Going All-Google To Replace Your PC and TV Service

GMGruman writes "James Curnow writes 'Google's vision of computing involves tossing your PC or Mac and moving to a cloud-centric, all-Google ecosystem. Call it the Googleplex: a mix of the Chrome OS-based Chromebox PC or Chromebook laptop, one or more Android tablets — perhaps a 10-inch model for work and a 7-inch Nexus 7 for entertainment on the go — and a Nexus Q home entertainment system that you control via an Android device.' So he takes the 'Googleplex' for a test drive to see how well it delivers on the Android/Chrome OS vision." But what about throwing xbmc or MythTV onto an old (or cheap new) box with a couple of huge drives (HDTV's being glorified monitors and all)?

Sounds like a dream come true...

[Scowler]

... for advertisers.

A MythTV box?

[Tackhead]

But what about throwing xbmc or MythTV onto an old (or cheap new) box with a couple of huge drives (HDTV's being glorified monitors and all)?

But then the content would be cached in a large cheap local buffer, and not streamed from the cloud over bandwidth-constrained wired or wireless connections. Not only would MAFIAA not approve, but Google/Doubleclick wouldn't get analytics/metrics.

You didn't think that the availability of cheap general-purpose computing hardware was supposed to benefit the consumer, did you?

Or, I could just be a normal person, and...

[wierd_w]

Buy whatever electronic devices I find favorable, and configure them however the fuck I want.

That way I can avoid their "ecosystem", with its inherant vendor lock in, and pervasive bullshit entirely!

As a consumer, that sounds far more desirable.

However, I do see where other normal consumers may fall victim here, since getting all the equipment and services from a single company should (theoretically...) make setup and use easier.

Personally though? When I plop down on the couch to veggify some braincells, I want a few annoyances as possible, which mans the equipment has to do whar *I* want, and not what a bunch of shyster lawyers in hollywood, and a bunch of beancounters in the bay area google HQ want.

If that means DIY home theater with MythTV and a raid array, so fucking be it.

Unrealistic vision

[frovingslosh]

Google would like you to believe in a world where you get all of your media from their devices across the Internet. Unfortunately, that just doesn't work in the real world. The little old lady next door has already been hit with insane overage charges by AT&T because she dared to watch Netflix. Follow the Google vision and your overages will not only include things like Netflix but will include your own movies and even music unless you have an uncapped provider who you can believe will stay uncapped (AT&T only announced the caps last year). Maybe in Kansas City where Google offers fiber and doesn't impose monthly limits this would be a good thing, but not in the rest of America where our government grants monopolies to service providers but lets them chip away at the service rather than building out their networks.

Scary

[TheRecklessWanderer]

I fear a world run by google and apple. They are both companies with a shiny outer layer and a dark dark underneath that won't be clear until it's too late to do anything about it.People need to remember that (especially google) the people using their services are not their customers, and that google doesn't owe them one thing. They will use every method at their disposal to be able to charge more for whatever advertising/marketing/human sorting they are working on that day. Nothing is free, you pay one way or another. Wether you pay with money or with your personal information, it's just the same.

Re:Sounds like a dream come true...

[dimeglio]

Advertisements already pay for "free" TV (well, some of it). If Google can give away software and cloud services using advertising why isn't that a reasonable option?

Re:Sounds like a dream come true...

[Scowler]

We're not talking about the generic TV advertisements we just fast forward over using the DVR. We're talking 24/7 tracking, personalized, invasive, interactive commercialization being thrust at your face any time you interact with an electronic device. I'm surprised anyone in the AdBlock Plus crowd (which presumably includes most of Slashdot) would even consider going near this paradigm.

Re:Sounds like a dream come true...

[Darkness404]

Perhaps because its not all that bad? Assuming there would be no possible way for the government to use this information (which is really the main threat) how is being able to have more relevant ads directed at you a bad thing? Especially if it means cheaper hardware?

Consider cable TV for instance, despite the fact you are paying your cable provider who is then paying the networks for content, you still have ads with few exceptions. Even the networks that don't run ads still have annoying interruptions (this is especially true in radio also).

When it comes down to it though, as long as the content is being displayed on your device and runs through your local network, you have the ability to control it and you always will.

Re:Sounds like a dream come true...

[perpenso]

Assuming there would be no possible way for the government to use this information ...

"No possible way"? If this information exists then the government is always one small step away from accessing it.

... how is being able to have more relevant ads directed at you a bad thing?

You might want to ask the teenager who wasn't ready to tell her parents she was pregnant, whose home started receiving pregnancy related targeted advertising. Pick something you are not ready to share with parents or a spouse or your boss (advertising goes to work not home - for example ads in a browser when your boss walks in), reapply the preceding.

Sorry, your connection is dropped

[pubwvj]

I don't like using software that depends on online connections to operate. Connections are not fast enough or reliable enough. Nor are they secure. Compute Locally.

Re:Sounds like a dream come true...

[CohibaVancouver]

personalized, invasive, interactive commercialization being thrust at your face any time you interact with an electronic device

I dunno about 'invasive' but frankly I wish ads *were* more personalized to me. I'm not going to buy a Ford Truck or talk to my doctor about Cialis. I'm not interested in tampons, Sunny D or a Verizon cell phone.... Tell me about something I might care about. Of course if Facebook is anything to go by, that's an impossibility - They can't get it right either.

Re:Sounds like a dream come true...

[MikeBabcock]

You prefer random advertisements that have nothing to do with your interests?

I don't want to watch the commercials I see most of the time on television because they don't interest me. Every now and then I'm skipping forward on the PVR and see a commercial that interests me and rewind. I know lots of other people do it too.

So my other choice is the option to have less* advertising that's more targeted because it actually knows some stuff about me that's useful for filtering my probable interests. Wow, that sounds terrible.

*in all likelihood, it would be less, since targeted ads should obviously pay better than random advertising.

Re:Sounds like a dream come true...

[Scowler]

That's a narrow view of advertising, one that I suggest is incomplete.

Let's say, hypothetically, there is a Coca-Cola ad on the side of this page, even though you rarely drink Coke, and have no plans to drink more at the moment. And let's say you only superficially see and note it. And you still don't rush to the vending machine to purchase a coke.

Has the ad failed? I say probably not. For most people, they may subconsciously note that Coke is a common thing to drink, a tasty thing to drink, and there may be a statistical increase in the likelihood that they purchase one a week from now, a month from now, with some restaurant meal.

In other words, advertising has long term payoffs, from simply informing customers about a product to getting into a person's subconscious.