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The Gadgety Path Away From the Living Room TV, Part 1
By Dave | January 2, 2008
One of the things that intrigues me about technology is how different people take different routes to answering the same basic need. One area where this is very apparent is the direction television/video is heading.
I came very late to the iPod party, my interest finally being stirred by the iPod with Video, commonly known as the 5th gen. I was interested by the possibilities of a small video player, but I think what really wowed me was the infrastructure represented by the iTunes store. I loved the idea of an alternate delivery system for current TV shows (commercial free!) that only lagged broadcast by 24 hours. (That’s still 24 hours too long, by the way, but we take what we can get.)
So, I started out with the iPod, watching things like “Lost” and “Battlestar Galactica” as iTunes downloads. The screen was small by any standard, but to me it’s not so much how many inches from corner to corner as it is percentage of my field of view while I’m watching a program. I found that the two-and-a-half inch screen was completely acceptable when held a comfortable 12 inches from my eyes. (This obviously works better for the near-sighted than the far-sighted.) It was a pretty good system, but it was about to get better.
In January of 2007, the Apple TV was announced as the “one more thing” at MacWorld. It seemed the rest of the world was going nuts for the iPhone (the primary announcement of Steve Jobs’ keynote), but I was more excited about what I saw as an evolution of what-you-want, when-you-want, where-you-want video. Throwing caution to the wind, I pre-ordered.
Next: Why I loved Apple TV, prepping content when iTunes couldn’t deliver, and what I think should scare the networks.
Topics: Video |