Week 3 Newspaper Article

The article I chose to write about is titled “Like Apple , TV explores Must-Have Applications” which was written by Saul Hansell and published in New York Times September 6th newspaper. I chose to explore this article because it was very interesting to me because I own a couple of Apples greatest inventions the first generation iPhone and the most recent generation iPhone also known as the 3rd generation iPhone. It is in fact one of the greatest pieces of technology with mobile capabilities. This phone has many functions that others don’t but the function that most people tend to really love is the infinite number of applications that can be added and subtracted from this device( some are free and some must be purchased) by touch of the screen. Consumers are getting so used to the fact that they have virtually everything in front of them on their mobile device, they want the same thing when the put their mobile device to bed when they are home.
The article speaks about how DirecTV and FiOS service from Verizon Communications have recently announce app stores modeled directly on Apple’s App Store. A few of the applications they have available now are Bible Verses, Facebook updates, and fantasy sports team updates. This article really suggest the modern day people are no longer content with just sitting back while watching television but rather want to lean forward or sit up and interact and customize their televisions.
For years now cable and satellite customers have bee able to get news articles, weather forecasts and sports scores through their set-top boxes. This idea did not really spark many users in fact many of the leading industries concluded that all “most” people wanted to do was watch television. Now with people becoming so interactive and sophisticated with their electronic devices they are rethinking that theory.

So what now? I’m so glad you asked with you now being able to access Face book and FiOS on your television the problem lies with the amount of things you can do. Ultimately I think your computer and television will merge to become one device. The article mentions that the remote is going to be so much more complex if they add the capabilities to add text to the screen and they also mentioned the complex menus going back and forth in between those items. The biggest thing for me is they going to force people to make this change to the new set-top boxes? Will the set-top boxes need to be purchased or can they be rented like most cable devices are (modem & cable box)? Also when you access your Facebook or Twitter will you have to enter your information every time or will you be venerable to everyone seeing your personal Facebook or twitter updates because you will never be logged off?