Google Now woes

Do you own an Android powered tablet?  If it's running the latest KitKat, perhaps you've also come across Google's new "Google Now" app that's being advertised.  In theory, I think it has promise.  However, at this time it doesn't really do much to enhance my usage other than to increase my frustration level. 

As a result, I uninstalled it.

This left my icons in a weird state: Most were still there, but many had been replaced with a generic green Android icon.  Some labels had also been stripped away so only the process name that the underlying Linux system knows them as was showing (Such as com.zygote or com.motorola.something!).  How to bring them all back without going through each one?!  Shut the tablet off.  Yup, then turn it back on.  After I did so, my tablet was back to its original setup that I had made for it.

I'm sure someone will come across the same situation, so there you have it!

Getting Netflix working on the LG BP300

After many years, I finally broke down and purchased a Blu-ray player.  I didn't feel the need to spend a lot of money on something just because it was new.  I wanted something that everyone could enjoy and had a bit of extra functionality.  Having a decent DVD collection, it needed to play DVDs as well.  The fact that it has WPA2 encrypted WiFi is a nice bonus.  It also supports Netflix and Vudu, which is akin to having a virtual redbox.

However, getting Netflix to work is not as intuitive to most people as it should be.  I blame this oversight error on LG themselves, since they are responsible for programming the firmware.  The temporary fix is pretty easy to figure out if you're used to bashing away when a problem occurs.  Unfortunately, this leaves those out in the cold feeling like they've wasted their money on a device made by a rather reputable company that see a prompt on the screen with no automatic keyboard input. 

LG support forum.

You see, if you try to sign in to a Netflix account, it will ask for your usual credentials, but it does not provide a way to input them.  My answer to that?  "Enter.". Yes, that big button on the remote control: press it.  If you expect an error, then really, make it prove that there is an error.  In all seriousness, all this really does is bring up a keyboard on the screen that you can use to sign in with.  Once past this hurdle, we were streaming our favorite shows in full HD.

It would be nice if LG would have fixed this problem before getting the units out the door.  It's a great unit, but the technically un-inclined are filling up the support forums and LG's responses are showing that the problem is not being clearly communicated nor understood.