Interesting article for its limitations but it misses what I think is the real trend - multi purpose devices.
On Black Friday I was all set to purchase some sort of consumer streaming machine when I stumbled across a Sony display at Walmart featuring a Blu-Ray player that also connected to the web via LAN and streamed video content for what I thought was a reasonable 99 dollars. After a little research back home I found a really good deal: a Sony 3D Blu-Ray player (BDP-S580) from Best Buy that also streams dozens of additional internet channels, some free (the 3 Stooges!) via both LAN and inboard Wi-Fi, with resolution up to 1080p, and plays 3D Blu-rays as well. The 109 dollar unit also included 2 USB ports for outboard content and a browser although it doesn't yet support flash. Hook up was a cinch even if Wi-Fi synching did take some time. It's stable however and I haven't had to redo anything in three months of operation including the occasional power outage.
I watch NetFlix and downloaded movie files on my living room TV almost every evening and it's just a much better experience over staring at a desktop PC or laptop which I'd done for years (cord cutter here). NetFlix looks beautiful by the way.
The easy to use device is a game changer for me (no doubt it passes the baby sitter test). I only wish I had it ten years ago.
- js.
...once it's rooted and open. Even then, these consume-er devices hold little interest (so far anyway - I used my iTouch for about a month). But if it's walled? Forget it.
- js.
Google is the modern equivalent of a huge, integrated television network, perhaps what in the past might have been a combined NBC/CBS.
It's pricey output, the things it spends its money on, from Google Maps to search to Google + to bandwidth are today's equivalent of tentpole programming like Ed Sullivan, Bonanza, The Tonight Show, Roots etc,. Its product of course, is viewers, us in other words, who are bundled and sold to advertisers in essentially the same fashion the TV networks did in the sixties.
Surely at this point in time this can't be up for debate or even news.
We "watch" Google all day long. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for moments. The fact that we interact a bit more with it doesn't alter the business equation or the reality of our relationship with the company.
- js.
You reach your destination, but alas & alack
You need some compensation to get back in the black
You take the morning paper from the top of the stack
And read the situation from the front to the back
The only job that's open needs a man with a knack
So put it right back in the rack, Jack
Amen. Nothing beats perusing physical media.
Remember to say hello to your bank teller.