

First Google Android Web-Enabled TV On The Way - muratmutlu
http://www.mobileinc.co.uk/2010/04/google-domination-first-android-tv-on-the-way/

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jrockway
I am a bit of an Android fanboi, but one thing that would prevent me from
buying something like this is the hardware makers' consistent inability to
keep the current version of Android running on their devices. I want root and
full specs so I can do this, or I want daily builds from git. Otherwise, I'm
not wasting my money on something that's outdated before I open the box.

(I've been promised Android 2.0 on my Archos 5 IT since December, and I've
been promised Android 2.1 on my myTouch3G since last fall. Neither have
materialized. So fuck you, hardware makers, I'm not wasting any more of my
money until you start leaning how to write software in addition to making
cool-looking hardware.

For Android especially, there's no excuse. The amount of dev time you save by
using the open-source solution should give you plenty of time to run "make"
and upload the result to the Internets once in a while.)

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mseebach
A modern digital TV is a big monitor with a tuner slapped on. It's so
blindingly obvious that we need to slap a computer on there, too, that it's
surprising this hasn't already happened.

The reason isn't "interaction between commercials and Android handsets" (yawn,
back to the future called, they want their TV back) - it's so we can run
applications on it, that can talk to the internet and make the TV experience
interactive.

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CWuestefeld
_A modern digital TV is a big monitor with a tuner slapped on._

I think that's precisely why we should _not_ add a computer there as well. I
expect to keep a TV much longer than a computer, so I'd rather be free to
upgrade one without the other.

In fact, what I really want is to buy a TV-grade monitor without either a
tuner (because the video feed comes either from my DirecTivo or my XBox) or
speakers (because my stereo handles that stuff).

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mseebach
Think of it not as a computer, but a tuner for the interwebs. If it can
display a full-screen MKV HD stream, with room to spare, is programmable, and
it can talk to the control-channel on the HDMI inputs, it's hard to imagine
what should come about that would render it obsolete.

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wmf
3D, new codecs, new DRMs, etc. If you truly want a future-proof box it would
have to be ridiculously overpowered (like the PS3 was in 2006) and thus
expensive, but few people are willing to pay now for option value that will be
unlocked later.

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bcl
Is that article really correct? Hulu has actively blocked itself from being
run on devices, and Netflix doesn't have a Linux client (other than the Roku).
Their apps page (<http://www.peopleoflava.com/television/scandinavia/apps/>)
makes no specific mention of these.

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jrockway
Seems like Dell has made a deal with Netflix for streaming videos to their
Android-based Mini 5. So it is possible that these folks did too.

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stcredzero
_Can’t wait for notifications to interupt me whilst watching The Wire._

That would be a great feature for a tablet like the iPad or a smartphone. Have
the notifications come up on synced devices so the video screen can stay
unmolested for the viewers.

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jrockway
You mean, exactly how things work right now? (If someone calls me, it comes up
on my phone, not on my TV.)

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stcredzero
But with Twitter, Facebook, and everything else that comes up on Growl.

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joelhaus
The cable companies really dropped the ball on this one.

They already have computers (cable boxes) sitting under every TV in the
country. Can't think of a bigger competitive advantage.

