5 ms·

I think I'm in the target market (tech geek, enjoy casual music listening) and I just can't wrap my head around the multi-playlist scenario: "The Q presumably

by kalid 14y ago

I think I'm in the target market (tech geek, enjoy casual music listening) and I just can't wrap my head around the multi-playlist scenario: "The Q presumably gets its name from “queue,” or playlist, and 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." When I'm hanging out, music is a background thing while we talk or play games. Not something people are fiddling with on a song-by-song basis (at most: "Hey, could you change the Pandora station?"). Apple has something similar (iTunes remote? can't remember the name, it's been that long) and I'd love to know how often that feature gets used. There's also the unspoken social rule that whoever is hosting the party generally picks the music.

solutionyogi 14y ago
They should fire the PM who came up with this work flow. I own an Apple TV and hosted a party at home. My Apple TV is not protected by password, so all my friends with iPhones (the last one to own an Android got tired of it and replaced it with iPhone) could see the special 'Air Play' icon (http://cms.whathifi.com/Images/189140462bli.jpg http://cms.whathifi.com/Images/189140462bli.jpg) on their iPhone as soon as they join my WiFi network. Now anyone can play media on my TV, be it music from their library/photos from their camera roll/any other App which supports AirPlay. No set up required. When I bought Apple TV, I bought it only for Netflix but I have been using it a lot through AirPlay. It's a killer feature.
- zbowling 14y ago
  I think it was more problem of iterative design and having to pull out features before release. I think the Q does a lot more but Google wanted to ship by Google IO and would improve it with later software updates.
  - taligent 14y ago
    Why do they have to ship it by Google IO ? Apple routinely announces something at a conference and says it will ship in X months allowing them the time to polish. I see no reason why Google couldn't do the same.
    - BHSPitMonkey 14y ago
      Probably because the hardware was already finalized (they wanted developers to have them as freebies to begin hacking on, after all) and they didn't want to miss out on potential media device buyers for the next X months.
      - snowwrestler 14y ago
        I'd guess they are going to miss out on a lot of potential media device buyers anyway, by offering a crappy expensive product.
  - trimbo 14y ago
    I agree with you -- I imagine that's why it is the way it is. But do iterative designs work when the initial product is such a dud? The original iPhone was an hugely unfinished product, but still impressive in its own right. This is both unfinished and unimpressive for what it's _supposed_ to do. I used one yesterday and it was almost entirely useless. We could not get it to work reliably. I hope that Google has tricks up its sleeve in time for Christmas. That's the only way I can imagine this product will do well. They can't wait a year and re-launch it, like what I think they tried with Google TV.
  - andybak 14y ago
    We hope.
- Daniel_Newby 14y ago
  "They should fire the PM who came up with this work flow." The PM could have done this to beat up an intransigent subteam with market feedback.
- illumin8 14y ago
  Which brings up a funny party trick - go to the bathroom and start playing porn on the big screen in the other room. See how long it takes for your friends to figure out who is sending it to the AppleTV...
djcapelis 14y ago
I know with my friends the remote app gets used fairly frequently. We play different music on each other's speakers and it's really useful and nice. AirPlay too. At least two houses I've been in the past few weeks involved streaming music to a friend's speaker system after connecting to a friend's wifi point. Lately I think AirPlay has become more common than remote.
eupharis 14y ago
I have nearly the exact opposite experience of music at parties. Invariably someone says, "You have to hear this." Whether its a new song or a magical YouTube clip of Jonathan Coulton live or LMFAO or whatever. Having a seamless user interface where everyone's phone can, with the click of a button, remotely play a song they own or start a Youtube clip sounds fun. But like Pogue, it doesn't sound 300 bones fun to me. For that, I can unplug the speaker's 3.5mm cord from my phone and plug it into my friend's phone. And do a quick search on Youtube on some Wii, Xbox, PS3, Roku, etc. that I already own. And for the tech geek, doesn't the fast-approaching sub-$100 full-on Linux or Android ARM HTPC make way more sense? Why would I choose a crippled device over one that lets me do whatever I want?
- kalid 14y ago
  Thanks, I should have clarified my original post. I totally see the need for specific requests, which is "Hey, guy with their phone plugged in, can you bring up Bad Mamma by the Jammas on youtube?" I don't see the need for the overwrought "Oh, let me surreptitiously insert this song onto a group playlist" scenario. Exactly, sharing is plugging in the 3.5mm jack into another device and pressing play. 3 seconds vs. minutes to download a new app, suffer through config, etc.
rch 14y ago
I understand where you're coming from, but I am in the opposite camp. My friends and I have wanted something like this since the early days of winamp. My hope is that the Q will be able to connect devices with just NFC though. I don't mind the settings or app requirements, but it would be nice if I can skip the e-mail invite.
tjohns 14y ago
The default setup has the Nexus Q accessible to anybody on your LAN -- no emails required. (There is a mode where you can restrict sharing to invited users only. Again, this is not the default.) Yes, you need to install the app. But assuming you have a NFC-enabled device, all this takes is tapping your phone on the top of the Q. That's not really what I'd call "a lot" of setup.

by kalid 14y ago

solutionyogi 14y ago

They should fire the PM who came up with this work flow. I own an Apple TV and hosted a party at home. My Apple TV is not protected by password, so all my friends with iPhones (the last one to own an Android got tired of it and replaced it with iPhone) could see the special 'Air Play' icon (http://cms.whathifi.com/Images/189140462bli.jpg http://cms.whathifi.com/Images/189140462bli.jpg) on their iPhone as soon as they join my WiFi network. Now anyone can play media on my TV, be it music from their library/photos from their camera roll/any other App which supports AirPlay. No set up required. When I bought Apple TV, I bought it only for Netflix but I have been using it a lot through AirPlay. It's a killer feature.

zbowling 14y ago
I think it was more problem of iterative design and having to pull out features before release. I think the Q does a lot more but Google wanted to ship by Google IO and would improve it with later software updates.
- taligent 14y ago
  Why do they have to ship it by Google IO ? Apple routinely announces something at a conference and says it will ship in X months allowing them the time to polish. I see no reason why Google couldn't do the same.
  - BHSPitMonkey 14y ago
    Probably because the hardware was already finalized (they wanted developers to have them as freebies to begin hacking on, after all) and they didn't want to miss out on potential media device buyers for the next X months.
    - snowwrestler 14y ago
      I'd guess they are going to miss out on a lot of potential media device buyers anyway, by offering a crappy expensive product.
- trimbo 14y ago
  I agree with you -- I imagine that's why it is the way it is. But do iterative designs work when the initial product is such a dud? The original iPhone was an hugely unfinished product, but still impressive in its own right. This is both unfinished and unimpressive for what it's _supposed_ to do. I used one yesterday and it was almost entirely useless. We could not get it to work reliably. I hope that Google has tricks up its sleeve in time for Christmas. That's the only way I can imagine this product will do well. They can't wait a year and re-launch it, like what I think they tried with Google TV.
- andybak 14y ago
  We hope.
Daniel_Newby 14y ago
"They should fire the PM who came up with this work flow." The PM could have done this to beat up an intransigent subteam with market feedback.
illumin8 14y ago
Which brings up a funny party trick - go to the bathroom and start playing porn on the big screen in the other room. See how long it takes for your friends to figure out who is sending it to the AppleTV...

djcapelis 14y ago

I know with my friends the remote app gets used fairly frequently. We play different music on each other's speakers and it's really useful and nice. AirPlay too. At least two houses I've been in the past few weeks involved streaming music to a friend's speaker system after connecting to a friend's wifi point. Lately I think AirPlay has become more common than remote.

eupharis 14y ago

I have nearly the exact opposite experience of music at parties. Invariably someone says, "You have to hear this." Whether its a new song or a magical YouTube clip of Jonathan Coulton live or LMFAO or whatever. Having a seamless user interface where everyone's phone can, with the click of a button, remotely play a song they own or start a Youtube clip sounds fun. But like Pogue, it doesn't sound 300 bones fun to me. For that, I can unplug the speaker's 3.5mm cord from my phone and plug it into my friend's phone. And do a quick search on Youtube on some Wii, Xbox, PS3, Roku, etc. that I already own. And for the tech geek, doesn't the fast-approaching sub-$100 full-on Linux or Android ARM HTPC make way more sense? Why would I choose a crippled device over one that lets me do whatever I want?

kalid 14y ago
Thanks, I should have clarified my original post. I totally see the need for specific requests, which is "Hey, guy with their phone plugged in, can you bring up Bad Mamma by the Jammas on youtube?" I don't see the need for the overwrought "Oh, let me surreptitiously insert this song onto a group playlist" scenario. Exactly, sharing is plugging in the 3.5mm jack into another device and pressing play. 3 seconds vs. minutes to download a new app, suffer through config, etc.

rch 14y ago

I understand where you're coming from, but I am in the opposite camp. My friends and I have wanted something like this since the early days of winamp. My hope is that the Q will be able to connect devices with just NFC though. I don't mind the settings or app requirements, but it would be nice if I can skip the e-mail invite.

tjohns 14y ago

The default setup has the Nexus Q accessible to anybody on your LAN -- no emails required. (There is a mode where you can restrict sharing to invited users only. Again, this is not the default.) Yes, you need to install the app. But assuming you have a NFC-enabled device, all this takes is tapping your phone on the top of the Q. That's not really what I'd call "a lot" of setup.