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…





