Google TV launched to a storm of piss-poor reviews and first impressions. It feels like a beta product and not something ready for living rooms. But that’s Google’s way. Two months have passed since the Logitech Revue and Sony Internet TV line launched and Google just rolled out the first major software update that at least seems to address some of the early concerns while bringing some new features to the platform like searching by voice.
Content discovery is one of Google TV’s strong points, but while the system can find just about any TV show online, big media blocked access. The updated Netflix app nearly solves this little problem by allowing access to the entire Netflix library. Now you can search, browse, and watch any of the shows in Netflix’s catalog without interaction from a PC. You can even select titles to be snail-mailed to you.
Dual-view was one of our favorite launch features. It’s basically PIP, but where one of the pictures is an internet browser. The new mode allows users to change the size and move around the smaller window. Yeah, Google TV finally has the same capability as your ’90s era Sony Trinitron.
Read More