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Google Takes Aim at Apple with New Nexus 7, Google Play Games and Chromecast

Device looks great, specs are great, price looks great, software looks great.

However...the experience is still bad. Just using the nexus 7 (original) for the past few days the experience of android is still really lame...its slow and still doesn't feel smooth especially when web browsing.
 
Eidorian said:
We've been doing this for too long. You might want to leave Page 1 if you do not want to see people critical of the company to love. Now, loving a company is insane in my book.
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Obvious trolls are just too obvious. Their reaction to Chromecast is simply bizarre. It's almost like they have never heard of Airplay.

If you actually get into a feature by feature comparison, it immediately boils down to, you don't need to own Apple gear to use Chromecast. Then you realize this is Macrumors.com, why owning Apple product is becoming a bad thing on an Apple fans site.
 
Before anyone gets too excited about the Nexus, remember it still runs Android…:(

And the Chromecast looks totally cool, until you start to dig a little deeper. First, you have to connect a power cord to it. Second, it only works with Youtube, Google Play or Netflix, or a tab in Chrome browser. My Apple TV will show WHATEVER is on the screen of my Mac or iOS device. Typical Google kludge.
 
Eidorian said:
We've been doing this for too long. You might want to leave Page 1 if you do not want to see people critical of the company to love. Now, loving a company is insane in my book.
Click to expand...

Renzatic said:
Yup. There are 15 of us lurking around. After spying and trying to brainwash everyone here, we all get together to hang out and play pool at the local rec center. It's a pretty cool job.
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Anyone critical of Apple is clearly an Astroturfer. Your covers have been blown. Please leave now lest you be shamed further you Googlers you!
 
Google should focus more on developing apps for their tablets and improving Android's UI than just upping specs. It's still an underwhelming UX, IMO. Not to mention, for tablets, a larger display definitely makes a difference.

That's probably why my N7 is somewhere collecting dust.
 
jayducharme said:
I'd thought of it too until I researched it a bit more. Apparently (someone correct me if I'm wrong), the dongle allows you to stream music and videos, which is fine. But what I mostly use the Apple TV for is to mirror my iPhone or iPad on the big screen. Perhaps Android devices allow for this functionality. But I need something that makes my iPhone more than just a media streamer.
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You are incorrect... The GoogleCast can mirror content from a phone/tablet/PC as well. See this video: http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/24/4553824/googles-san-francisco-event-in-under-five-minutes
(forward to 3:30)

Support for this will be in the next version of Chrome, I expect.

It definitely is Google's answer to AirPlay - but a more open standard.
 
dustinsc said:
Chromecast finally brings something to compete with AirPlay. Been wondering why no one has implemented anything competitive to that feature so far.
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It is a cool device and I even ordered one (Since I already pay for Netflix, it essentially cost me $10) but it doesn't really compete with Airplay - You can't just take a video you shot of your kids and beam it to the TV, it needs to be uploaded to Google+ or YouTube first. Same with photos on your phone.

It does seem a bit better for watching youtube videos though as you can just queue items and then you are done with your phone, with AirPlay it streams to your device then to the TV, wasting your local bandwidth and phone battery. But Apple could easily implement a similar software solution if they wanted to.

As for the new Nexus 7, I will probably wait for reviews. I own the original and it is quite terrible. Chrome just became usable in landscape, before this weeks update you had the status bar, chrome address bar and the bottom soft buttons taking up 1/3 of the vertical screen space, making it a horrible experience in landscape. Now the chrome address bar slides away, so it is improved, but iPad Mini is still way better at web browsing with its 4:3 screen.

Other than that I think the new lighter weight could help it as the current N7 feels heavier than the Mini, even though it is only ~30 grams heavier. I think it is just bad weight distribution. Hopefully the new CPU and extra RAM will help with the overall laginess of the system - you often touch something and it takes around a second to respond (Note: this is mainly a problem with the N7, I have a Nexus 4 and its touch response is quite good.)

The sad thing for me is that this Nexus 7 is going to be worth nothing in a few days (I have the 8GB model.) But I only bought it for app testing, so not really a huge loss.
 
Concur

BryanLyle said:
The chromecast seems interesting until you read that it also comes with a usb cable and power adapter. So, you plug this into the HDMI port and then out of that you have a cable and a power adapter.

Won't look as sleek as the promo shots with a cord dangling out of it.

Edit: Looks like you can either plug it into the power adapter or a USB port on your TV if you have one.
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Exactly, Apple's and SJ's vision was to make beautiful products that integrate with each other seamlessly without added extra wires/device. While there is the appeal to do this for any device, I don't think a lot of people with updated Apple devices and the latest gear will need it as much. I'd rather have everything integrated than extra wires and an extra device to worry about. Plus I already have a SmartTv with integrated Apps and the AppleTV that plays HD. Why do I need one thing more? :confused::confused::confused:
 
rdlink said:
Before anyone gets too excited about the Nexus, remember it still runs Android…:(

And the Chromecast looks totally cool, until you start to dig a little deeper. First, you have to connect a power cord to it. Second, it only works with Youtube, Google Play or Netflix, or a tab in Chrome browser. My Apple TV will show WHATEVER is on the screen of my Mac or iOS device. Typical Google kludge.
Click to expand...

Power cord or USB cable. Both my panels have powered USB ports. Also guess you missed the mirroring part with the "Google Cast SDK". Don't blame you though, it wasn't mentioned much.
 
But wait...,

Fandroids have been telling us that Android is so much more advanced than iOS. Now they are falling over a clone of something iOS has had for years. Will they keep their story consistent or just do What Sammy and Google tells them to do?
 
This does exactly what I've wished the Apple TV would allow you to do: hand off a YouTube video to the device and let it stream it itself. With the Apple TV, you either have to use it's cumbersome interface for YouTube, or use Airplay, both of which are suboptimal.

I'm hoping Apple copies this concept, and comes up with a generic method of handing off a stream to the Apple TV (authenticated or not), so that all apps can do this.
 
rdlink said:
Before anyone gets too excited about the Nexus, remember it still runs Android…:(

And the Chromecast looks totally cool, until you start to dig a little deeper. First, you have to connect a power cord to it. Second, it only works with Youtube, Google Play or Netflix, or a tab in Chrome browser. My Apple TV will show WHATEVER is on the screen of my Mac or iOS device. Typical Google kludge.
Click to expand...

Considering the fact that HDMI does not provide any power that is really not surprising. HDMI spec does not have any power output for it to draw on. So it will run off of USB or power cord. The USB part is because a lot of TV's today have USB ports on them so easy access to power. That means it runs on less than 2.5 watts of power.

----------
DaveN said:
Fandroids have been telling us that Android is so much more advanced than iOS. Now they are falling over a clone of something iOS has had for years. Will they keep their story consistent or just do What Sammy and Google tells them to do?
Click to expand...

oooh you mean Airplay which was a rip off of DNLA?

You might want to look at iOS 5-7 which are pretty much pure copies of what Android has had for years.....
 
Autosaver said:
What does it do then? If it can't mirror apps then I likely won't purchase this.

Apparently there is supposed to be more support in the future? Ehhh
Click to expand...

Yeah, just like with the nexus Q. Oh wait, google screwed everyone over who bought one by discontinuing support less than a year after release.

Fool me once...

Well not me, literally. I was never stupid enough to buy a nexus Q.
 
BryanLyle said:
So, you plug this into the HDMI port and then out of that you have a cable and a power adapter.

Won't look as sleek as the promo shots with a cord dangling out of it.

.
Click to expand...


Omg... did you really just say that? Please for the love of god be a troll. OF COURSE THE DAMN THING NEEDS POWER! It's just like anything else that you plug into your TV! Does apple show their Apple TV with cables no! Does Xbox? NO Does PS3 NO!
 
tempusfugit said:
Yeah, just like with the nexus Q. Oh wait, google screwed everyone over who bought one by discontinuing support less than a year after release.

Fool me once...

Well not me, literally. I was never stupid enough to buy a nexus Q.
Click to expand...

No one actually bought the Nexus Q, they got them all for free. They offered it for pre order, cancelled the pre order and never charged and then sent people who pre ordered a Nexus Q for free.

http://www.mobileburn.com/20229/new...nch-offers-free-device-to-all-who-pre-ordered
 
tempusfugit said:
Yeah, just like with the nexus Q. Oh wait, google screwed everyone over who bought one by discontinuing support less than a year after release.

Fool me once...

Well not me, literally. I was never stupid enough to buy a nexus Q.
Click to expand...
It was a stillborn product and Google still fulfilled the pre-orders for free. I suspect the Chromecast is the follow up. Even so it's going to need a lot more time. I'm sure people are excited today but developers need to play with the SDK.
 
nilk said:
This does exactly what I've wished the Apple TV would allow you to do: hand off a YouTube video to the device and let it stream it itself. With the Apple TV, you either have to use it's cumbersome interface for YouTube, or use Airplay, both of which are suboptimal.

I'm hoping Apple copies this concept, and comes up with a generic method of handing off a stream to the Apple TV (authenticated or not), so that all apps can do this.
Click to expand...

I use McTube as my YouTube interface. All the videos and none of the intrusive Google advertising. Unfortunately Google made the developer remove caching. Do no evil you know!
 
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