The System Update Process: A First Look at Google TV's New Features
As I settled into bed last night, I was greeted by an unexpected system update message on my Google TV unit. I had been looking forward to capturing this update on video for you all, and now that it's happened, let's take a closer look at what's new.
The Update Process Itself
The update process itself took about 5 minutes to complete, but the progress bar was quite lengthy. We're halfway through, and then the last half of the progress bar took only 20-25 seconds. Now that the unit is booting up, let's see what we have when it comes back online.
Boot-Up Screen
As I wait for the unit to come back online, I'm greeted with a screen that says "Update Complete: Congratulations! Your Internet TV Box has been updated." This seems like a great place to start our exploration of the new features. Let's dive in and see what we can learn.
New Features and Interface Changes
The update brings us some basic tutorials on the interface and how it has changed. One of the most noticeable changes is the introduction of a navigation bar, which replaces the old interactive menus. The home key now gives you quick access to applications and notifications, no matter where you are in your internet TV.
Android Market Introduction
Another significant update is the introduction of the Android market on Google TV. This is a huge addition that will likely change the way we interact with apps on our devices. We'll be checking out some of the available apps, including custom-made ones for Google TV and other applications that may or may not be optimized for this platform.
TV and Movies
The TV and movies section has been updated to make it easier to navigate. The search function is now optimized, and we have a new menu key to reveal available options. This seems like a great improvement over the old interface.
Simplification of the Home Screen
One of the most noticeable changes on the home screen is its simplicity. Gone are the days of cluttered menus and obtrusive buttons. Now, you can easily access your notifications and applications with just a few taps.
Application Drawer
The application drawer has been updated to show all the available apps that you've installed on your device. This makes it easier to find what you're looking for and explore new features.
Netflix App Update
Unfortunately, the Netflix app update is not as exciting as we might have hoped. The search function still requires you to click through multiple menus, even with a full-size keyboard like the Logitech review offers. This is a major disappointment, especially considering how much work was put into optimizing this feature for our devices.
Conclusion and Next Steps
Overall, our initial thoughts on the update are positive. Any improvement over the old Google TV experience is a welcome change. However, there's still more to explore and discover about this new platform. We'll be doing a full review of this device after we've had some time to play with it and see what works, what doesn't work, and what's more intuitive.
Thanks for watching!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi this is Brian from The unlocker.net Av and the honeycomb operating system so last night when I came to bed I was greeted with this uh system update message and I didn't want to do it then cuz I wanted to go ahead and capture it on video for you uh but this is the uh Google TV unit that I keep in my bedroom I also have the Logitech Review downstairs in the uh in the living room but that's uh scheduled to get the update about a week after uh this update rolls out for the Sony version so you can see I've got the system update uh text here and I'm going to go ahead and install this and then we'll go from there and see uh what the update entails well this has been updating for about 5 minutes now and we're about halfway through uh on the progress bar so this is definitely a lengthy update uh I'll cut this and come back uh once the unit has uh completed the updating process and it's starting to restart and that was kind of an interesting updating uh progress bar there we had about uh 5 minutes until we got halfway and then uh the last half of the progress bar took about uh oh all of 20 25 5 seconds so now it's booting up and uh we'll see what we got when uh when we come back up with honeycomb and when we boot back up this is the screen that we're greeted with says update complete congratulations your internet TV box has been updated check out what's new let's do that um this is just going to give you some basic tutorials on uh the interface and how the interface has changed and you can see that uh now there's going to be be a a nice navigation bar which is a pleasant change from the uh the way the Google TV uh interactive menus were before uh so it says the home key gives you quick access of the applications and notifications no matter where you are in your your internet TV and that's a nice thing in case you're watching TV you don't want to get into that big obtrusive home menu that we've been accustomed to so let's hit next there and of course the Android market is a huge addition to this update so we'll be uh definitely checking out some of the apps that are available for updates some of the ones that are custom made for uh the Google TV experience with the other applications that maybe uh got through and are still going to be listed but not necessarily uh optimized for Google TV then obviously TV and movies is a big part of this and the search has been optimed IED and we want to talk about the menu key to reveal available options blah blah blah let's go ahead and see what we get all right sure we'll give them statistics there we go and there's the new honeycomb interface which uh definitely looks a lot better than what we're accustomed to in the past okay so once it uh boots up into the main screen you can see that it's definitely a lot more simplistic than it was in the past this is the entire home screen when you f first turn on your device uh so you're going to see here you've got the notifications and uh you can turn those off as well if you don't want those um then we've got the application drawer essentially so this is all the available applications that you've installed on your device and we'll go back here's your TV and movie set section uh now I've read some uh different reports that said uh this is not as intuitive uh once you go ahead and select the movie to uh to download or watch but uh you know we'll test that out in due time and see if uh it does indeed uh make things easier to uh rent or purchase uh or to watch for free via Netflix then obviously we've got live TV go ahead and click on that yeah don't ask so now we'll hit our uh our home button again you can see that the application comes back up the uh status bar down there at the bottom which basically gives you all of your functionality of Google TV without having to completely block the TV that's actually on you can see where the video is subdued but uh it's still we have access to everything uh including our TV and mov Netflix YouTube obviously uh the Android market which is a a big update we'll go ahead and take a look at that now and there you go it looks very familiar definitely looks more like the uh the honeycomb app market than I had seen in uh previous versions and we do have featured for TV section much like we do featured for uh tablet section uh if you you're familiar with the honeycomb tablet uh very much the same kind of layout and we've got a couple of different uh apps here none of which look too appealing they do have that classy fireplace that's a nice addition there so we can go ahead and uh download that except for it says that it's uh not compatible with this unit so it doesn't look like there's uh there's any way we can actually download that even though it says that uh it's available for uh or optimized for TV so that's that's interesting I have a feeling we're going to see quite a few things like that as we go through and the Android market is uh introduced into uh the Google TV world I think we're going to have a lot of things that aren't working quite properly or applications that won't be found things like that one of the other things I want to see is if Netflix got a uh got a make over here and so far it looks about the same uh the thing I never liked about the Netflix app was when you wanted to search for a movie I mean we've got these controllers that have full corded keyboards and the problem is oh is it going to come up the the problem with the uh Netflix app was if you wanted to search for a movie you had to actually go through and just click around and there was a virtual keyboard that came up on the screen and you'd have to you know press up down left right to select different letters and it was kind of cumbersome and redundant seeing as how we have you know with the Logitech review You've got a fullsize uh keyboard much like you'd have on a laptop and then uh with the Sony unit you've got you know much more compact remote but it still has a Cordy keyboard and you would just think uh intuitively that you would be able to type and search for a Netflix movie using those keyboards but you cannot so I'm going to go ahead and for now I'm G to select no to being a Netflix um let me see here all right I'm going to have to get out of that we we'll come back to that later I don't feel like setting that up now uh we'll definitely do a full review of this after we've had some time to play with it and see if the update is worthwhile but uh honestly anything at this point in time has to be an improvement the last rendition was just pretty much uh a very beta feeling product and uh we'll have to see if uh this new Google TV uh experience is better and might capture more audience members so that's kind of just our first look initial thoughts uh like I said we will come back with full review uh after some time with you know playing with the actual device and seeing what works what doesn't work what's uh more intuitive and what's possibly Less in so thanks for watching appreciate it\n"
