Folks:
An older relative who uses AOL dialup (their last customer?) was asking for advice on a new PC to buy. I said “Since you have Verizon FiOS and an old analog tube TV, maybe you should consider getting a Sony Internet TV and just read email and write documents on that. Then you’d have a nice HDTV and could do your computing from your easy chair.” A Sony 40-inch “Google TV” costs $800, about the same as a decent PC. It comes with a wireless keyboard. It runs the Google Chrome browser. I assume it has an Gmail app. Is it practical for reading email and doing word processing with Google Docs as well as generally surfing the Web?
I’m wondering if a big issue would be the viewing distance and consequent small size of text. Currently this dialup user is viewing a 17″ VGA screen. Text is fuzzy and there isn’t much screen space, but he is sitting at a conventional desk so is pretty close to the screen.
Or should he wait another year when he can expect to be able to surf the Web and read Gmail on a typical microwave or toaster oven?
Thanks in advance for comments.
I have the Sony GoogleTV appliance (not built into the TV, but with an external TV). It is good for watching TV — this is what it is optimized for. The remote it comes with is too small for regular email use (but perhaps the wireless keyboard the device you are looking at is full sized). I’ve not tried running a Gmail app on it — does it come with one? Using a browser on my 39″ LCD HDTV while sitting on the couch 10′ away is a bit awkward. It might work well if I had the thing set up with a big table or desk to sit at.
It makes a great Netflix player, and a fun YouTube browser (especially with “leanback”). I’m not sure if it is meant to be a PC replacement. I think the new Chromebooks (which I’ve not tried) are more targeted at that application.
An older relative might like a cheap PC with a jumbo monitor. Not expensive at all. Also the “convenience story” of the year is the iPad, it might be worth a look.
Phil,
I suggest they go to the Sony store and try it out in person. I think the one in Burlington is now closed but the one in Coply Place in Boston should still exist.
The last time I was there (last year when Google TV first came out) I played around with one and I just found them too complicated to use. To put it in perspective I’ve sucessfully jailbroken and hacked my AppleTV but I found the Sony/Google TV setup too complicated to use. It just didn’t seem to be too user friendly and I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone especially to older folk who may not be very techno-savvy.
But who knows, they could’ve updated and improved the experience in the past year.
The biggest problem is the lack of a real keyboard and mouse. The small remote could be difficult to use for an older person (or anyone).
Depending on how much e-mail he writes an iPad might be the best option for him. If he gets the 3G version he can get rid of his PC and avoid having to futz around with an internet connection.
My parents, who are solidly in the technology laggards category with just about everything, are so enamored with their iPad they are debating getting a second one so they don’t have to share. (even though I set them up properly with broadband)
Jan, David: At my suggestion, the folks in question visited an Apple Store and got a 30-minute hands-on demo of the iPad. They didn’t like it at all, contrary to my expectations, and found it more confusing than Windows.
My first experience with an Internet connected TV was this:
1) Purchased TV at BestBuy, took it home
2) Attached it to my home ‘Internet’ via ethernet (hurdle #1 for some folks)
3) Turn on TV, it proceeded to immediately upgrade itself
4) Rebooted
5) About 20 minutes later, I was able to navigate to Youtube.
6) After viewing about 3-4 youtube clips, TV crashed and rebooted.
Conclusion: vendor successfully brought the full Windows PC experience to
the TV. Aside from the first day of use, we haven’t used the Internet features
since. A year later, I suppose I ought to try updating the software
stack and see if the apps have improved.
Thanks, Rick. I would expect a Google TV to work better since it is basically an Android phone with a big display, no? In nearly three years of using Android every day I’ve probably only had the phone crash once every 3-6 months.
Best Buy has these TV’s on display and I went to play with one – as it’s nearing the time to upgrade my own home TV. First and foremost there’s the hurdle of moral revulsion in buying a Sony device at a Best Buy store. These are companies that actively hate me (and all consumers) and in my case the feeling is mutual.
As for the TV itself, I found the UI unreasonably sluggish to the point of being frustrating to use. Older folks might see that as a feature, but based on that alone I decided to wait for future revisions before upgrading (which, oddly enough, was also my conclusion with the current honeycomb tablets – keep waiting).
When Google TV first launched, wasn’t it a stripped down Android platform?
For example, missing Marketplace & apps. The current Intel atom processor
it is based on is perhaps a bit low end; just based on first principles trying not
to buy the first gen of anything, I’m waiting for their second gen box.
Just a bit of an update on the Bravia software: I upgraded the TV this
afternoon after posting my first comment. The latest software load, which
took about 20 minutes to apply after a couple false starts, seems more
stable than the version from ~1 year ago. I would be interested to hear
your thinking on the PC dependent modality of signing up for Netflix,
Amazon Video, etc. Seems geeky to me, likely you would end up playing
IT department to your user population of ex-AOL dialup folks.
i use the Google TV device all the time. Its great! I am also a contributor of ideas to Google as well as Logitech. Once you set it up with key web sites you like and use the HBO GO , CinemaxGo You Tube, Netflix to utilize over 3000 movies you will be hooked. Also neat is the C-Span application. You can go back and view hearings not seen on live television, history subjects, and various government topics. Also if you are a Charlie Rose fan, you can set up his site with all 3000 interviews!
The latest update is coming in July-August, consisting of Google Apps as well as new functions allowing a full internet/movie viewing device.
P.S I received one of the first Revue boxes and it has never crashed.
the new Netflix interface did jam once or twice, but the Google device caught it.
also by registering with Google to provide feedback, if you have a system error you will receive an explanation on what happened in your email.
I use the Logitech Revue with a older LCD tv. I started blogging about it because I think Google TV has still yet to “come of age”. It will be getting Android and so much more. Developers are already looking forward to releasing apps just for Google TV. Feel free to check out a few of my posts. http://www.googletvbuzz.com/blog/?p=23
We have a TV with the Net integrated for my parents, they love it. Still getting to know it but they certainly love the Netflix and the TV shows they can re-watch at anytime. Great Blog,
MySmartPhoneStuff
As the very first public Google TV buyer I have a very unique perspective.
First off, let’s talk about the crashes you all described. I have only had my Sony GTV box crash once. However the browser crashes all the time. But it is not the actual browser that crashes, it is the Adobe Flash 10.1 install that crashes.
My Android phone has updated many times to the 10.3 Adobe Flash player, it runs Flash well, very well in fact. Also the browser on Android units of any kind in not really Chrome, it is the Android browser. That was clarified at Google I/O 2011 by a dev guy there. My GTV shows the useragent (browser version) as Chrome 5. You figure that one out.
What really upsets me is the lack of OS updates. My Sony box after one OS update and 3 security updates sits at Android 2.1. That OS version locks me out of the Android Market. That keeps me from updating to the 10.3 Flash version that resides there for Android.
Now let’s talk about the positive side……
I love my Netflix account app on my GTV, I watch a lot of movies thru the Amazon on demand web interface and have had nothing but a good experiences there. The video processing in my GTV box is awesome, way better than anything a laptop attached to my TV via HDMI can produce.
Google announced at Google I/O 2011 that Google TVs would update to a major OS overhaul this summer, moving to a Ice Cream Sandwich / Honeycomb build, possibly making the leap to a 3.0 Android build of some type.
The new round of apps out there built for Google TV are real game changers and we are building out own right now too. It will be apps that bring real interactivity to Google TVs, think of them like TV cable channels.
Now think of all the fun, free, Flash games in the Android Market. Now look down at your Sony GTV remote, kinda looks like a PlayStation controller does it not? You figure out the rest….
To wrap this up, I love my GTV, sure it has it’s shortcomings and I am as unhappy as anyone with the lack of OS updates. But there is no way my living room could do without my GTV box. Even with it’s shortcomings and Flash issues my living room is a much happier place with the Internet and Google in it. Not to mention Google Music with all my songs on it rocks in the living room thru the best speakers in the house….
One fix that I can recommend, slow WiFi does cause lots of issues with my GTV, I ran a piece of CAT5 to the box and it cured 99% of the browser and Flash issues I was having previously.
I’m just confused on why they are using dial-up? Doesn’t their FIOS include Internet service? I would suggest getting an ethernet cable run, or a wifi router to get the computer on broadband. The danger there is that faster Internet will show they maybe need a newer computer.
(They can still use AOL email/homepage without paying for AOL dialup service)
I would suggest a computer upgrade (or at least monitor upgrade) to a nice, bright LED backlight flat screen. Perhaps a laptop (many people find they like to use it on the couch, in-front of the TV once they give it a try), depending on how they like screen size & keyboard usability – ie, a netbook is probably too small.
I’ve never seen anyone use a Google TV for doing email, so I wouldn’t want to suggest that. A HDTV is a great idea, but I would skip using it as a computer. Maybe get a Roku box to use with Netflix and a plain Samsung HDTV.
John: Why are they using dial-up despite paying for FiOS Internet? The head of the household (Ivy League graduate) says “AOL is working so well, I don’t want to risk making any changes”. The computer that he purchased at Radio Shack attempts to run Windows XP in 192 MB of RAM (has 256 MB but no video card so 64 MB is used for the video). Since it spends all of its time paging, it is unclear that higher speed Internet would be faster. The user says that it takes only 5 minutes to log into AOL and that is plenty fast for him (though sometimes the system slows down and it takes closer to 20 minutes to connect and this does bother him). If he wants to watch a video, he will drive to the public library and connect from there (i.e., he is familiar with using AOL mail via a Web browser and knows that it can be much faster, but apparently doesn’t care as long as it takes less than 5 minutes to connect).
Until I was down there and noticed the extra 500 channels, Verizon was also charging them for HDTV service. The installer must have noticed the 20-year-old 25″ Trinitron CRT with composite video as the only input, but somehow these folks ended up paying for high-def.
I sent them a Dell 20″ monitor as a gift a few years ago (before the Collapse of 2008; now when I want to send someone a gift it will be a Greek government bond for 25 euro!). They were using a 17″ CRT. The user looked at the box and concluded that it was going to take up too much desk space and, without opening it, rejected the gift (I had him give it to one of my nephews, who lives nearby, and the kid is probably still using it (though he never thanked me for it)). So I’m reluctant to recommend anything as radical as an LED-backlit DVI-driven monitor.
Watching these folks flail about with Windows/AOL/FiOS is instructive because it shows the value that companies could deliver by selling much simpler devices. Even watching TV has become too complex for a lot of Americans.
fwiw: http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/google-tv-2-0-a-look-into-the-android-3-1-fishtank-20110622/
Also, Costco has the logitech google tv device for, I think, about $230, plus the excellent costco customer service — meaning they can try it hooked to their own tv for at least two weeks if not much longer and easily return it.
This may not be important to them, but I am hesitant about the current google tv as it is apparently difficulty (if not impossible) to get it to play local media (ripped dvds in either a video format or a dvd vob format.)
Philg – I know what you mean about recommending technology to seniors. My elderly uncle bought a very fancy mercedes. I asked him how he liked it and he said “why can’t cars just be driven anymore? I try to start it and the display tells me like 29 things that are wrong and I need to have it serviced immediately.”
I once printed two 8×10’s of my kids and took them to grandma’s for a visit. I gave them to her and she said they were really nice and handed them back. “No, they are for you” I said. “Oh dear, I really don’t have anywhere to put them! You better take them back with you.”
Doesn’t it fascinate you to imagine what sorts of technology will overwhelm us say in our 70’s? We grew up in the tech era, and so not much is beyond us right now. But in 20 years or so??