Future Reality

For some years I've been predicting that the future of TV is a flat screen and an intelligent remote control. With the advent of broadband enabled plasma and LCD screens the former has already become a reality. Now, a Chicago based startup is bringing the latter concept to life.

TVcompass is developing a remote control that links home WiFi networks with traditional TV broadcasts and aims to offer interactivity with the programming.

Competition for this concept is likely to come from the PDA and cellphone market, where these devices could equally be used as remote controls and web access devices linked to TVs.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It's a bitterly ironic discovery that on a (very very interesting and useful) blog about internet TV, there is a Windows Media video stream of a 'Mac vs PC' comedy ad about how brilliant Macs are at video, but which jerks and stutters and goes out of sync and slows my Mac'n'Firefox browser down to snail-speed before stopping altogether. I'm not sure which way the irony points, mind you, but I'm pretty sure it's ironic. Somehow. Anyway - apart from the somewhat annoying video this is a very insightful blog. Thanks!
Iolo Jones said…
Good point. Sorry if you're having problems. Flip4Mac should sort this out and Windows Media is currently a significantly better experience than either Flash or QT for the 97% of people that use PCs rather than Macs. WPF/E will shortly sort this out, but I do get the irony... I was an early Machead and actually owned a Lisa once upon a time. But, in balance, I think it's worth pointing out that Apple is just as exclusionist with the implementation of its technology on platforms such as the iPod and Apple TV.

How about doing what 98% of people do - read the content and ignore the ads ;-)