These days, computers and TVs look pretty similar

The convergence of television and computers has been underway for a few years.

TVs seem more like computers and computers more like TVs.

The Internet is evolving into an entertainment media similar to TVs. Hundreds of shows, thousands of movies and a zillion bits of news now provide entertainment.

Television, on the other hand, has morphed into some sort of computer with a large picture, lots of visual options and a story from every corner of the world at your fingertips.

The original definition of TV really doesn’t exist any longer. TV is an expression for tele-vision, or transmitting over the airway a series of pictures we now call movies, or more appropriately, video.

When was the last time you pointed your TV antenna to an on-air TV station? Most of us are connected to a cable of some sort to get TV and a cable or phone wires for Internet.

Computers and televisions are becoming one big media juggernaut, converging into a third entity we could call CE-TV (computer-enabled TV).

TVs now have a bevy of “apps” that are similar to apps on a computer or smart phone. You can download an app, set it up and watch a show, sporting event, news program or documentary. Or, should I say that your computer is attached to a large screen display – like a 50-inch monitor?

You control a computer with a mouse and keyboard. With a TV, you use a remote that doubles as a mouse and will display a keyboard if needed. So what’s the difference?

As we march evermore into the future, technology forces previous generations to adapt. Both the TV age and the computer age had to adapt or die.

Many newspapers have cut back on national coverage – transforming instead to report on local news, events and calendars. All the while, the big TV stations, thousands of independent stations, blogs and mimes dominate CE-TV.
The convergence continues, and it is good.

William Claney is an independent tech writer and former owner of Computers USA in the Clayton Station. Email questions or comments to willclaney@gmail.com.