At first we had desktop computers and screens. The innovation of the internet came along. We were then liberated by the handy laptop and it's lighter fancier progression including clever phones.
Now we are told the next big thing is something like a fixed desktop computer with a bigger screen.
I don't want or need one or .......... have I missed sonething ?
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you'll need one. In 15 years your sat dish and aerial will be redundant, because all your media a will be streamed over your net connection.
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The something you missed I suppose is that the TV is much better for watching downloaded or streamed "content" like TV, films, music video etc.
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mm...in 15 years....., at current reliabilty levels, I will have been through at least a couple of TVs by then.
I'm still waiting to be convinced. Prices for ordinary tellies seem pretty good now though.
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Yep it is more about being able to watch TV on demand on your TV and access all your photos etc to it. It is nothing really new, Media PCs which connect to your TV have been around for years, but the idea of SMART TVs is it is all built in.
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A lot of these will be touch screens as well.
I just about manage to use my iPhone with a dirty screen, but I cannot use a PC with a monitor covered in finger prints, let alone watch a TV prog or movie with finger prints everywhere. It would drive me barmy having to clean the screen every 5 mins.
I think the technology should go into making unmarkable screens first.
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It is like all these pointless quad core smart phones, what is the point when they still suffer from the poor battery life and signal problems they always have done?
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....A lot of these will be touch screens as well...........
I guess after people become tired of that, some smart soul will invent a way to "touch" the screen from where you are comfortably sitting. It might have an infra red thingy, be called a remote control and get lost somewhere in the sofa.
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>> A lot of these will be touch screens as well.
>>
>> I just about manage to use my iPhone with a dirty screen, but I cannot
>> use a PC with a monitor covered in finger prints, let alone watch a TV
>> prog or movie with finger prints everywhere. It would drive me barmy having to clean
>> the screen every 5 mins.
>>
>> I think the technology should go into making unmarkable screens first.
Ah, the Achilles heel of touch screens. I lasted a week with the iPhone before ordering some rubbery-tipped pokers. I can now type better, with no fingerprints. I've binned the screen protectors. The screen is just too good to deface with those. Maybe the reduced cleaning will make the 'oleophobic' coating last longer as well.
Windows 8 desktops have touch screens. Last I heard, Apple was reluctant to do touch screen desktops until it has solved the "fingerprint problem", which detracts from the purity of its designs :-)
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>> Windows 8 desktops have touch screens.
And keyboards.
In reality, every is waiting for non touch gestures to be made consumer ready. You just wave your hands about ala "Minority Report"
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 08:04
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>> In reality, every is waiting for non touch gestures to be made consumer ready. You
>> just wave your hands about ala "Minority Report"
>>
Out this year. Already announced by Sony, LG and Samsung so far.
eg
ces.cnet.com/8301-33379_1-57353006/samsung-brings-voice-gesture-control-to-tvs/
Priced at $2000 in the States.
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I can't see internet telly taking off until there is much wider access to high speed broadband.
In theory, I can watch all my Sky stuff on the Mac, but the home broadband is barely up to it, and the free wifi at the caravan is even worse.
Not even worth mentioning the dongle.
Plenty of posts on here from people who struggle with YouTube clips, so I doubt many of us can stream HD telly.
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But the Volume control on Iplayer goes up to 11!
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We're lucky enough to have a fast enough connection for HD iPlayer on the TV, and it is a nice thing to have. Only used it a few times previously, but now it's a preferable alternative to the (SD) PVR.
Just wish Panasonic would provide apps for ITV and C4 as well.
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Panasonic is pretty poor for updates providing new features. Sony is a bit better in this respect.
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>> Panasonic is pretty poor for updates providing new features.
Just uploaded a new version of the firmware into the (Panasonic) Bluray player, which provides the internet connection and apps such as iPlayer and youtube. So I thought I'd give youtube a go - searched for 'shut up black eyed peas' and just get covers or live versions or different songs altogether. Tried it on the laptop - official video top of the list.
Same with a few other videos. Don't know if it was like this before, but either way, it's carp.
Last edited by: Focus on Wed 11 Jul 12 at 21:29
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Virgin TiVo streams catch up TV and on demand down a dedicated channel on our internet connection. I think it's only a fairly small size pipe - 10mb IIRC - but you never ever see any hiccups, even watching HD. So I suspect it's more about the quality and consistency of the connection and the servers at the other end than the actual speed.
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>> I think it's only a fairly small size pipe - 10mb IIRC -
>> . So I suspect it's more
>> about the quality and consistency of the connection and the servers at the other end
>> than the actual speed.
Do I misunderstand you? If you couldn't manage with 10Mbps there wouldn't be much hope for most of us. My download speed is 1.57Mbps just now which is normal for daytime. I can stream iPlayer with that, just. iPlayer sacrifices quailty to keep it going, not sure if HD streaming does that?
The two friends I saw last week, in urban areas, are at about 5-6 Mbps. I know a couple of people in Nottingham who get what I would call superfast broadband, i.e. in double figures.
My next house move will be broadband speed dependent!
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Virgin broadband speeds start at 30Mbps these days, lots of 60 (as mine is), quite a lot of 100, 400 on trial...
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>> Virgin broadband speeds start at 30Mbps these days,
Not here they don't. Or most places, surely? Dumped Virgin eventually when they gave notice that my monthly charge was going to £20+ for my 1-2Mbps recently. Zero said they wanted to get rid of me. They certainly gave that impression. The service was dreadful too.
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Perhaps not if you're not on cable? All cabled areas are at those speeds.
I agree about the service though - not wonderful, always, although the problems I've had have all been resolved to my satisfaction eventually.
Edit - actually, come to think of it, some Virgin cabled areas might still be on legacy 10 for a month or two yet.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 15:26
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No cable here, no. Not even sure if we have satellite TV ;-)
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You're not missing much.
Broadcast TV is dead in the water, for younger people, anyway. As one memorably said the other day "TV? Oh yes, I know, that's like YouTube with five videos and someone else decides when to press the play button".
You're better off with a good book, or of course, you can wait until Spotify, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter all merge into one giant website, which will undoubtedly be called listenyoutwitface.com
Last edited by: Crankcase on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 15:41
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>>My next house move will be broadband speed dependent!<<
Connection, Connection, Connection.
:-D
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>>
>> >> In reality, every is waiting for non touch gestures to be made consumer ready.
>> You
>> >> just wave your hands about ala "Minority Report"
>> >>
>>
>> Out this year. Already announced by Sony, LG and Samsung so far.
>>
I've had a play with the Samsung one at both prototype and mass production stages. Very impressive, and works well. Can also respond to voice commands after saying "Hi TV". :-)
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>> Very impressive, and works well. Can also respond to voice commands after saying "Hi TV".
>> :-)
Be useless in our house then, where Victoria the cook is summoned at 4pm with the words "High Tea, V".
As for gesturing, I bet in Italian households the damn thing would change channel every three seconds.
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>> As for gesturing, I bet in Italian households the damn thing would change channel every
>> three seconds.
No-one would notice, they are all crap in Italy
Unless the footie was on of course
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Slightly off topic, but how can any hand-waving technology beat Vi as a text editor. Using mice/waving your hands around will inevitably be slower.
Oh for the good old days (not that I was ever amazing at Vi, but I would have been if I'd had to use it more).
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 15:51
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I'm still using an updated version of vi, gvim, daily as one of my editors of choice at work.
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Vi is a pile of cack, as are all text editors. Stone age rubbish.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 21:03
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>> Vi is a pile of cack, as are all text editors. Stone age rubbish.
Ah that's where all us programmers are going wrong - I guess we should be using Word? That would make our lives so much easier... :)
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 21:03
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The concept of watching TV in traditional sense will soon be obsolete.
TV will act as a giant screen for computer. Everything will be on demand.
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Programers are always going wrong.
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>> Programers are always going wrong.
We have to - if we always got it right we'd run out of work pretty quickly!
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>> >> Vi is a pile of cack, as are all text editors. Stone age rubbish.
>>
>>
>> Ah that's where all us programmers are going wrong - I guess we should be
>> using Word? That would make our lives so much easier... :)
>>
Yeah, if you used Word Clippy could help you :-))
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 21:03
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Oooo Looks like you are writing a letter.
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Word isn't set up for using the keyboard to navigate a document. It requires a wretched mouse. The more advanced Word has become, the more essential the mouse has become; keyboard shortcuts have become less and less effective.
For anybody who can touch type, and has sufficient brainpower to remember a few keyboard shortcuts, a mouse is a hindrance in using the average Office application.
Now, I don't dispute that the mouse is a marvel for certain things. If you've ever watched an architect using a CAD program, he is as much a master of the skill as was his 1910s predecessor who used a paintbrush and a box of watercolours. But...
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'For anybody who can touch type, and has sufficient brainpower to remember a few keyboard shortcuts, a mouse is a hindrance in using the average Office application.'
I would think most users of word can't touch type and that includes me I can only type pretty slow and still have to look at the keyboard to find the letters. I think that most people are comfortable with a mouse hence the greater need of a mouse. Set up for their customer rather than what's 'best'.
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Being a professional keyboard user since 1973, I can type fast, very fast. Wouldn't call it touch typing by any means tho, using three fingers and a thumb! Two fingers and a thumb on the right hand and one finger on the left. Funnily tho the cack handed typing method suits multiple key stroke combo's for shortcuts
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>> Oooo Looks like you are writing a letter.
>>
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS0vZFPnksk
Swearing.
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Smart TVs - have I missed the point ? - Zero
