Is Television Dead?

When I was a kid, I probably watched too much television. It was just the only thing to do when I was growing up. I didn’t have Internet access until I was in Jr. High. It was either watch television, or ride my bike, and television was often more entertaining. However, during my college years, I found myself increasingly becoming disconnected from watching things on an actual television, and I was watching more and more content on my PC.

When I moved out of my parent’s home, I didn’t even bother ordering cable for my apartment. Not only was it not in my budget to do so, but I was plenty entertained by online entertainment offerings. My favorite channel was bought out and the hosts had moved to podcasting and online video. Every other cable channel that I enjoyed seemed to be turning into a rerun network. Not only that, but my college major was communications, and I was increasingly becoming aware of all the manipulation that the media was spewing out through the dated medium.

For myself, television is dead, but in the same way that radio is dead for many. Many still listen to FM and AM radio and the medium is obviously still profitable despite how ancient the technology is. I do not see television ever completely dieing out.

What do you think? Are you a cord cutter? Sound off in the comments?

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Speak Now

I recently downloaded the Google app because I had heard about the Voice Search capability. I own a last generation iPod Touch and have not been able to use Siri on it because Apple prevented me from doing so from day one. I could speculate why all I want but it is obvious that the technology would have worked on my device because the Voice feature in the Google app works flawlessly.

I first tested the app by saying “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.” as fast as I could. The Voice Search feature picked up on every word. I then preceded to use it to look up local businesses. I said “restaurants nearby” and it happily displayed every restaurant within 50 miles of my location. What I did not know at the time was that the app talks back to you. I had the sound muted from being in an earlier situation where I didn’t want to be disturbed. After I realized that the app was talking back, I realized that this was the Google equivalent of Siri and that I was finally free to use this technology after Apple had prevented me from doing so for so long. Of course, my child like curiosity kicked in and I started asking questions geared more toward having fun with the app. I asked what my name was, and the responded by saying "Oh, no! Did you forget your name?" and displayed amnesia information. I thanked the app and it responded by saying "You're welcome." and displayed greeting card information.

The app does run into trouble when there are multiple people talking in a room. However, the app doesn’t seem to pick up on conversations in the background to be translated as search results. Instead, it just sort of hangs, listens, and waits for the background conversation to stop before it displays the search terms you provide to it which is a relief. This means that it is safe to use the app around potty mouthed individuals without fear that it will inadvertently search for porn.

The only other issue that I had was when I was trying to search for a word that the app kept mistaking for a number. Apparently, it can’t differentiate between '2' 'to' and 'too' as easily as a human can. Perhaps more context algorithms can be added to the app in the future.

Despite these minor issues, I am impressed. I believe that this is more than a gimmick way to interact with one’s device. We are living in a world of touch screens and voice activated computers that was imagined by Gene Roddenberry not too long ago. This technology can only get better over time.

What do you think? Do you use voice controls? If so, do you like using them? Sound off in the comments.

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Online Ordering?

My first experience with ordering food online was through a certain pizza place and I’ve ordered pizza online ever since. I just found it more convenient than calling because I could look at the latest menu while placing my order and there was less of a chance of an employee misinterpreting what I wanted.

Since then, other types of restaurants have added online ordering to their forms of serving the customer. For instance, Chipotle now accepts orders ahead of time from their mobile app. Anyone who’s ever been to Chipotle knows that there can be a long line between you and delicious burrito goodness, but the app allows you to cut right through the line.

I particularly like when there is a feature that tracks the status of your order. Domino’s has one of the best order tracking feature by far (see image). Am I the only one that wants more types of businesses to provide this feature? Sometimes, it can be a real waste of time to go to the store. Sometimes, I don’t even have time to go to the store. I want grocery and retail stores to start offering delivery services straight from the store.

Wal-Mart is going to start testing something like this. The items won’t be delivered to your house, but they will be stored in a physical locker after your order is placed. This at least allows one to bypass the check-out line, which is notoriously long at many Wal-Marts across the country.

Am I the only one who wants this? Am I being lazy? Sound off in the comments.

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Is RSS Really Dead?

The other day, I had a conversation with someone regarding RSS. The topic of the conversation was “is RSS dead?” The simple answer to this is “no.” However, we all know that things are not that simple. With Google recently announcing that Reader would be shutting down, I think that this marks an end of an era for RSS readers.

While I’m sure that RSS readers will still exist in some form or another (not to mention that it’s the driving technology behind podcasting), social media seems to have taken over the act of gathering news through them.

Am I completely wrong in assuming this? Do you still use an RSS reader to gather your news? Sound off in the comments and let me know.

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Why Blog?

Back when I was just starting my Internet adventures, blogs were all the rage. It seemed that everyone and their cat had a blog (literally), and that citizen journalism had arrived. Then something happened. 

Sure, there are still blogs around, but they don’t seem to have the same popularity that they once did from an everyday; at least from citizen perspective, and who could blame them? It’s much more convenient to micro-blog or post to any number of social networking sites. Who needs to write paragraph after paragraph detailing their daily lives anymore when they can just post an image or short blurb about what they are doing at any given moment? 

However, I for one think that there is still a need for such things. I wouldn’t have started this blog if I didn’t. If anything, I think that someone should hold the fort to at least keep this dying art alive. Does this make me an historian?

Am I the only one who misses the golden age of citizen journalism? Sound off in the comments.

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Video Of The Week: Epic Space Battle

An iconic villain returns in this commercial for the latest Star Trek video game. Does this mean that we will see this race in the movie?

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