UConn Integrate More
(I apologize for the terrible title but I felt I needed to)
As I watch my UConn Huskies take on the ranked team of Havard, I take advantage of technologies coming together. I don't have cable because of many reasons. Couple being the price, the amount of time I watch tv, and the content I watch besides sports is on local tv or Amazon Prime. And with Comcast, I get ESPN3 so much of the time I can watch my UConn Huskies. And I don't even have to watch on my aging MacBook Pro, I just switch on my Xbox 360 and watch sporting events. It's great quality too; while not quite HD, I can't complain. It looks good on my 42" screen (Even though I thought it was big, my peers seem to be putting my tv to shame with over 50" tvs).
With devices like Xbox, Playstation, Wii, Ruku, Boxee, Apple TV, and many more, it seems that "apps" are loved by consumers. You can get all the content from where ever you want. Whether that's a external hard drive, Netflix, ESPN3, Hulu, or other content providers. It's great to have these apps especially because it creates "channels" and naturally categorizes content. Televisions are also starting to integrate these apps natively, which is great to eliminate those damn boxes cable introduced.
There are issues with such devices though. Some services like Amazon Prime streaming are only available with certain devices. This is probably about agreements between services and the device makers. Controlling these device come with more remotes and keyboards. I think it would be awesome for all these devices to have Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity. Then, users could connect their laptops, cell phones, tablets, or whatever devices they have around to control the big screen. This would be significant for me, because I always have my laptop when I watch games or shows. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I don't know how I feel about being able to discuss sports/shows while watching them with other people that are watching at the same time though. Maybe this is just a personally opinion on that matter. But I think it would be good to have "scheduled" times of shows/movies, so I wouldn't have to choose what to watch. That's one thing I do miss about cable, being "forced" to watch different shows and exploring new entertainment outside of my usual routine. There must be a better way to do this because choosing recommendations is a huge hassle.
Wireless connecting through the home network to dual monitor your computer should be more common too. It would be amazing to have seamless controls/access to the television since it is usually the largest screen in the house.