Google’s simple device will shake up television

Marketwatch ^ | July 31, 2013, 7:18 a.m. EDT | Carol Kopp

[FreedomPoster]

Early reviews from a couple people I know who have them were favorable. It doesn’t do everything, but what it does do, it seems to do well.

[BJ1]

So ....who or what is AERO?

Over The Air (OTA) TV signals are free. But you can't legally retransmit them without permission. The cable companies pay the networks big bucks. This company Aero has decided to install thousands of mini antennas and rent them out to you. In addition, they let you record TV shows like a DVR and playback/pause/skip commercials just like every other DVR out there. You then stream your show over the net. Aero claims they are NOT rebroadcasting the OTA signal, since they have a unique antenna for every customer. A court challenge by the OTA broadcasters was immediately filed. But if this is deemed legal, for 8 bucks a month you can rent one of their antennas. Probably a great thing for sport fans of teams outside their local broadcast area. Imagine if I moved to Wisconsin.....no way I'd be wanting to miss Da Bears and watch the packers. YMMV on love or hate for Green Bay ofc.

Aero

[unlearner]

I was thinking the same thing at first. I have three devices with smart tv apps loaded (TV, bluray, and Wii). But I also have unlimited 4g Internet on my phone which is enough to stream content most of the time; so I am thinking I may get this for convenience at home but also as a small portable device I could hook up to other people’s HDTV to stream content that I either subscribe to or have stored in the cloud.

It also might affect what streaming services I use. Looks like Redbox and Vudu will be on board shortly. Amazon Prime has not announced anything yet. But I can immagine carrying this thing over a friend’s or family member’s to watch a movie. They would not need to have a subscription to able to use the services I have.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hmmm.....thanks

[reed13k]

Well - I’m running it off an apple so I’m afraid I can’t help you much. I just plugged it in, it asked to download the app - which I did. Then when I want to use it I open the app, sign in on the website. It basically is a key to a website that has the content connected. Sorry I couldn’t help...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest. This product looks like a cross between “me-too” and “solution in search of a problem”.

I thought I’d like the Boxee — but the setup was a POS, and the config interface was a POS, and the tuner wasn’t configurable unless the box was hooked into the www first. THAT was moronic. A quick search just now turned up two things, one, the company (or those assets anyway) were sold to Samsung; and two, there’s a gadget called SimpleTV that appears to offer a similar, cloud-based DVR thing.

I guess none of these companies has ever heard of Roku. My only bitch about any of the streaming boxes (including Roku) was and is, no digital tuner for local broadcast channels. And my bitch about Boxee was their incompetent approach to the idea.

Google Chromecast offers more questions than answers
http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/31/technology/innovation/google-chromecast/

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well clearly you know more about this than I do....

And I was ready to get one and get going...

Man....what a thicket of ...STUFF!!

[BJ1]

A roku with a tuner card built in. Oh yah, that would be very nice! And if they could have a neat little app for your smart phone to control the whole thing, it would even allow casual web surfing without a faux mouse and keyboard.

[Eaker]

later.