Android in Canada Blog

By Ryan Moore on March 15th, 2012 5

Okay, so I’m not having the greatest luck with my Logitech Revue.  But then again for $100 I’m not really complaining… just ‘woe’ing.

Recently the whole ‘market’ system of Google rebranded under the “Play” moniker.  With that update it rolled out, but in some cases took a while.

For users with the GTV it took a whole lot longer.

I would open up the Market app and have it say

“the market needs to update…”

“market is updating”

Then I would leave the room, change channels, etc… come back a day later and it still wouldn’t have changed.

There were many suggestions on how to speed the process up:

• manage the market app clear cache / delete data
• unplug for 10 seconds, plug back in (gotta love that one)
• etc…

I even tried installing the XDA released 3.4.7 version of the Play store.  It installed, but didn’t ‘update’ the installed app.  I essentially had 2 ‘markets’ on my GTV.  That ran for a few days.

Luckily my update just hit as I started to write this article.  But, that’s still over a week since the update went live.  If I had wanted any of those deals, I would have been SOL.  (fyi my GTV has a different Google account than my other devices).

Recently Google’s had a lot of flack thrown at them about the whole GoogleTV debacle.  Which is funny, as at the last CES and MWC there were a LOT of GoogleTV stuff shown off.  With so many options out there (I say ‘there’, as in Canada, there’s not a whole lot), it’s a wonder that the market penetration is still horrendous.  There’s less than 1 million devices being used out there.  Remember, Andy said over 750,000 devices are activated daily… why so few?

My biggest criticism has been that the uptake from manufacturers has been good (despite Logitech’s gripe), but there hasn’t been any cable providers, or networks really flocking to it.  (aside from a limited audience of just the US)

Without networks buying in, or cable provider compatibility it’s just a tablet I have connected to my TV.  Oh, worse than my tablet… my tablet has ICS, has access to the full Android mar… Google Play Store.

But will I get another?  Darn right.  Especially at that price… I’d get 3 more!  But I’m much more inclined to buy a set top box, than wait for a baked in OS on a BD player or heaven forfend into the actual TV.  With my buying habits for major purchases, the TV I use to watch will long outlast the accessories I put around it.

My current TV is probably 10 years old now, the alternate set we have was just replaced after even longer than that.  Imagine having your phone that long?  It would be so outdated that it would be rendered useless by today’s standards.  With the set-top box idea, I can just replace that one bit.

With it built in, how would you go about getting rid of it?  Ever try selling a tube TV on kijiji?  Try selling a tube TV with WindowsME on it.  fat chance

Dear Google,

keep up the work on GoogleTV.  I hope Les Vogel you read this.  Jellybean should be your opportunity to unite the only remaining ‘fragment’ in terms of hardware differentiation.  Allow a true seemless operation across all the devices.  You could not imagine my outrage to learn that GTV didn’t even have  GMail app.  Continue to develop set top boxes, work with Motorola on this.  Ensure that they are top quality, and are provided at relatively affordable costs.  Work with the networks and cable companies to incentivize the masses to want to use these devices.  There’s plenty of untapped opportunity here.

Oh, and finally – please bring compatibility to your friends north of the border.  That is paramount.

Well, that’s my bit of ‘woe’ and also my feeling of ‘inspiration’ for GoogleTV.  What’s been your experience?