex and the Roku media player (for USB), I dont really see how WD is better.
I really don't see how it is the best UI on the market - In my opinion it's pretty much even between Roku and ATV.
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The email by Apple posted earlier in the thread pretty much confirmed that they entered the market based on the 8" Galaxy tabs.
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How is Chromecast a failed attempt?
Breaking their almost set-in-stone product cycle of 1 year for mobile devices was done for what reason then?
It was done because they rushed the Retina to market in an effort to differentiate their product and it turned out that the hardware was ill-equipped to power the high resolution screen without diminished battery life and higher heat output.
The iPad 4 is that the iPad 3 should have been.
So many defensive, passive-aggressive (sometimes not so passive) people in here... why? WHY does it matter? Do these companies PAY you to "care"?
Sheesh, get a grip kids.
Sheesh, get a grip kids.
So if the 4th gen was just a no big deal incremental update how were us 3rd gen owners treated as mugs?
Because in effect you bought the iPad 4 beta.
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Thats pretty rich coming from someone with this post on the previous page:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18966796/
Yeah and they proceeded to CRUSH the mini-tablet market on Day 1 of the iPad Mini release. It doesn't really matter anymore whether Apple is technically "first" to market anymore, people are always waiting in line for Apple gear.
And I don't care how many people waited in line for one, the first iPad mini was garbage using 3 year old technology....
If Apple released the iTurd there would still be a massive queue for it.
Be glad you have free will then, and haven't wasted time on forums complaining about it, when you have far better things to... obviously.
Meh, rather 'Oh come join the competition Google.'. This is good for Apple, keeps them "sharp", this is even better for the consumer, more choices and this is heaven for those whom like to see prices of gadgets going down in the near future.
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Spot on.
This is a shame ... it appears Apple have lost their innovative edge. They had the tech and infrastructure to do something like this years ago but they're letting Amazon and now Google beat them to the punch.
I'm a very loyal Apple user but even I'm now straying to other tech as I'm bored of waiting for them to show their hand .. moved my core Apple TV function (sharing iTunes media which never worked reliably) to Plex and my Airplay (streaming music) to Sonos.
I'm a very loyal Apple user but even I'm now straying to other tech as I'm bored of waiting for them to show their hand .. moved my core Apple TV function (sharing iTunes media which never worked reliably) to Plex and my Airplay (streaming music) to Sonos.
Yes it is.
Wanna bet that 99% of the consumer will state: '**** the ecosystem' when the box doesn't work porperly?
Just like Apple. And of course there is nothing wrong with that.
I'm pretty sure that both companies, Apple and Google, will do there best to dominate the tv market with their boxes, the question remains if they will succeed. I i'm convinced that both can really achieve something special here as long the cable industry doesn't really co-operate. Both Apple and Google had a hard time to get cable companies as far to deliver content in exchange for lot's of money, but that's not enough. People, the consumers, are quite conservative. I like Apple TV, I've got one, but I just made one or two payments in the past few years to see some content on it. 99,9% of the time I'm using Apple TV just for Airplay, to see content on my iPad on the big screen. Almost every person I know, both among my friends and family don't have such an Apple TV box, neither are they planning to buy one and they don't consider the Google Set Top Box as well. Why? Simple, they don't need it. they can watch all the content on television and what they have missed they can look back online or even on their TV directly in most cases even 1 week ago.
Sure, and they did a good job with that but it's still not that impressive when you consider how many tv their are world wide and how many consumers are out their. There is much to gain yet, this is just a very very small step into the direction of truly changing or even revolutionize the TV industry. Apple isn't there yet, not even close I may add, neither is Google.
In Apple's case, I would recommend changing the look and feel of the whole interface, it's design is a bit outdated to put it mildly.
Not sure about that, but you do have a point that Apple didn't come up with interesting, both, hardware and software in the last several years. Only improvements which, don't get me wrong, I welcome
Ho ho, no need to get dramatic here, the television market is yet to be conquered. both Apple and Google aren't there yet, and that's vey mildly put.
Good for you. Why not? The tech market is not one owned by Apple (god thanks), I even think it's not very smart to hold on to one brand just because it's the brand of your liking. No one, in my humble opinion, should be a real fanboy, it will disable the person it's oppertunities. I work on a Mac Pro (the previous version still) and both me and my girlfriend have an iPhone 5 and both an iPad Air, an older macbook pro laptop and we have even an Apple TV and a Apple Mini running as a media server. But, we also have a PC laptop and various other hardware from other companies.
If you're smart you follow your instinct and collect your wanna haves among various brands because "the best" doesn't only comes from Apple, neither from any other company. "The best" hardware and software is among a variety of companies, not just one. And that's a fact.
I really dislike iTunes, never ever liked it to begin with. Like you I'm using Plex, even got a life time account at Plex in order to sync all the content whenever I want on my iPad Air. Works like a charm. Got a Plex server running on my Apple Mini so I can always acces it's content using my iPad Air or even my iPhone in order to stream it to my television or beamer using Airplay in combination with Apple TV. Works like a charm.
I was agreeing with you on just about everything, especially how the tab motivated Apple to release a mini.
However, to state that the first mini as trash is a bit harsh. If specs are all you care.. perhaps you're right. I have the first mini and its has the best form factor of all mini tablets I've had my hands on. For devices where portability is a factor, specs don't matter as much. Plus its fast enough to run just about any game and app I have. I'm really hesitating to upgrade my mini to the retina mainly because the added weight and thickness.
The first mini has the best weight to thickness form factor, which matters a lot to many. Even the technically lighter nexus 7 feels heavier than the first mini due to the surface area to weight ratio.
Have you even used anything of theirs outside of google search in the past 2 yrs? They've really cleaned up their UI and unified their "design language". It no longer feels like just a smattering of features.
Go for Gold
This all seems great, but many people note the voice search is not as good as it ought to be..
Similarly, the biggest issue here, not just with Amazon Fire TV, but Apple TV too, is universal search.... No user should have to have search results in all different places.
One universal search that searches across everything the user is logged into, eg Netflix, Pandora etc. at a given time...
This would be a boom even for Apple TV, I'm surprised Amazon didn't have it. And most importantly, why Apple didn't even think of this.
I cannot understand why you want to play games on TV with a "streaming device" marketed as such, but with an option to play games..
These devices do not have good GPU's, there not designed or gaming, they're designed for streaming, with game support... That's very different than an actual game device like a fully fledged desktop/laptop with better hardware, and xBox One, designed for such.. If true from Apple, then expect the simple games, no hardcore stuff.
This all seems great, but many people note the voice search is not as good as it ought to be..
Similarly, the biggest issue here, not just with Amazon Fire TV, but Apple TV too, is universal search.... No user should have to have search results in all different places.
One universal search that searches across everything the user is logged into, eg Netflix, Pandora etc. at a given time...
This would be a boom even for Apple TV, I'm surprised Amazon didn't have it. And most importantly, why Apple didn't even think of this.
I cannot understand why you want to play games on TV with a "streaming device" marketed as such, but with an option to play games..
These devices do not have good GPU's, there not designed or gaming, they're designed for streaming, with game support... That's very different than an actual game device like a fully fledged desktop/laptop with better hardware, and xBox One, designed for such.. If true from Apple, then expect the simple games, no hardcore stuff.
This is why I'm so upset that Boxee failed and is now defunct (although I'm not sure who is more to blame-DLink or Boxee themselves). At least there we had a box that was AWESOME for playing local content (on your local network) and could play full BD rips with uncompressed audio, along with supporting most (if not all) of the streaming services.
All of this with an interface light years beyond ATV or Roku.
With Netflix devoid of pretty much any movies from major studios now (almost the same with Amazon), honestly I don't even use it except for TV shows. Other than going back to getting discs from Netflix (way to take two steps back, everybody) I don't even know what is a good option for mainstream movies anymore.
All of this with an interface light years beyond ATV or Roku.
With Netflix devoid of pretty much any movies from major studios now (almost the same with Amazon), honestly I don't even use it except for TV shows. Other than going back to getting discs from Netflix (way to take two steps back, everybody) I don't even know what is a good option for mainstream movies anymore.
If you're a consumer, there is no "Android based marketplace." And Fire TV is not intended to be an open box at all; it is entirely optimized to sell Amazon content.
Funny cause Siri always works for me while Google Now never has. That doesn't even go into the fact that Siri can see my calendars that aren't iCloud while Google Now is useless unless you have everything in Google Calendar. Plus the whole thing where Siri doesn't drain my battery in an hour like Google Now does.
And Google didn't create or come up with Android, they bought it.
And Waze is TEN times what Google Maps is (along with Apple Maps) while Gmail, which might have been good at one point, basically looks like a relic of ten years ago with any changes coming only to prop up their failed social network.
People buy Android for one reason, and one reason only: it's cheap.
Apple has lost their innovative edge because they don't announce things until they're done while Google just makes a big deal over announcing vapourware and then quietly kill it before it's even released?
Ok....