The weekend earlier Christmas

The weekend earlier Christmas, mom phoned, excited, to tell me about her new 46-inch TV. She lives on a tight budget, nevertheless received an unexpected $350 windfall from Social Security. That's lots of money to her, and she spent most of it on a Sylvania big-screen television. The purchase inspired her holiday present, which I hadn't but decided on: Google TV.

Mom will be 71 this year, and she's confined to a wheelchair because of diabetes, which as well has diminished her eyesight. For my mum, the PC and TV are vitally important, particularly while long New England winters when she can't get out often. Much as the Google Cr-48 Chromebook meets most of her computing needs, the 12.1-inch screen is too small, particularly in context: Mom earlier used a 17-inch iMac G5; the graphics chip failed last year. What mom actually needs is something truly big, and there Google TV offers the benefits of television and PC in one package.

I wouldn't have been as inspired about sending her the Revue, otherwise for Google TV 2.0 software released in October and delivered to the Logitech set-top box last month. The user experience is greatly improved. Nevertheless, I'm dissatisfied with the update, for failing to in point of fact transform Google TV. However it seems to be a work in progress that requires change of habits. The progress: Google adding more content partners, and some stuff not seen much anywhere else -- like Crunchyroll. The habits: To as a matter of fact appreciate Google TV, you've got to largely give up the cable or IPTV provider's program guide.

For mom, Google TV is working out better than Chromebook for two other reasons that I would never have guessed: Apps and Android. Mom uses the Google-branded, Samsung-manufactured Nexus S smartphone I got for free, while a Best Buy one-day special last summer. The Android phone experience makes Google TV easier for her to grasp than does Chrome OS, which surprised me; I reasoned that the browser would be the more familiar interface. Like as not, nevertheless if you're looking for more out of any computing device, apps and customization matter more -- and these attributes make Google TV easier to use and more familiar to her.

The apps front

On the apps front, I'm quite interested in how the OEMs differ in their distributions. I updated Logitech Revue to Google TV 2.0 previously sending it to mom nevertheless didn't use it. Unless my imagination has gone awry, there was an Amazon video-on-demand app installed with the Android update. Then, hell, I don't have one of those on my Sony Google TV. I have to use Chrome or go to Amazon Instant Videos from Google TV's movie search feature. Why Logitech and not Sony?

"I like everything about the Google TV", mom says, and I couldn't get her to be more specific than that -- like as not because it so simply suits her basic computing, communications, entertainment and informational needs.