Just Duke - Mostly Tech Ponderings

Not long ago, I made the statement that I was through being an early adopter for any new technology. Being patient and waiting for the 2nd or 3rd generation of a product almost always meant, more bang for your buck, and much less headache. But yesterday morning, I found myself reading mediocre reviews for Google's TV product and specifically, Logitech's Revue unit. Later that day, I landed at Best Buy, and they had a unit set up for me to play with. I ended up bringing it home. I've owned the product less than 24 hours, but below are my initial impressions.

Hardware:

The Revue box is not small as Apple TV, or Roku's Boxee box, but it's still small. Piano Black and very shiny plastic. On the front are two LED Lights. On the back, you will find  HDMI IN/OUT ports,  power, two infrared blaster ports, a Ethernet port and two USB Ports. Included in the packaging is one HDMI cable. The remote keyboard is white on the bottom and black on the top. The keyboard includes a trackpad, and is very quality feeling. The Keyboard is powered by two AA batteries, with an on/off switch located just above the trackpad on the front edge.Controls are in place to control volume and turn off the TV, Set Top Box, and the Audio Source.  My initial impressions are that Logitech has done a very good job with the hardware. Other than the fingerprint magnet plastic of the box, I'm liking the hardware of this package. And it's not like I'm going to be fingerprinting that box now that it's set up.

Set up

Hooking the device to your Television probably couldn't get any easier. Place the Revue between your Set Top Box (cable box, or Satellite box) and your television. In fact, think hooking up an old VCR. Out of the Set Top Box, into your Revue. Out of your Revue into your Television. Insert the IR Blaster, plug it up, and in 90% of the cases, you are done with wires. Boot the device up and give it your email address, and it downloads any updates. It told me that it would take 10-15 minutes, but it took closer to 30 minutes before mine was complete. After the update, it steps you through identifying your Set Top Box, and the model number of your television.  This didn't take very long at all, and I was done with the set up inside of an hour. 

Software

Most in the Tech world know that Google TV was built upon Google's Android Operating system. The same OS that is powering all of those Android Smartphones that are very popular. But you would never know it looking at the Revue's screens. To access your Google TV, simply find the Home Key on the keyboard. On the left, you have options such as Bookmarks, Applications, Spotlight, Most Visited, Queue, What's on, Amazon VOD, and Netflix. Applications are something that certainly is a buzz word in the tech world today. And Google is working hard to apply that philosophy to it's TV product by expanding it's abilities through 3rd party offerings. However, at this time Applications aren't exactly something to blow you away. But there are a few offerings and I will break them down for you:

• CNBC Real Time- A stock watcher app. And pretty good also as it includes feeds from CNBC and the ability to feed in your own stocks and watch them.
• Google Chrome- It's Google's Chrome browser, with support for Flash and HTML5.
• Logitech Help Assistant- Video Tutorials of how to use the Revue.
• Logitech Media Player- This app can pull your media from networked PC's and display your pictures and videos on your Television. This is a beta product and to be honest I haven't had a chance to explore this feature yet. More in a future article.
• Logitech Vid HD- Nothing more than an advertisement to add Logitech's expensive HD Cam to the unit.
• Napster - Probably a cool app if you are a Napster Subscriber! I'm not
• NBA Game Time- This looks like a very neat app. It includes schedules, games, standings and clicking on any final game gives you further information such as scoring by quarter, percentages and individual stats. I'll be exploring this one further.
• Netflix- At first I didn't think this was even available to stream. But it is! And it works GREAT! Thanks to DB for pointing this out in the comments below! 
• Pandora- Works just like it does on a PC or a Smartphone! Great App!
• Settings - Tweak your screen size,network, etc
• TV - What a waste of an app! Pushing it returns you to your Set Top Box. Like there isn't at least two other ways to get there from the keyboard.
• Twitter - I would love to tell you all about this app, as I love Twitter! But this thing crashed on me upon logging in and it refuses to launch now. I've informed Logitech. With that said, I think I would rather Tweet from my Nexus or my PC. Of course, I haven't seen Tweetdeck's app that is coming either! But with that said, this is very frustrating.

Google has promised market access and updates. These can't come soon enough as far as this guy is concerned. But the software being incomplete is just part of the problem. Network TV executives are the other part. You see, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and Hulu have all blocked access to Google TV. What's up with that? Boxee users, Apple TV users, Any user with a PC can access this stuff all day long, but Google TV has been blocked. I'm thinking that someone is feeling a little threatened with what Google has put together here. One thing is for sure. Google needs to get this worked out RIGHT NOW. 

Conclusion:

As I said, being an early adopter usually isn't very smart. But I think I'm going to keep this unit. I'm liking the Keyboard remote, and all that it can do. I also like the Android remote available in the Android Market that can be used to control the unit. The Picture in Picture feature is nice! When Google introduced Google TV, it's slogan was: TV meets Web, Web meets TV. But for right now, Google TV only has one strong point; getting the internet on your Television. When it comes to anything that originated in a Television Studio, it's very limited on your Google TV.

With that said, I love Podcasts. I listen and watch several and it was really nice yesterday to pull them up, subscribe to them, and watch them. Beyond the politics of the Networks Vs Google, there are things that don't make a lot of sense. For example, some of the things on the screen require that you click the "OK" key on the keyboard. Other things, require you to click the "mouse" button. This was very confusing at first, but I'm starting to learn when which button applies. Some features are very nice features within the software. Other features are buggy and the whole experience feels kind of "Early Beta". With all of that said, I see a whole lot of potential with Google TV and Logitech's Revue Unit. My advice to you: Don't buy today, but keep an eye on this product. It has the potential to be major in how you watch and interact with your TV. Competitors products are cheaper! But they don't offer the features that Google has put together with this software. Google and Logitech have promised updates in 2011. CES happens in two weeks! Logitech has already announced it will be there showing off new GTV stuff. Come March if I'm still waiting on Google TV to get better, well, lets just say, I'm not going to be happy. But for now, I'll take advantage of podcasts, Pandora, Videos and more on my TV, with the expectation that soon I will have network TV, and other 3rd party apps to expand my GTV's abilities.