I've been the happy owner of the Chromecast/Google TV for about two months now and have some thoughts. After using it the first day I knew right away this was the streaming device for me. First I noticed how fast and fluid the UI was. Then the content-based suggestions caught my eye with how well so many movies and tv shows were tailored to what I would enjoy. Once I started downloading apps and found that just about every streaming service is available I was even more excited but will get to that in my final review. These are the features that will make the Chromecast w/Google TV perfect for me.
Multi-user support
Maybe not in a traditional sense where a user logs in and only see the apps they downloaded. I'm thinking more surface level where content-based suggestions live. Right now only movies and tv shows I'm into are being shown. This would be fine if I lived alone but I'm married and have two children and my interest aren't necessarily theirs. I'm also a Youtube TV subscriber and there are recommendations on the For You tab but again these recommendations are geared to my taste. There appear to be hooks in the OS so we may see this further down the road.
A dismiss button
Often times there are items in my Continue Watching list that stays there for days and I have no intentions of watching and there's no way for me to act on it. My only option is to Open the previously watched content when long pressed. This does me no good because I would have watched it already if I was going to. An option to dismiss the content would clean things up a bit and only the content I plan on watching is visible.
Device notifications
This one is not a huge deal but in the time of having the Chromecast w/Google TV the batteries have gone out on me and I had to change them. Unfortunately, leading up to the batteries dying there was no warning and it would have been great to get a heads-up to let me know the battery is getting low. The battery is tracked in setting but being notified of the battery going out would have been awesome. There is a Notifications section in the OS so we may see this feature in the future.
My take
The Chromecast w/Google Tv is still a great streamer even without having the features I previously mentioned. Looking forward to the next/first major update where these features can possibly be made part of the OS.
Comments
Post a Comment