It’s taken decades to get here, but streaming and other on-demand media consumption technologies have become the future of entertainment.
During elementary school in the mid-1980s, I learned basic computer programming, like Logo and Basic. We were fortunate to have a shiny new computer lab filled with Apple II computers. We were told this was a tremendous honor -- and to keep our hands clean to ensure a long life for the machines.
Those years were filled with touch-typing drills and the occasional educational game of Gertrude's Secrets. Microsoft inked a sweet deal with IBM. TCP, Nameservers, and DNS were new technologies. The first domain name was registered, and the first Internet backbone created. Cable TV offered a host of content not available anywhere else. Video was played via VHS or Betamax, until the smackdown ended with a VHS victory.
Moving ahead about 25 years into the Information Age, the technology landscape (or “Webscape,” perhaps) has changed drastically. We are no longer relegated to a network programming schedule. Thanks to evolving technology and customer demand, we’re seeing more networks get involved in online entertainment. All major over-the-air networks offer recently-aired programs for online viewing at their respective Websites.
These offerings are available on demand, outside of regularly scheduled programming blocks. NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and even PBS offer streaming video content with NBC dabbling in limited-use downloads. Select cable channels offer a streaming version of recent shows, like AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and USA Network’s “Psych.”
A sampling of my workday entertainment is centered upon on-demand netcasts (formerly known as “podcasts”). I choose the content provider, genre, delivery method, and time of day to tune in. When I’m not listening to my highly personalized blend of technology and comedy radio shows, I listen to one of many Internet Radio stations. Some are primarily online-only services, while others are available on my Android device. I enjoy being the program director.
With so much available online, can consumers save financially by tuning in to what’s available online in lieu of paying for pricey satellite TV and radio services? I thought it would be fun to compare pricing for cable radio and television with that of my Internet content providers. I was surprised by what I found.
If I were to subscribe to both XM Radio and Dish Network, I could pay nearly two hundred dollars more for each year of service than with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora One, Roku box, and Amazon Prime combined.
What does it all mean? The future is streaming, and we are watching it come to fruition.
— Michelle Greenlee is a Web developer and front-end designer, a general-purpose Web geek, and an occasional freelance writer.
We've heard this little scene, we've heard it many times. People fighting over little things and wasting precious time. They might be better off ... I think ... the way it seems to me. Making up their own shows, which might be better than T.V.
--Found A Job, Talking Heads from "More Songs About Buildings and Food".
So yes.
Once a month we go see a movie.
A few times a week we watch a Netflix.
Every now and then we turn our favorite TV show.
But almost every other waking hour we're tuning in, turning on and signing up for web products and information, or multi-player gaming until 4 in the morning.
We're already entertaining ourselves, with ourselves.
As McLuhan said, he never predicts the future...he just looks around at what is happening in the present. Right now, most of our time is spent in our own TV show...on the web.
I think it's inevitable that textbooks will all eventually be electroni and the service from Amazon looks interesting.
I have a Kobo and one of the things I miss when I read a book for class on it is that I can't highlight or make notes. I would love for there to be a device that will allow me to highlight, earmark pages, and write comments in the margins of ebooks.
Hi Kim, I agree mobile will be the platform of choice, but I would define a mobile device much broader - e.g. a 4G iPad would be great for watching full-screen video. But several things need to evolve for this to be widely available and used!
is that infrastructure providers are going to operate more on a basis of throttling people's usage than by building up their networks to provide the bandwidth people want -- and you can bet that things like ads are going to be the thing least throttled.
mtechie, maybe someday Internet access will feel like it's part of basic utilities, but I think that'll only happen when stable broadband access reaches most remote rural areas. Until then, the Internet will be but a privilege for those who are in the right location and who can pay for it.
Maybe that means ISPs should come up with a different package for video consumers, in the same way that cellular phone companies can have a package for heavy SMS users and another one for people who call a lot (at least those packages exist where I am).
Mtechie, I agree with you especially on the sound ads. I still believe no website should ever for any reason have autoplay sound especially that without turn off option. Forcing you to mute your own system.
I think mobile will be the platform of choice for many purposes, but not for watching movies or TV shows of visual appeal from drama to sports (news, sure). The trend for movies and sports in particular has been toward ever bigger, ever more HD screens. I don't want to watch baseball on a mobile device.
Possibilities are opening up even in education. This isn't exactly a streaming entertainment service but Amazon recently launched Kindle textbook rentals. There have been rumors of digital textbooks replacing paper books for years. I don't know if thier first rental structure is the best but it's certainly an interesting offering. What do you think?
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Social media has been with us for a decade -- but employer policies and the law are anything but firm about the most appropriate usage of this powerful tool.
Businesses often struggle to decide which domain to use. When it comes to purchasing a domain name, you have plenty of extensions to choose from, ranging from .com and .net, to .me, and even .mobi. But which one should you pick?
I've been writing about how the next evolution of the Internet might just be an advertising revolution, and how corporate IT can stay involved as the enablers and providers of the technologies that make this possible.
In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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