YouTube Remote - An example of the future

No question one of the best parts of Android is its extensive app marketplace. On top of that, if you're a fan of Google's various services the integration it offers with them is extensive. From having your contacts available within seconds of first setting up your phone to having Google Maps remember your recent search history from your desktop, the connections are great. One place this ties in especially well is with YouTube.

Now of course Android ships with a solid YouTube app for viewing YouTube videos on your phone. It works beautifully, makes searching, accessing favorites, playlists, etc. easy, and it has a slick interface. But a few months back Google released an app called YouTube Remote that takes a different tact. Initially it appears quite similar in setup and layout, except it doesn't actually play any videos—at least not on the phone. Instead you browse to YouTube.com/Leanback on your computer (preferably a HTPC) and make sure you're logged in, then log into YouTube Remote with the same account. Suddenly you have Play/Pause/Skip Back/Skip Forward/Next/Previous buttons on your phone that control the video on the screen, you have access to your favorites, playlists, searches, and a queue so you can manage your entire experience from your phone.

Besides the portrait list view, if you tilt the phone to landscape you get full-screen controls overlaid on top of the video's still and access to the Thumbs rating buttons and the ability to do most of the other things you'd want to do with a YouTube video besides simply watch it.

In my home a common activity when friends come over is for someone to remember this cool video they saw on YouTube and put it up on the TV. While that's happening I'll often think of another video we need to watch afterward, or someone else will shout out one we need to watch. With YouTube Remote, instead of having to remember these and search for them when the video's over I can just search for them right on my phone, click the + button and add them to the queue so as soon as the current video's over the next one starts. I can also reorder the search results or other lists, so if I'm on a Tim Minchin kick, or want to play some of Bo Burnham's greatest hits I can just search for them, hit play, and then start reordering the search results without ever messing with my queue.

To me this represents a prime example of the future we're living in. I'm using the slick, intuitive, touchscreen interface of my phone to control YouTube directly and have it push its contents to the computer on my TV. It's so simple, it's so easy, it's so effortless, and I think it's easily overlooked by most people as being exceptionally cool and sophisticated. Heck, I'm pretty sure few people have any awareness of this app, which is a shame.

What are the catches? Well, I think it's arguably not that handy if you're not on an HTPC, as directly using a keyboard and mouse are still easier options, minus the ability to add to the queue without interrupting the current video. Also if you get a text message or an email and go check it and the app manages to unload itself from memory, when you go back in it will completely overtake the current play session on the computer and start over with whatever video is at the top of the list it loads. I hope this gets fixed in a future version, as it's about the only aspect of the setup that's limited.

I hope to see better collaboration between devices of this type. There's a lot of great syncing in place already, such as with Chrome automatically transferring EVERYTHING immediately upon logging in in a new location (including the Cr-48 netbook I was surprised with earlier this month), and there are great streaming options like Windows 7's ability to stream my home music and video library to my notebook via Windows Media Player, or even using Remote Desktop to connect to my home computer from anywhere (including my phone). But it's this type of instant communication between devices that genuinely enriches the experience and isn't merely showing off that I'm excited about. I can't wait to see more of it.

You can get YouTube Remote from the Android Market.

I may be about to hate Charlie Sheen

I actually watch Two and a Half Men. I don't care what others say, I do find it funny. Not brilliant, not hilarious, not deep, and not one of the all-time greats, and years from now I'll probably only remember it as "that show that Charlie Sheen fucked up," but I laugh just enough to keep up with it.

But I will be extremely pissed off if he gets the show canceled right now. Why? Because Monday night's CBS line-up relies on it. And you know what else is in Monday night's CBS line-up? How I Met Your Mother. This show's chances of renewal each season have ranged from solid to being on the bubble each year, and it's likely only the solid line-up that keeps it safe. CBS already moved The Big Bang Theory to Thursdays to spread the wealth, so it's no longer got that as a safety. If Charlie Sheen manages to take down HIMYM, which is possibly the best three-camera on television today and WILL be remembered by me as one of the all-time greatest, I will upgrade him from laughable screw-up who still manages to be funny to pits of hell hatred. You have been warned, Charlie. Tread carefully.

Why I hate Android

Okay, first things first: that headline was pure sensationalism at its core. I love Android, and there are currently no alternatives to it that I would consider as reasonable replacements for everything Android does so damn well. But it's very often the little things that can really frustrate you when dealing with a device or platform.

Case in point, Android's handling of its multimedia duties. See, when Apple decided to get into the smartphone biz, they completely changed the paradigm of what we expected. Instead of a phone built around business needs that could also browse the web and play audio files, they started with an iPod and built around that. In fact that's what led to many of the early jokes about the iPhone really just being an iPod that made phone calls. It was initially best at its roots and poor at everything else. It's since improved drastically, although the joke that it's terrible at making phone calls remains.

Meanwhile Android came from a more base concept of trying to do everything, and launched after the iPhone set the standard for these concepts. It, IMO, got the overall OS concept down much better, appreciating that we need to run more than one app at a time, that when something wants our attention it shouldn't completely overtake the activity we're participating in, and allowing applications to tie their needs together in all kinds of clever and involved ways. But what it lacked was the long history of multimedia experience to inform that functionality, and that's where it still fails.

To be clear, Android's built-in media abilities are fine. They do the job well, their interface is decent, and I have little need to complain about it. Some phones, such as the Galaxy S line, include support for a lot more codecs making it actually EASIER to play videos on my phone than on an iPhone (my Epic 4G has so far played every single video format I've thrown on its card, without conversion) or Zune, and include improved media players. As well the Android Market is packed with alternatives for better podcasting software than Google's passable Listen app, better video players such as mVideoPlayer, better music apps such as DoubleTwist or WinAmp or a dozen others, streaming options like Slacker, etc. Point is, its flexibility allows it as a media device to functionally match or surpass the iPhone and Windows Phone 7 quite comfortably, even if not as fluidly or naturally. So it's not in its technical abilities that Android fails me. It's merely in one simple overlooked place: audio mixing.

Android seems, under most circumstances, unable to mix two disparate sources of audio into its output at the same time. When playing music, a video, streaming audio, playing a podcast, etc., any other audio playback that occurs (such as the variety of notifications your dozens of apps can use to get your attention, carefully customized to exactly your needs, or directions from your navigation software), the OS will simply kill whatever audio track was already playing for as long as it takes to play back the other audio (including any dead silence that was included in the clip before or after), and then continue playing the original line of audio. It doesn't pause the audio, it merely mutes it. When playing back music this is unbelievably annoying and distracting, and when playing back an audio book or podcast it's simply unforgiveable. The number of times I have to hit the skip back button in BeyondPod to see what I missed because an email came in while I was enjoying the latest Drabblecast is ridiculous, not to mention mildly unsafe. And even in music it leads me to avoid using Slacker or my other amazing music sources when I have guests in my car because it's simply embarrassing to have the audio constantly shut down while we're trying to enjoy ourselves. I find myself apologizing for it or simply shutting it off and switching to FM.

So far Google seems unconcerned with the issue despite the large number of complaints in their support sites about it. The problem's existed throughout every version, and it doesn't seem to be acknowledged. But it's enough to make me consider digging out my Zune again just for audio, except it still fails to provide me the streaming options I've grown to expect since switching to Android.

Another smaller failing in this area is Android's handling of Bluetooth when there's an audio cable plugged into the device. It seems to assume that if I have anything plugged into the headphone jack that I must prefer to use that as my hands-free solution instead of the paired and connected Bluetooth headset. This might make sense if I were using the included headphones with microphone built in, but it's a failed assumption when I'm in the car and have an audio cable plugged into my sound system. It's even more of a failure since it doesn't notice that my audio cable doesn't have a line for microphone, can't deliver audio to it, and doesn't leave the phone's built-in mic open. So when I'm driving and listening to music through my phone and I get a call, despite having my Bluetooth headset on and in my ear, I have to reach over and unplug the audio cable from my phone and then answer the call, otherwise I hear my caller through my car's speakers and they hear nothing in response. The iPhone, as far as I've witnessed, actually asks you which device you want to answer through when a phone call comes in, routing to your Bluetooth or other options accordingly. Presumably if you were to hit the answer button ON your Bluetooth it would be smart enough to route there. Android still doesn't do this.

These issues aren't enough to override everything that I love about Android, but they are enough to cause some audible profanities in my car for reasons I don't think are necessary. These SHOULD be easy to fix, as even Windows Mobile, for all its failings, worked fine in these circumstances. And yet, at least for now, they remain untouched. Google's lack of concern on these types of matters seems to border almost on Apple's methods of telling their users their desired features don't matter, except Google instead simply ignores the problem entirely. It's unfortunate, and I really hope it improves. While I'm sure there are other issues with Android that bug me, if these two problems were resolved I'd feel as close to 100% happy with it as I could in a technology world with a constantly moving target of expectations. Let's shore this up and move on.