Google burst onto the video streaming scene way back in 2010 with Logitech in the form of the Google TV-powered Revue. While early hardware was a mixed bag, Google has successfully evolved their offerings over the years with Android TV, Chromecast, and Google TV once again to remain a notable player in the space — often with partners, like NVIDIA and TiVo. As with Android smartphones, a primary Google selling point is a high degree of device customization compared to Apple TV and Roku.
Best Google streamers of 2021
Below is a reverse chronological listing of Google streamer updates.
Although arriving a month later than anticipated, and without HDR improvements, the second TiVo Stream 4K update has just hit with various other improvements. Some of the more notable Android TV updates as spelled out by Redditor tivopm: Apps are now accessible from the Left Navigation Menu on the Stream App Remote Control pairing and … Read more
By way of 9to5Google and our pal Janko, we learn that Benq will soon retrofit its projectors with Android TV via HDMI stick. Beyond Google Play store apps, Benq is also providing at least one app of their own in “FamiLand” of kid-friendly content. However, beyond the stick’s tight remote control integration with a Benq … Read more
TiVo’s new CEO seems to be on something of a press tour, having first revealed TiVo+ to Bloomberg, followed up with a CNN hardware bombshell in an effort recapture consumer interest and marketshare: Early next year, the company will release a dongle that costs about $50. For now, the device is built to run on … Read more
The AirTV Mini has finally arrived (and only a month late)! Is it the affordable NVIDIA Shield TV dongle we had hoped for? Well, The Streamable has gotten it unboxed and taken the Android TV hardware for a test drive. And they come away relatively impressed. The AirTV Mini ($80) is more expensive than the … Read more
While Nvidia Shield TV gets the bulk of the attention, and rightfully so, there are a number of other Android TV products out there… including quite a few Sony televisions. And our very own Joel Ward was treated to a rather unpleasant update. Both Joel’s Sony 2016 800D 43″ and 2017 900E 65″ televisions, running … Read more
By way of the FCC, we learn that Anker is prepping a Nebula-branded gaming controller to be used with their Android TV-based Nebula Capsule 2 projector (duh) in addition to any number of iOS and Android devices. The gamepad appears to be a fairly standard affair with dual analog sticks, charged via microUSB. However, the … Read more
Beta testers, such as a well-connected associate, have begun receiving AT&T’s DirecTV Now Android TV streaming box. Both the packaging and startup sequence prominently display that “beta” designation – and with good reason. While DirecTV Now fires up fast, a subset of cloud DVR programming is conspicuously unavailable. As full-on Android TV, the Google Assistant … Read more
An industry peer passed along a fascinating invite soliciting existing DirecTV Now customers to test a new AT&T Android streaming set-top first uncovered by Variety. As to why this box needs to exist, I can’t quite say… given the great options AT&T and DirecTV already leverage, like the similarly Android-powered Amazon Fire TV. But AT&T/DirecTV … Read more