Android on your HDTV? Not the prettiest
Ok, so I love the pricepoint here, but the UI feels like it’s stuck in Windows 3.1 days. The potential is surely there while we wait for Apple to finally integrate apps into their 10′ UI.
The ~$149 Agora Internet TV Portal runs Android 2.2 and provides a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor from Samsung, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of flash storage, HDMI output, 802.11g Wi-Fi, SD card slot, and three USB ports that can be used for external storage or for connecting a wireless USB mouse and keyboard. In addition, Agora Internet TV Portal offers full access to Android Market (most likely unofficially). I think my favorite feature of this package is actually the remote, which has a gyroscope built-in — just point the remote and your on-screen cursor follows, hold the main button down and you can drag/scroll through menus with a flick of a wrist.
Wait, what’s my phone doing
Wait, what’s my phone doing on the TV? The screenshot you have there is the Android App Drawer which is sort of akin to looking at your Windows programs via the Start menu. Android was never meant for 10′ UI, but I’m sure if enough people put effort into it, it could be made to do some interesting things. The effort might be better invested in Google TV though since that is a fork of Android for the 10′ experience.
Using Android 2.x is bound to
Using Android 2.x is bound to be ugly. It was built for the smartphone market. I doubt 3.x would be ideal for the 10′ experience, but at least it is designed for larger than 3″ screens.
I could see some real potential with a little cleaver ingenuity down the line. People have figured out how to turn normal screens into multi-touch screens using Kinects. Mix that in with Android 3.x’s multi-touch capabilities and you could have a really cool device for the living room. I’d love to have small device and do Minority Report type stuff on my living room TV.