Software Features
Google TV basically does three things; full web browsing, on-demand streaming and downloads from services like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon, and apps from the likes of Twitter, CNBC, Pandora, and more.
While you’re watching TV, you can hit the search button on the keyboard to bring up a semi-transparent search box.
From there, you type a full web URL to go to a particular site or you can type in a search term.
Search results are presented according to various functions. If it’s a recognized title of a TV show, you’re able to see if it’s currently on the air somewhere (at which point selecting that result will change to the appropriate channel), where and when it’ll be on the air in the future, where you can find downloadable episodes, or you can do a web search for the show.
The built-in web browser is a modified version of Google Chrome that runs in full screen mode. Pages load a tad slowly compared to a standard computer, which is understandable given the Revue’s Atom processor, but sites like YouTube and Vimeo stream HD files effortlessly. Fonts and text are easier to read than I expected, and the keyboard can be used to zoom in and out on particular pages that are too hard to read.
If you hit the Dual View key on the keyboard, whatever you’re watching will shrink down to a picture-in-picture window in the lower-right corner of your screen while you surf the web. Watching Monday Night Football while checking my Fantasy and Pick’em scores during the commercials was truly a life-changing experience. I really wish you could reposition and/or resize the picture-in-picture box—hopefully, that feature’s coming in a future update.
The Home section of Google TV is where a lot of the geekier action takes place. Sections include Bookmarks, Applications, Spotlight, Most Visited, Queue, What’s On, and Amazon Video on Demand.
The Bookmarks section houses not only web bookmarks, but TV channels and apps as well. So while you’re watching your favorite channel on TV, you can add it to your bookmarks for later. The next time you click on it, Google TV will automatically tune your cable box to that channel number.
The Applications section houses Twitter, Netflix, CNBC, Pandora, NBA Game Time, the Chrome web browser, network connections to media on your other computers, and more. Despite having all these apps, I really only use the Twitter one with any regularity. Since there’s a built-in web browser, the internet has kind of served as one big app. This section currently features several functions similar to competing TV boxes. And starting next year, programmers will be able to write their own apps for people to add here.
Spotlight includes links to several video podcasts sorted by category, and Queue lets you see any RSS feeds you’ve subscribed to from within the browser. So I loaded up a bunch of video podcast feeds that weren’t available in the Spotlight menu and new episodes show up in my Queue when they’re ready to be watched.
What’s On lets you search currently-airing TV shows by category—sports, entertainment, news, etc.—and Amazon VOD lets you peruse and download TV episodes and movies.