Matt Reyes Washington, DC

TV on the iMac, a dream (almost) come true

In Technology, Television on 27 March 2009 tagged Hulu, IMac, IPhone, IpodTouch, Keith Olbermann, MacMini, National Geographic Channel, Television with 5 comments

For those who have been to my apartment, you see that I use my iMac for two purposes:

• As a computer
• As my living room television

We are at a convergence point where television will be watched entirely from the computer.  Even though I have cable hooked up to the back of my iMac provided to me by the ElGato device, I would love to get rid of that almost-required $100+ digital cable package bill (I really could do without a LAN line).

I hardly watch television to begin with (save watching Keith Olbermann, The Office, 30 Rock, PBS, and the National Geographic Channel), and I can definitely catch these shows on sites like Hulu.com, NBC.com, and PBS.org.

So why do I still have digital cable?

I guess it’s because I like to channel surf on the weekends from the couch.  I can’t do that without having ElGato because then, I would have to navigate from far away (which is hard when you only have a 20″ screen).  Plus, where would I watch TV when I’m in the bedroom?  From my iPod touch (not yet, anyways)?

Here’s the ultimate solution:

• Buy a projector for every room, throw it up against the wall, and hook it up to a CPU (Mac mini)
• Get a portable keyboard and mouse/remote to use and switch between TV/internet (and other functions)
• Kick the cable habit
• Make MobileTV more avaialble (AT&T has done a great job at this with their Samsung and LG product lines); let’s go iPhone!
• Sites like Hulu, CurrentTV, et al., should have streaming channels that you can watch from software like FrontRow

I’m sure the overhead I spend every month could be suplemented by me investing in this sort of technology.

Here’s to the future…

5 Comments