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Google Working On Wireless Home Entertainment System

macrumors12345 said:
AIM Mail and iCloud mail are more reliable than GMail. I had to set my GMail account to permanent forwarding two years ago because it chokes if I am getting mail on more than 2 computers.
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In what universe is iCloud Mail more reliable? iCloud is a complete joke, the 'Me Mail' has been riddled with outages and flaws due to apple not actually using a cloud at all (no, iCloud is NOT a cloud platform).

Gmail has been proven to be the most reliable across the globe. Its highly stable and has been adopted by a large number of ISP's (in the UK, the largest ISP even adopted it, and its worked perfectly).

macrumors12345 said:
The YouTube ads are unbelievably intrusive now that they block the content itself. I don't use video sharing much, but I prefer Vimeo.
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I assume you are aware that its down to the channel owner to decide if obtrusive ads are displayed...

macrumors12345 said:
I have no issues with Chrome, but it doesn't offer anything that makes me want to use it over Safari or Firefox.
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Chrome has the best support for Webstandards, closely trailed by Safari.
Chrome has a huge addon/extension base, Safari's is pitiful.
Chrome has in the space of about 3 years, gone from nothing to having a greater marketshare than Firefox. Safari's great, but its effectively just Chrome with less features.
 
pmau said:
I disagree with YouTube. It even works in HD on my Samsung over Wi-Fi.
With the rest I totally agree. And all Google API sucks badly.

Install Eclipse and all the Plugins for Android.
Try to write a half-decent Phone App with GUI.
Compared to that, iOS is pure heaven.

Yes, I do think that Samsung and HTC are ahead in some hardware models.
But Android? No, it's no real alternative.

Android just is successful, because hardware makers need some OS to put on their shinz new plastic devices.

Google's Android really has no chance in hell. Just look at it.
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xcode is a pile of junk, its so slow and the amount of times it warns you that xcode is running in an inconstant state and you have to close it down is quite frankly sickening.
 
I dont understand Google. I mean...I understand what they do and why...but I still dont unerstand them.
 
ptysell said:
The is the 2nd biggest issue with the Motorola acquisition.
Google will essentially get 100% market penetration through cable companies as it starts to produce cable boxes for cable providers. Consumers rarely have a choice as to what brand of cable box the can lease.

The biggest issue is Googles ability to acquire marketing data (and distribute ads) through these cable boxes again with next to no consumer choice.
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Do you really think that Google is just going to grab all of the information off of the STBs and DVRs? They'll have to strike a deal with the cable operators to get that information. What incentive does a Comcast have in putting Google on their STBs?

So for Google to "penetrate" this market, they'll have to pay a pretty penny to the cable operators, or share the data.

I don't think that Google has a long history of sharing their data, nor do the cable operators.

In the end, if this deal were to get done, there will be a lot of compromise and negotiations. It'll take a long time, unless a disruptive tech comes along and forces the cable operators to take action ... hmmm, what could that be?
 
GuitarDTO said:
I feel like at some point these companies need to stick with what they are good at.
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Yes, you'd think Google and Microsoft would learn after finding their copies don't match up to the Apple originals. They usually only succeed at what they innovate themselves.
 
neiltc13 said:
Funny to see the fanboys coming up with reasons not to buy this. But aren't you the ones with a little black box that can't even do 1080p under your TV?
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I don't own an Apple TV, but I do own the ability to read the writing on the wall i.e. Google sucks at trying to do anything with the living room.
 
JHankwitz said:
Yes, you'd think Google and Microsoft would learn after finding their copies don't match up to the Apple originals. They usually only succeed at what they innovate themselves.
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Would be true if Google had copied anything from Apple. As you would know from extensive use of Android, its not even close to being any kind of copy. Other than that I cant think of a single thing you could call a copy...

As for MS, IIRC they havn't copied anything from Apple since Vista now (where they blatantly ripped Spotlight's design)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

Stick to web search guys.
 
Say what you want about Google, but their online offerings (mail especially) are generally light years ahead of Apple. They offer some great products and Apple will always be playing catch up in a lot of the cloud market based solely on the head start that Google had.

Too bad Google does their best to negate all of the product work they do by mining and selling off the data that you generate.
 
I've had the displeasure of setting up two different home theaters receivers recently. And both times, the same thought crossed my mind -- "I sure wish Apple would make a receiver." You spend $500 for a decent receiver, and the interfaces of these things are so bloody awful. There's definitely an opportunity for Apple to sweep in with a great product that has a well-designed interface.

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rmwebs said:
Would be true if Google had copied anything from Apple. As you would know from extensive use of Android, its not even close to being any kind of copy. Other than that I cant think of a single thing you could call a copy...
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Before the iPhone was released, the Android phone that Google was working on looked like a traditional Blackberry phone: half screen, half keyboard, and only a modest amount of touchscreen input. The design was completely revamped once the iPhone came out.
 
rmwebs said:
Whats the difference if its purchased or not? You could say the same about Apple, or any other company for that matter.
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You're replying to the wrong person.

People need to stop deluding themselves, Google has a hell of a lot more successes than people blindly make out.
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Google shareholders (ie, the owners if the company) disagree with you.
 
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rmwebs said:
In what universe is iCloud Mail more reliable? iCloud is a complete joke, the 'Me Mail' has been riddled with outages and flaws due to apple not actually using a cloud at all (no, iCloud is NOT a cloud platform).

Gmail has been proven to be the most reliable across the globe. Its highly stable and has been adopted by a large number of ISP's (in the UK, the largest ISP even adopted it, and its worked perfectly).
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Hmmmm, who to believe, your uncited assertions or my own lying eyes?

Look, if Gmail works for you because you only use the web client or you just have one computer, great. But it failed for me years ago (and many others have the same problem, as I found out on the forums while trying to fix the issue), and I've moved on.

I assume you are aware that its down to the channel owner to decide if obtrusive ads are displayed...
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That would go a long way towards explaining why YouTube is so bad. No standards at all.

Not sure why you're still beating the Chrome dead horse. I think it's a perfectly fine browser. If you think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and it OMG PWNZ!!! every other browser out there, then I'd disagree, but I don't think we're that far apart on this one.
 
I honestly struggle to see what unique competitive-advantage or skill set it is that Google thinks its going to bring to the home-entertainment arena.

Lets be very clear about this: Google has never succeeded at selling consumers on a Google-branded product. Its one thing to give away e-mail accounts, or a document writing app, or a video hosting site. Its another thing entirely to ask customers to pony up their hard-earned cash.

What is Google really, really good at? I don't think there is any doubt about the brilliance and innovation of their search algorithms. And I think they have created a lot of value in their method of pairing advertisers to customers based on search terms. But does this translate into a product that meets the needs of consumers in the home entertainment field? I don't think so.

People struggle with their home entertainment systems for a whole host of reasons. You've got media coming at you from a half-dozen or so different pipes: Your CD collection; your DVDs; your cable box; your mp3 files; Netflix; Hulu; YouTube; Vimeo; the Cloud (Amazon and Apple's); from NAS servers. You've also got a tremendous amount of investment in legacy hardware: The 50" LCD you just bought; your cable box; your Dolby 7.1 amplifier; etc. etc.

You've also got to face the fact that the most-likely customers for an integrated wireless entertainment system, are often times going to be the most resistant to junking their legacy hardware. Who is going to toss out a set of $4000 Klipsch reference speakers in favor of something with a Google label on it?

On the low(er) end Google will be bumping up against Sonos and Bose and other makers of wireless home audio systems. Companies that have not just coexisted with Apple's iTunes juggernaut - but have actually thrived. These are companies that have sometimes decades of experience designing, engineering, manufacturing; and (most importantly) selling their hardware to consumers.

The biggest problem in the living room isn't finding something decent to watch or listen to. If it was, maybe Google would be the right company to have a breakaway hit product. The biggest problem is getting all your boxes and feeds to work together. And there are, IMHO, many, many companies better situated to solve that problem.
 
cajun67 said:
Before the iPhone was released, the Android phone that Google was working on looked like a traditional Blackberry phone: half screen, half keyboard, and only a modest amount of touchscreen input. The design was completely revamped once the iPhone came out.
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Still listening to that lie? :rolleyes: It's been proven in at least 50 threads on MR (no, thats NOT an exaggeration) that Android was shown and worked on a full-screen device with no keyboard.
 
rmwebs said:
Still listening to that lie? :rolleyes: It's been proven in at least 50 threads on MR (no, thats NOT an exaggeration) that Android was shown and worked on a full-screen device with no keyboard.
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Where? I may have missed that, sounds like complete fabrication.

This is the Android prototype that was shown at the MWC 2008 in Barcelona:

android_prototype_550x385.jpg


Where are the photos of that mythical pre-2007 no-keyboard Android phone?
 
AustinIllini said:
Reminds me of when Jobs returned to Apple and got rid of a ton of products. Google did the same thing. Wave, Buzz, Plus...all gone.
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it should -- Jobs personally advised google co-founder Larry Page to focus on a few things and do them really well, and cut the crap.
 
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gkpm said:
Where? I may have missed that, sounds like complete fabrication.

This is the Android prototype that was shown at the MWC 2008 in Barcelona:

Image

Where are the photos of that mythical pre-2007 no-keyboard Android phone?
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Take a look in any number of the android patent threads on here. There was a video released by google BEFORE the iPhone was released demoing two handsets. One was a blackberry style, one was a full screen device that looked a little like the G1.
 
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