Chrome to TV

The new Google TV is a bit glitchy, and I wish the clock was on the other side of the home screen, but so far fun. What I want to meantion that most people would probably never find is Chrome to TV.

There is a chrome extention called Chrome to Phone, that pushes a site from your chrome browser to your phone, if you need to leave or something. They incorporated it into Google TV, so now when you have a youtube video on your computer you can push it straight to the TV with only a click of one button. That simple feature might be the nicest of all the updates, and it isn't even advertised.

Gingerbread update!

My TV just alerted me it is updating. Finally after a whole year of talk it has come. I will give a few review probably in a few days, but I am just celebrating that it is here.

False Update Excitement

Today I turned on my TV and there was an update. I got really excited, but all for nothing. The update only took like two minutes and I have no idea what changed, but not that much. How lame. When is Ice Cream Sandwich coming.

Zediva Shut Down

On of the saddest things that has happened in a while is Zediva getting shut down. It happened on August 11th. In the middle of the night I got an email that told me they lost to the government and got shut down. They call it an "Intermission" but it really just means they lost.

I still had like 5 credits I was going to use. I liked Zediva, even if it only worked during the day, because my apartment's internet is too slow at night. I had used it on my Google TV and on my Android phone. It was great. I am sad big companies can just beat them out because they have more money.

Thank you for being great when you lasted. I will miss you Zediva, you made my newly released movie experience so much better.

YouTube Updates

Youtube Leanback got a new update this week. I like it, for searching, but the old Leanback was so much more relaxing. If you went to the page it would just play, you didn't have to think, just go there and it would find something for you for a while. The new one is just back to youtube where you have to find what you want. It is fine, and the new one looks a little better, but it is back to searching.

Youtube movie is a different experience. I am glad to see they have new movies as well as some free ones. I think for my movie watching I will stay with Zediva for new ones because it is much cheaper, but it is nice to know it is there. Sadly when the internet connection is slow, Netflix is way better than youtube on keeping your movie streaming. Most the free movies are on Netflix so if you are paying for it, youtube movies might be hard to get into.

Android and iOS Remote

I am happy to say that both the Android and iOS have remote apps in their market/app store. I have used both, and they are pretty much the same. I personally like it on the iPad which gives you a huge remote.

It is nice to not have to get up and get the remote, but I personally prefer the remote it came with, because the apps there are too many screens. I don't like switching between them, There are like 4, the normal view, the keyboard, the mouse and the other options(including power and input.) I like being able to access everything and the app doesn't do it. I still haven't found a way to use combinations of keys, meaning my shortcuts (the search key + a letter) or ctrl + alt + del to reset the system if there are problems.

I still need to prank a roommate and turn off the TV when they are using it, while I am in bed in another room, but someday I will.

Zediva

Supposedly the movie industry thinks that keeping new movies from online sources for one month gives anyone who is willing to buy a DVD or Blu-ray the chance to do it. After the month they let companies like Redbox, Amazon On Demand, Netflix's Stars Play, iTunes or others the chance to rent or sale digital copies of movie. Zediva has come and saved us from that stupid rule. Best part is it works great on almost anything Google TV, Android, Apple or even Windows. It works in the browsers so that means it works on mobile devices.

Zediva is a new company that has done something completely crazy. The day a movie comes out they go and buy DVDs, put them in their network of DVD players and let people rent and stream the actual DVD. They found a loophole which gives them the quickest access to stream movies. They are Awesome!

The pricing is actually great. They charge $2 per movie unless you buy 10 rentals where they give you it for $1 each. They even throw in bonuses sometimes. Each rental lets you watch the movie as many times as you want for 14 days, and you just click return when you think you are done with it. Therefore this is way better than Redbox. It is cheaper, works great, and you don't even have to leave your house. I don't think I will use Redbox again.

Lets just say Zediva opened an awesome window. I hope it's existence eventually gets rid of the one month rule, and they don't get sued out of existence.

YouTube Leanback

Today when trying to watch a Youtube video as soon as I clicked search it popped up Leanback. Yay. I have been complaining for a while that it would open the regular page and making me. click the small buttons to get it full sized, but today it magically worked like I thought it should since the beginning.

Complaining

I have had my Sony Internet TV powered by googleTV around 4 months now. Let me tell you all my current complaints.

Most annoying issue: Remote delay

Semi often the remote will delay when I press the buttons. This includes everything but Crtl + Alt + Del. If you you want to restart it, that will always instantly work, but I cannot search, type letters or change the channel or volume. That is really annoying. It will always do what I want it to, but each click will be 10 to 30 or more seconds delayed making it look like it isn't working. I don't understand why the force restart would work instantly when everything else doesn't.

Tips to improve it:

Pandora: Add a clock, if you have a music player that just sits there, at least let me know what time it is.

Timers: Give me a countdown timer so I can use it when I am baking cookies.

Kill page: The kill page warning doesn't pop up till the page in responding again, I can always click wait and it will work right after, so either pop the warning up faster, or wait that second after you would pop it up to do it.

Tabs: These don't really work, they just disappear with the back button with no hope of coming back. Make them work, or don't include them.

End notes:

I am waiting for the store to come, because I want to see what the tv can actually do, but I am worried because of how often it freezes. I hope that doesn't continue and get worse with new apps.