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Milestones in Google branding: 2010-05-20: Google introduces Google TV at Google I/O (https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-tv-tv-meets-web

• adrianmonk 6y ago
  [Replying to myself] Oops, got the first link wrong on Android TV. Should have been this: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2014/06/android-tv-and-google-cast.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2014/06/android-tv...
• Navarr 6y ago
  Google TV is a launcher for Android TV, so far as I can tell. Android TV is not being rebranded, as it is the OS - but Google TV is the "Google Experience" on Android TV. To make this more complicated/interesting - Google renamed the Play Movies and TV app to "Google TV." I'm guessing so you can have Google TV on Google TV? Will the Play Movies app on my existing Android TV open the Google TV launcher like shown off here, or is it still just a browser for the content I already have? Is the change to Android TV just that this app becomes the launcher?
  • crazygringo 6y ago
    I swear I've read this comment like five times, because you seem to actually know what's going on... but it's left me only more confused. What is a launcher? If Android TV is an OS, then what is a launcher for an OS? And I guess you're as confused as I am as to also what this has to do with the previous Play Movies and TV app.
    • oefnak 6y ago
      A launcher for Android is somewhat similar to a desktop environment on Linux.
    • stonewareslord 6y ago
      I don’t know if Google TV is just a launcher, but I can answer the question "what is a launcher?" On Android systems, a launcher is the home screen plus a little more. iPhone doesn’t have this concept as there's only one "launcher": the home screen. On android, however, you can install apps to radically change your home screen layout. Some are terminals, some are just A-Z lists of your apps, etc. A launcher on Android TV would be more significant because it would probably include movies, shows, and music instead of just apps.
      • ponker 6y ago
        Thanks for the reminder about why I don’t use Android. I definitely don’t want to be screwing with my phone more than I already do.
        • allarm 6y ago
          You don’t have to, it’s completely optional.
          • ponker 6y ago
            For my phone I just prefer fewer things to mess with in general, and a smaller API surface, since I don’t want to be tweaking and untweaking shit on a device which is already so unergonomic. On my desktop I prefer Windows and Linux to mess with stuff.
            • hobby-coder-guy 6y ago
              I don’t want the ability to modify things and make them better because they already aren’t great...
            • 6y ago
  • jdmichal 6y ago
    There must be something deeper changing, because at the bottom of the page they say, emphasis mine, "Coming soon to FUTURE smart TVs."
  • markstos 6y ago
    Thank you. Can I put on the phone with my parents so you can you explain this to them? Also, make sure to mention "Chromecast" as well.
  • tootie 6y ago
    Can I run Google TV on any capable android device? Like an old phone plugged into a USB dock with an HDMI out?
    • dragonwriter 6y ago
      > Can I run Google TV on any capable android device? The promo talks about Google TV on mobile Android, but I gather that’s a reskin of the Play Movies and TV app, not the Chromecast/SmartTV launcher experience.
  • partiallypro 6y ago
    Google is somehow worse than Microsoft at naming
    • toyg 6y ago
      Google has become worse than Microsoft. GMail, GMaps, and GDocs, were simple and to the point. Then institutional rot happened.
      • baskire 6y ago
        I’d argue they didn’t face an existential threat. Causing the employees to stop focusing on the business. Same thing that brought down intel. Like intel (of the past). You can coast and the money will keep coming in. Up until it doesn’t.
    • fomine3 6y ago
      Almost no one remembers and it's safe to forget previous Google TV. Meanwhile Xbox Series X/S is confusing and Xbox / Xbox 360 / Xbox One shouldn't be forgotten. So MS is worse for now.
      • ethbr0 6y ago
        I'm assuming parent was alluding to the "Live!" Windows days, where internet-enabled products suddenly became "{Product} Live!" Eventually, everything of consequence ended up with the suffix, and they finally dropped it. But say what you want about Microsoft. Somewhere out there there's a publicly accessible doc describing the naming. And probably a video too. * * https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/partners/videos/microsoft-365-smb-and-proplus-renaming https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/partners/videos/micr...
        • mavhc 6y ago
          I raise you .net Live! https://github.com/Azure-Samples/media-services-dotnet-live-monitoring-dashboard https://github.com/Azure-Samples/media-services-dotnet-live-...
  • AnssiH 6y ago
    > To make this more complicated/interesting - Google renamed the Play Movies and TV app to "Google TV." I'm guessing so you can have Google TV on Google TV? The e-mail I got from Google specifically mentioned that Google Play Movies and TV on Android mobile devices was being renamed (and in US only), so maybe it is still Google Play Movies on Android TV? It would still be weird, though, so who knows...
  • flixic 6y ago
    Not much better than watching Apple TV+ in Apple TV app on an Apple TV.
  • Tijdreiziger 6y ago
    Ah, I see Google is copying the Apple TV naming strategy.
  • kiallmacinnes 6y ago
    But, is that it actually it? The linked page shows a "Get it now" (for your phone) link which points to the Google Play Movies & TV app for me.. (And, the sites screenshots vs the play store screenshots differ - suggesting it hasn't rolled out to the region I'm in yet...)
• xg15 6y ago
  Well, they still haven't announced Play TV and Chrome TV, so...
  • Apocryphon 6y ago
    Duo Streaming, Television for Hangouts
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  • dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Play TV Play Movies & TV (the Android app and service for purchased video content), has been around for a while, but it's just been rebranded as Google TV.
• GeekyBear 6y ago
  >Google Play Movies & TV is now Google TV but it’s not the same Google TV that runs on Android TV on the new Chromecast, it’s an app https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/30/21492549/google-tv-app-play-movies-name-change-chromecast https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/30/21492549/google-tv-app-pl...
• markstos 6y ago
  Chromecast milestones should be in this list as well, just to add to the chaos.
• cafed00d 6y ago
  Google needs a marketing department. Badly! I mean, all that insanely cool technology and even the geeks on HN are confused how to use it.
• tapsboy 6y ago
  I think, it is an industry wide problem https://dcurt.is/apple-tv-all-the-way-down https://dcurt.is/apple-tv-all-the-way-down
• fivre 6y ago
  i want a YouTube RED original series, where they just have the YouTube RED, YouTube TV, and Google TV product managers engage in a bareknuckle octagon brawl as a metaphor for internal Google PM battles to become the emperor and autocrat of all the googleproductmanagers
  • fphhotchips 6y ago
    Halfway through the season they all change costume and put on deeper voices, but you can tell it's the same character underneath. 3/4 through the season, the producers kill off the most popular character. No reason is given.
    • rzzzt 6y ago
      Actually it's two smaller managers, with one standing on the other's shoulders, in a trenchcoat.
  • Tijdreiziger 6y ago
    YouTube Red was rebranded to YouTube Premium a while ago.
• trynewideas 6y ago
  I keep waiting for Google to rebrand Google Books to Google Reader just to troll people
• ehsankia 6y ago
  Highly relevant comic (although it's quite outdated now) https://bonkersworld.net/naming-dartboard https://bonkersworld.net/naming-dartboard
  • nneonneo 6y ago
    Heh, that’s cute. And it still seems reasonably close to reality - the only thing I think it’s missing OTOH is Google One. Apple has Books, Pay, Wallet, Store, App Store, One, and TV. All they’re missing is Cast and Go!
    • rblatz 6y ago
      Yes but Apple has one of each google has multiple of each.
      • cgriswald 6y ago
        True. But Apple TV/Apple TV+ are cutting it pretty close.
        • dependsontheq 6y ago
          But I think that is a temporary thing - I don't think Apple TV is going to be long term product - TVs are too smart now
          • AznHisoka 6y ago
            Do you think they are going to stop making them, or do you see them entering the smart TV market with their own TV?
            • dependsontheq 6y ago
              No they won’t this is a low margin market. They will just offer Apps.
• continuations 6y ago
  Waiting for Google TV+
• JeremyNT 6y ago
  It took me quite a while to understand that this device is actually something I wanted. Their marketing is terrible and I had to read an article on another site to actually decipher the code words. It's not a Chromecast, as we used to understand them - it's a full Android TV device with a new skin/launcher called Google TV. It is, essentially, an updated Nexus Player, a competitor to the Nvidia shield and cheaper no-name android stick devices. One can hope it will be easily rooted, thus allowing for some interesting potential uses.
• dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Google introduces Google TV, which might be a rebranding of Android TV back to Google TV It seems to be not quite exactly that, Android TV seems to still be an active brand; Google TV is a new UI on top of Android TV. OTOH, since it implies Android TV, once all new devices with Android TV are also using the Google TV interface, I'd expect Android TV to stop being an actively-used brand. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.androidcentral.com/what-google-tv%3famp https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.androidcentral.com/what-goo...
• bane 6y ago
  The real question I have is...did some googler get a promotion for shipping something when it was only one of these renames? Or is this how the marketing people "ship" things?