Logitech Revue Google TV: Turn Your TV Into A Smart TV

Frank Gruber Feb 11, 2011 Tweet

We have been testing the Logitech Revue Google TV for the last month or so. At first, I was rather skeptical of the product but upon connecting it I was have loved it. Setup can be a little tricky at first but after setup you will find this device to be quite lovely. This is not a cable cutting device, but rather it integrates and gives a design interface face-lift on your current cable box which is a huge improvement over some Comcast mainframe-like interfaces that still exist in the marketplace.

Imagine if you could do a quick search across your cable TV listings, YouTube and the Web for anything, that is the power of Google TV. It makes finding things a lot easier, especially since there is a full keyboard and touch mouse. The device offers a bunch of applications from Netflix to Amazon VOD to Pandora to Twitter and more. Web video channels on YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo and Blip.TV are now channels on your television – this is huge for content producers. So do a quick search for Tech Cocktail and you should retrieve some of our videos from over the year including great talks from our  Startup Mixology conference, like this one on LivingSocial’s “The Pivot.”

Keep in mind this is still the first version of the Google TV which runs Android apps, so you might find a few bugs. For example, the Pandora app is a little tricky as it continues to play in until you approprately stop the music and close the application. I found that like a computer you sometimes need to reboot the device by press control+alt+delete at the same time. This could be helpful if your device decides it needs an attitude adjustment. Enjoy.

Disclosure: I am part of the “Intel Advisor” program and am compensated and/or receive other value or items from Intel. I also attend events on their behalf. One of the items I received was the Logitech Revue Google TV and I am thankful they sent it – it rocks!