Google and Sony Partner

Just when you thought you finally figured out all the options you have to watch TV, another new category of devices and services comes on the market. So was the case earlier this month when Google announced that they had partnered with Sony to develop and market a TV that is essentially the “Swiss Army Knife” of living room TV viewing.

For years pundits have been predicting the eventual merging of the various television and media services into one box. Up until now only the most technically adroit among us with ample wallets could afford and actually use the first generation hybrid devices. Google and Sony promise to change that.

I have written often about the various video services that are now available to most of us. Gone are the days when our choices for viewing were controlled by broadcasters, cable/satellite companies or the video store. The Internet has changed all of that since it levels the distribution playing field. Programs can be sent directly to the viewer whenever they want to watch.

One of the negative by-products of this explosion in choices is the ability to keep track of what is available. It is like drinking water from a fire hydrant … it might quench your thirst but the experience is not pleasant. The TV viewing choices are so vast that if there was a printed “TV Guide” containing all the channels and programs it would have be the size of the New York City phone book to list a single week’s offerings.

Google TV promises to do much more than only physically connecting all of your sources of programming such as over-the-air broadcasting, cable, satellite and the Internet. It has an easy-to-use interface that allows you to know what is available and to actually watch or record the programs. Perhaps this is the most important development.

The Google TV also allows you to access the non-video services on the Internet such as facebook, Cincinnati.com and even email. Recent studies show a significant increase in people who report that they watch TV and surf Internet simultaneously. Whether a single screen device will prove to be adequate remains to be seen.

As the Internet becomes more robust and more households get increased data delivery speed, TV will continue to migrate from the traditional distribution services. Will this improve the quality of the programming and reduce the costs? That remains to be seen. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

Google and Sony Partner

Just when you thought you finally figured out all the options you have to watch TV, another new category of devices and services comes on the market. So was the case earlier this month when Google announced that they had partnered with Sony to develop and market a TV that is essentially the “Swiss Army Knife” of living room TV viewing.

For years pundits have been predicting the eventual merging of the various television and media services into one box. Up until now only the most technically adroit among us with ample wallets could afford and actually use the first generation hybrid devices. Google and Sony promise to change that.

I have written often about the various video services that are now available to most of us. Gone are the days when our choices for viewing were controlled by broadcasters, cable/satellite companies or the video store. The Internet has changed all of that since it levels the distribution playing field. Programs can be sent directly to the viewer whenever they want to watch.

One of the negative by-products of this explosion in choices is the ability to keep track of what is available. It is like drinking water from a fire hydrant … it might quench your thirst but the experience is not pleasant. The TV viewing choices are so vast that if there was a printed “TV Guide” containing all the channels and programs it would have be the size of the New York City phone book to list a single week’s offerings.

Google TV promises to do much more than only physically connecting all of your sources of programming such as over-the-air broadcasting, cable, satellite and the Internet. It has an easy-to-use interface that allows you to know what is available and to actually watch or record the programs. Perhaps this is the most important development.

The Google TV also allows you to access the non-video services on the Internet such as facebook, Cincinnati.com and even email. Recent studies show a significant increase in people who report that they watch TV and surf Internet simultaneously. Whether a single screen device will prove to be adequate remains to be seen.

As the Internet becomes more robust and more households get increased data delivery speed, TV will continue to migrate from the traditional distribution services. Will this improve the quality of the programming and reduce the costs? That remains to be seen. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

Kindle Could Be The Newspaper's Best Friend

While it seems that many niche print publications and community newspapers like The Harrison Press are doing OK in this digital hurricane, it is no secret that many daily newspapers, even some of the icons like the Boston Globe or Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, are not successfully navigating these troubled waters. The shrinking size of our local Enquirer is testament to this trend. There is certainly no lack of interest in the news. The issue is how we get our news.

Fewer and fewer of us wake up in the morning and trudge to the driveway to find out what happened in the world while we were asleep. Instead we switch on the TV to view newscasts which span the 24 hour clock, or, as more often the case, we go online. The irony is that we go online to read many of the very newspapers that are having trouble surviving.

Very few print publications adopted a “pay for service” model in the early days of the web. Now they are finding that once you give something away free it is very hard to begin to charge for it. With fewer and fewer people paying for the paper and ink copy and more and more reading the material free online, it does not take an economist to figure out that this model is no longer sustainable.

The recent announcement of a new model of the “Kindle” may have given some hope to this struggling industry. The “Kindle” is an electronic reader that has been around a few years. Unlike a PDA or Laptop, the “Kindle” is designed for one purpose. That purpose is to display, in an easy to use and easy to see device, printed words as close to the experience of reading a book or newspaper as possible. The new “Kindle” has a larger screen than the first model and uses a special display that is easily read in bright sunlight.

Of course the big advantage is that it can retrieve and store more newspapers, magazines and books than a small bookstore. And since it is electronically tethered to the online world, these materials can be updated quickly and inexpensively. Rather than waiting for the next edition of the newspaper for updates, in reality you could be reading the beginning of a story before the end was finished. Once a book is released, there is no waiting for it to be shipped from Amazon or to wind up in the library

Even the textbook companies are getting into the game. Some prestigious institutions like Case Western University in Cleveland are going to try “selling” texts to students in this electronic form.

There are other companies like Sony that have developed similar readers. More and more publications are experimenting with subscription plans. How people will adapt to reading on a “electronic” screen rather than on a piece of paper is still unknown. For sure if the “Kindle” and other readers are successful, we will accomplish at least two good things: we will keep the diversity of news reporting healthy and we will save more than a few trees.

Kindle Could Be The Newspaper's Best Friend

While it seems that many niche print publications and community newspapers like The Harrison Press are doing OK in this digital hurricane, it is no secret that many daily newspapers, even some of the icons like the Boston Globe or Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, are not successfully navigating these troubled waters. The shrinking size of our local Enquirer is testament to this trend. There is certainly no lack of interest in the news. The issue is how we get our news.

Fewer and fewer of us wake up in the morning and trudge to the driveway to find out what happened in the world while we were asleep. Instead we switch on the TV to view newscasts which span the 24 hour clock, or, as more often the case, we go online. The irony is that we go online to read many of the very newspapers that are having trouble surviving.

Very few print publications adopted a “pay for service” model in the early days of the web. Now they are finding that once you give something away free it is very hard to begin to charge for it. With fewer and fewer people paying for the paper and ink copy and more and more reading the material free online, it does not take an economist to figure out that this model is no longer sustainable.

The recent announcement of a new model of the “Kindle” may have given some hope to this struggling industry. The “Kindle” is an electronic reader that has been around a few years. Unlike a PDA or Laptop, the “Kindle” is designed for one purpose. That purpose is to display, in an easy to use and easy to see device, printed words as close to the experience of reading a book or newspaper as possible. The new “Kindle” has a larger screen than the first model and uses a special display that is easily read in bright sunlight.

Of course the big advantage is that it can retrieve and store more newspapers, magazines and books than a small bookstore. And since it is electronically tethered to the online world, these materials can be updated quickly and inexpensively. Rather than waiting for the next edition of the newspaper for updates, in reality you could be reading the beginning of a story before the end was finished. Once a book is released, there is no waiting for it to be shipped from Amazon or to wind up in the library

Even the textbook companies are getting into the game. Some prestigious institutions like Case Western University in Cleveland are going to try “selling” texts to students in this electronic form.

There are other companies like Sony that have developed similar readers. More and more publications are experimenting with subscription plans. How people will adapt to reading on a “electronic” screen rather than on a piece of paper is still unknown. For sure if the “Kindle” and other readers are successful, we will accomplish at least two good things: we will keep the diversity of news reporting healthy and we will save more than a few trees.