Christian Calson

First Impression of the Logitech Revue 

GoogleTV doesn’t SUCK!

Who knew? I’m definitely in the camp that wonders just how evil Google is.  I don’t care how much iPhone haters love their Android phones, I don’t like Google’s data mining my emails, web cookies, & chats for years & years. When the prospect of GoogleTV came up, I turned my nose at it. But since I got the Logitech Revue as an early Valentine’s Day gift, I’ve loved it. Having a proper web browser makes total sense on your TV. PS3 pretty much abandoned the browser so I stopped using it & had largely given up the hope of what it might mean to have true Internet on my TV.

It’s not an understatement that TV usually comes a clear second in content to what’s on the Net. The functions are all there & neither are the promised/rumored Apps but overall everything works great & it’s faster than I thought to access everything (including streaming video & flash games).

I read a TON of nasty GoogleTV reviews which said it was stupid & unworthy but I have to say I haven’t had that experience. The unit is pretty invisible in our setup. The wireless keyboard works great, too. And it’s very handy to have a full keyboard while you watch TV. I won’t go into all the features & selling points because I’m not trying to sell the device to you (you can find all that info everywhere).

My only gripe is still just how much info is Google collecting from my experiences online through GoogleTV. Is it keeping my logins? Is it keeping my history through a cookie & selling it others? Is it keeping info on what kind of TV & Tivo service (account numbers? serial numbers)? And why should I trust them? Data of their working with the CIA didn’t help. These days I feel like Google won’t answer these questions unless they have to (which I fear is because most people would be so turned off they would abandon their services).  I didn’t expect GoogleTV to put my anxieties to bed. Even with all these larger questions, the service & product is solid & really takes advantage of the fact people want the web on their TV (the full Web, not partial small mobile experiences). GoogleTV does that plain & simple.