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Friday, September 4, 2009

Control At Your Fingertips

Cynopsis pointed something out to me today that really looked cool. They pointed me to a site called i.tv and a video embedded below.



This company has built an app for the iPhone that simplifies the process of finding the shows you want, recording through Tivo, and finding Netflix films to download. "The iTV app turns the iPhone into a full-featured control center for all your entertainment needs: check TV and movie times, purchase movie tickets, manage your Netflix queue, watch YouTube videos, and now control your Tivo HD remotely. The interface is elegant, visual and easy to figure out. iTV is releasing the remote control framework to third party developers, hoping to get other set-top manufacturers interested."

To me, the biggest minus with cable is the cable box. Shouldn't cable operators be embracing this kind of convergent technology and truly making the cable box a happy experience. To me, it works more like a Model T. Perhaps I can trade in my cable box under the "cash for clunkers" and get something that is more useful. Tivo and Netflix are enabling TV sets to work better. And companies are building more useful Apps for them, but not for the cable industry. It's time for a change.