Won't be long now Christmas is done, and I have one on the way from the UK. It's nice to leave the 2.4Ghz behind, but not really necessary (I've been casting high bandwidth content over 2.4Ghz without issue).

See, the thing is, there are two classes of device.

The first is the set top box plus remote. These are designed in the same vein as every addon box, with a ten foot cursor based interface, a degree of internal smarts, installing apps, etc.

The other is the dongle, designed to be a minimalistic enhanced interface for the TV. In fact they are designed to be a little extra that TV manufacturers could add to their TVs ('Cast compatible'). Here the brains, the apps, the interface, etc. are on a tablet or phone with the dongle being essentially a dumb port (although Chromecast isn't really).

Each has it's benefits, it's use cases, and in the end they are somewhat complimentary. The dongle, by using the tablet/phone interface has a much better 'second screen' interface, and is much better for a multiple of people using it at the same time. The set top box is much more immediately understandable for those bought up on such things, and much more stand alone.

Now personally I could see many ways in which the chromecast could and should be enhanced. There is a certain level of bloodymindedness about the dev team - but they are working down to a cost. One of those things is the backdrop functionality, which I could easily see replaced. However, its not an issue, the bandwidth used isn't that great and even if you want it on 24/7 can be stopped (cached personal photos).

Personally I avoid apple gear because of the flagrant proprietary nature of so much they do, the lockin they try to create, and the walled garden boundaries that I seemingly hit every time I touch one of their products. I value freedom and flexibility, whereas the typical apple customer seemingly values not having to think. Horses & courses.

Oh, and if you dislike downloads, you do realise that the new Apple TV has no storage, so all those apps you are supposed to use are downloaded from the cloud .... sorry icloud ..... every time you use them?

Ok. Sounds to me like you are passionate about the old kit ATV3 primarily because of its location switching features which today are pretty much solved in other addon devices or TV built in devices.

Perhaps then Google might have the price point right on their Chromecast bearing in mind the need for an addon is becoming less and less. Its a lot easier to flick $30 than it is $250. (I yes I know you can also flicm $100 but how long will the old stock last). The new tech business model is quantity over quality.

Well I think this has answered my question about whether its a worthy buy. Nup.

Oh by the way. Took a flight this morning. Thought I would calculate the time from when I sat down in my seat to seatbelt sign off. There was a bit of a delay which often happens. 47 minutes. That's 45 minutes of boredom not including the landing procedure on Singapore Airlines living in the dark ages.

Mine is doing fine too on the lower band. I only use it for playing Google Play purchases though, which take up less bandwidth than their iTunes counterparts (but are also of lower quality).

If you are happy and everything is flying over 2.4GHz, why get the new CC? From what I've read it brings absolutely nothing else to the table.

The dongle is designed to be minimalistic, so you even have to set up another device to act as the remote for it. I have the Nexus Player too, which is essentially a CC with a remote, though I do like how with the CC I can just get a movie playing by pressing the screen a few times on my phone/pad.

And of course the Nexus is utterly useless for Netflix with it being stuck in 50Hz mode, so only good for UK-encoded content (I did watch The Fall season 2 on it and the picture quality was outstanding).

I think that's more to do with Google, always creating boundaries and cutting compatibility to suit their personal agenda. It hasn't stopped me from switching to a Chromebook though, probably the best laptop I have ever owned, and with a screen that tops Apple's retina screen even.

Apple products are for people who don't mind paying more to give them the peace of mind that something works and delivers as it's supposed to. In a way I don't see them having much competition because everything else is just a bad copy of their products. Even Android users will tell you that their tablets are not in the same league as Apple's. And phone-wise I think the only Android phone I would even look at is the Nexus 6 (yes, the older one) or possibly the 5X once they iron out a few issues.

I was hoping that the Apple TV would at least allow me to download iTunes purchases just like the very first Apple TV that ever came out.

The new Apple TV has some decent built-in storage. I was told that it's mainly for apps - is that not the case?

Faster processor, which I want to play with. Also, other plans for the old one.

Not sure the Google Play media is of lower quality than itunes, with the added advantage of not having to touch itunes. In fact, IIRC, Google Play uses a better encoder than itunes, meaning it can eat less of that bandwidth you were on about for the same quality.

Mehh, to me 24fps is more important. Never had a problem with the automatic switching.

Err, are you sure you aren't talking about apple there? Google are much more likely to be compatible with standards. Indeed they did nothing but till they caught bad practice from apple.

You do realise that's fighting talk, as well as being hilariously wrong?

Apple have been copying Android and Google for many years now, something that's well recognised. That's because they've needed to catch up, after having fallen way behind. Still quite a lot of distance of them to go mind, and that's with no significant advances from Google over the past few years (things have reached a plateau). Their OS is basically a cut down launcher, their screens still haven't caught up with anything by Android budget models. The one thing they have done well is kitchen sink their version of the ARM processor with large die sizes, which the can do because their core count is still only dual.

Haven't paid much attention, but I do remember being told had something of a mess of a structure for their storage on the new TV boxes. Something about the app being half on the device and half in the cloud, no persistent data on the box, all content not on the box, etc.

It did seem a strange mess of a product, going more expensive to add games console type functions - that were less than Playstation level and thus pretty much a waste of time. Still, its probably because that's what they could salvage from their attempt at 'redefining the TV' - which has been promised and not delivered for years now.

For some reason it is. Have been making purchases on both for quite a while now.

That is true. The encoding standard is better and if Google were to up their picture quality then the file size would indeed still be smaller.

The problem is that no device switches automatically between 50 and 60Hz based on what content Netflix dishes out. Have you got Netflix running at 24fps?

Really? Google is actively dropping common standards due to its own agenda. Take Chrome OS for instance. You used to be able to use the Open Document format (like .ods for spreadsheets) without any hitches. It was supported. And then they just quietly cut the rope.

I love how the Apple-bashers like to flip things upside down. The iPad was the device that kick-started it all. Only once Apple put out a new product and made it popular on a global scale did the rats come running, trying to emulate its success.

You can hate Apple all you want, but you cannot change the fact that they started the entire tablet revolution.

Is there even such a thing as a decent (or even semi-decent) Android tablet? Over at the Whirlpool forums Android users agree that no tablet can match the iPad for performance.

Not sure if this is due to Android being incredibly backwards when it comes to memory management or it just being backwards altogether.

Same with phones, put on a graphics-heavy game on the new Nexus 6 and watch it perform miserably.

It just seems rather pointless, doesn't it? They basically took the old ATV, added more app capabilities, and are trying to market it as a gaming device (wtf?) too?

Ahem,



Or if you want to go back further, there's the granddaddy - the Dynabook from 1968.

Gates didn't start the tablet revolution. Apple did. After that everyone jumped on the bandwagon...



Here's the world's most famous Frenchman using the device.

Seems like everyone saw it coming, but it did take Apple to put this product in the mainstream.

I proposed the tablet would die a few years back on these forums, and received some good abuse from the Apple diehards.

Fast forward ..... http://www.businessinsider.com.au/tablet-sales-down-in-addition-to-ipad-2015-10

Anyhow ..... Apple can keep flogging that dead horse.

Well I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised yesterday. I purchased season one of the show "Humans" via Google Play and the picture quality is stunning - it's feels like I'm watching it on Blu-ray.

And this is on the Chromecast too. Only issue I had was that the show is encoded for 50Hz viewing, so for the first time I used the new setting to force this refresh rate. But after doing this the experience was top class.

Only watched a single episode yesterday, but might plug in the Nexus Player today for the rest considering the NP is always "stuck" in 50Hz mode.

Tablets have plenty of life left in them IMO - far from dead

My new Surface Pro 3 that I got for Christmas is the bomb

That's a proper computer though - with a proper OS - rather than a limited tablet based OS like the iPad or Android offerings.


S

True to a degree, you can use it as a laptop (I'll be using pen based One Note at uni a lot this year). One of the reasons for going with a Windows based device is that everything runs on it. On Android, Amazon video generally only runs on Amazon devices, Hulu doesn't work on Google tablets, iplayer is hit and miss etc. They all work on the Surface

You're also not limited to stupid App based versions of software either. You can install fully fledged Office etc. Though in saying that, the android version of Open Office is actually pretty good.


S

One thing that's pissed me off with the Surface is that it no longer comes with Office pre-installed and you have to provide your own. No problem as I have a spare licence of 2013 and I can also get 3 years free of 365 through uni but it would have been of minimal cost to MS to include it - especially as the Surface Pro is not a cheap device

The Surface is a Laplet ..... not a Tablet.

The Laplet is the future.