Sunday, December 11, 2011

Blogging From My TV

My Logitech Revue recently updated to the new version of Android and it's got an improved version of Chrome and lots of great new apps. It doesn't turn my TV into the big beast PC that is out in the Catican, but it's good enough for text blogging and surfing the web. The Twitter app on it is pretty nice, too.

I recently moved all of my music up into the cloud on Google Music an the Revue has an app for that as well. I love it. There's a couple of my favorite apps - Google Listen for podcasts being one - that aren't yet available, but all in all, this is much closer to the vision of every screen in the house, from the big TV to the tiny smartphone, having the same capabilities.

Sadly, Logitech has shut down their Revue production line. They lost a ton of money on the release of the thing, something like $100M. I think shutting it down was a mistake. I might even see if I can pick up another one on the cheap. Sony is still in the game with Google TV, though, so the concept lives on even if Logitech is getting out.

2 comments:

tim eisele said...

Your last paragraph pretty much sums up the thing that makes me leery about getting too personally invested in certain technologies. Just about the time I get really comfortable with a machine or suite of software, the company that makes it either completely reworks it so that I essentially have to learn it from scratch all over again, or drops the product altogether.

My basic needs are simple, and I just want to be able to meet my simple needs without having to spend a couple of weeks (and maybe considerable money) every few years completely retooling everything. Is that so wrong?

K T Cat said...

Tim, I can certainly understand those reservations. The recent OS update to the Revue, however, leads me to believe that even if another update never comes, the Revue will be viable compared to its peers for a year or two. That's about all you can expect from any piece of technology you buy these days.

Because the Revue has been discontinued, you can get them cheap at Amazon - only $91.