Gadgetory

well Android TV is almost nothing like Google TV it's much better its first hardware is the Nexus player a little hockey puck of a thing but eventually Google hopes Android will be built into lots of TVs and set-top boxes the software is super simple at the top of the colorfull homepage you get a running left-to-right list of everything you've been watching recently below it you'll see all the apps you've downloaded below that all the games you've downloaded below that settings you can scroll through everything to find what you want to watch or you can just use voice search there's a mic in the remote and you tap the button and say sons of anarchy to go straight to the show you can also say things like movies starring Natalie Portman or oscar-winning movies from 1999 or funny movies the search is great when it works but it does some weird things sometimes you'll get the right results and then just a bunch of other movies that have nothing to do with anything that or it'll pick two of the things you search for and ignore the other one it can be strange sometimes you'll eventually be able to search through Netflix Hulu and other apps but for now it's just google play in YouTube there are also these neat info cards below every movie would show you who's in it ends in vital information about the picture there's not that much to do with the Nexus player yet it has Netflix which I actually never managed to get to work and it has Hulu and crackle and Pandora and obviously YouTube but there's not that much new to watch here developers have lots of control and access and will probably make more apps quickly but right now it's really basic you can of course use it like a chromecast to send movies and music and even browser tabs to your TV that's the most powerful thing here so far you can play simple games with the included remote or by a gamepad to play harder ones there are only a few available so far but they work pretty well and everything syncs through Google so if you're playing a game on your TV you can pick up right where you left off on your phone the whole interface uses Google's material design so it's full of layers and animations it's not very information dense so you do a lot of scrolling to find whatever you're looking for and it's sometimes not obvious when there's more information you don't see or if you're supposed to scroll to get somewhere the interface is pretty responsive but it can lag in weird places where it doesn't seem like it should still though Android TV is a huge step in the right direction it's much better than Google TV it's a nice simple interface that you just sort of intuitively figure out it puts YouTube and badland and The Walking Dead both show and videogame on your TV all that needs now is more more apps more things to watch more games more power to run things fast just more you