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Pogue: The Nexus Q Is Baffling

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Lifer
New York Times: The Google Nexus Q Is Baffling

It won’t take you long to join the chorus of critics who’ve tried out the Q and had the same reaction: “What the — ?”

He absolutely slams the Nexus Q. We all knew it made little sense, esp. at $300, but he actually got to try the thing. It's far worse than I had imagined. Somebody at Google should be slapped upside the head. It seems they've pulled a PlayBook, but worse.
 
Sounds pretty worthless if true. I don't use google music or movies period. Even my tv's/bluray players have built in youtube, pandora, netflix, hulu, mlb.tv, amazon video, picasa, photobucket etc etc. and the ability to stream photos, videos and music from my pc.
 
Eesh. I realize the whiz-kids at Google spend their 'work' days shooting nerf darts at each other while riding their Segways past signs that say "There's no such thing as a dumb idea" but really, someone needed to be told, "No, that IS a dumb idea."
 
I couldn't really figure out what it was for during the IO announcement, and I still can't figure it out. They seemed proud of it at least? It seems completely devoid of features. But even if they packed it with pandora, netflix, hulu, amazon, mlb tv, and all that other stuff, I wouldn't pay $300 for it. My Blu Ray player does most of that, and I didn't have to pay $300 for it.
 
Did the rumors that this device was a Zigbee controller ever pan out? Because that would be very telling and a total game-changer if so. (Android Home anyone?)
 
trmiv said:
I couldn't really figure out what it was for during the IO announcement, and I still can't figure it out. They seemed proud of it at least? It seems completely devoid of features. But even if they packed it with pandora, netflix, hulu, amazon, mlb tv, and all that other stuff, I wouldn't pay $300 for it. My Blu Ray player does most of that, and I didn't have to pay $300 for it.
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made in USA. maybe thats why its $300.
if made in China, it would cost $60... which is the price i woulda bought for.
 
It's kinda like an Apple TV, except it doesn't support streaming from 3rd party apps, and it's an extra $200.

Had it been a fully functional Android machine with the ability to push any content to it from other Android devices, it would have been good. I don't know what Google was thinking.
 
needs to be able to play local/network content as well.

the dev community will waste no time getting aosp on there. it will be a great device when that's done, but still worth at most $200. and that's of no relevance to the general public.
 
Fox5 said:
Well, it's also some sort of stereo av amp. That's worth at least $50.
Click to expand...

I suppose if you don't already have one it's pretty cool, but I'm not sure how good the quality will be. I don't doubt that it beats any speakers built into the TV, but how does it compare to any of the surround sound systems that you can buy at Wal-Mart for ~$100.

On another note it's lacking many of the features that you can find on Roku, Boxee, or AppleTV, all of which cost around $200 less than this. I imagine that Google will provide updates that extend the functionality of the Q, but right now it would probably have troubles competing at $100, let alone $300.
 
i believe they have publicly stated that the price is expected to go down as production ramps up.
 
vshah said:
i believe they have publicly stated that the price is expected to go down as production ramps up.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't buy this thing for $100 because there are a huge number of streaming boxes already available at that price that do way more than the Nexus Q.

Hell I wouldn't even buy it for $50. You can get the lowest-end Roku for that.

If I wanted to play only Google Music and Google Videos, I'd get an HDMI adapter for my phone and use that. You have to have an Android phone to control the thing anyway so there's really no difference other than a wireless connection instead of a direct one. And if you have your phone hooked up directly, you can play local content as well, not just stream from Google's servers.

Yeah, there are a lot of problems with the Nexus Q, and price is just one small factor. The REAL problem is that it's useless at any price.
 
Google is especially proud of its multi-participant playlist feature. If you’re having friends over, and they, too, have Android phones, and they, too, have bought songs from Google’s music store, then they can add their own songs to your Q’s queue.

Sounds interesting in theory. In practice, there’s a lot of spontaneity-killing setup. You have to go into Settings to turn on the feature. Then you have to invite your friend to participate by — get this — sending an e-mail message. Then your friend has to download the Nexus Q app.

If you or the friend then taps the name of a song in your online Google account, it starts playing immediately, rather than being added to the queue as you’d expect. A Google rep explained to me that you’re not supposed to tap a song to add it to the playlist; you have to use a tiny pop-up menu to add it. More bafflement.
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I thought the social-queue playlist feature was best thing about the Q. Sounds like Google failed hard in its implementation.
 
AstroManLuca said:
I wouldn't buy this thing for $100 because there are a huge number of streaming boxes already available at that price that do way more than the Nexus Q.

Hell I wouldn't even buy it for $50. You can get the lowest-end Roku for that.

If I wanted to play only Google Music and Google Videos, I'd get an HDMI adapter for my phone and use that. You have to have an Android phone to control the thing anyway so there's really no difference other than a wireless connection instead of a direct one. And if you have your phone hooked up directly, you can play local content as well, not just stream from Google's servers.

Yeah, there are a lot of problems with the Nexus Q, and price is just one small factor. The REAL problem is that it's useless at any price.
Click to expand...

Nah if the price goes down and the community gets normal Android working on it (which I fully expect them to) then it will function as a real nice HTPC.
 
Red Storm said:
Nah if the price goes down and the community gets normal Android working on it (which I fully expect them to) then it will function as a real nice HTPC.
Click to expand...

The Q is built around streaming and doesn't have a HDD AFAIK. That alone eliminates it from ever being an HTPC, let alone a nice one.
 
Sheep said:
The Q is built around streaming and doesn't have a HDD AFAIK. That alone eliminates it from ever being an HTPC, let alone a nice one.
Click to expand...

Well for my usage I can turn any Android tablet into a workable HTPC, so the Q has potential.
 
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