by Stephen Maloney
In the ’50s, families lined up in front of their television sets to watch Ed Sullivan in the safety of their living rooms. What we watch and when we watch it have changed dramatically since then, but TV really hasn’t been very portable. Until recently, that is.
Now, you no longer have to be in the same room as your television set to watch your favorite program. All you need is a computer equipped with Windows 2000 or higher, a broadband connection, and a new device called a Slingbox, which sells for about $250, and you’re ready to watch TV from wherever you are. Use a Slingbox to connect your television set to the Internet through your home network router, and you’re in business. The device sends whatever’s playing on your TV set to the Internet, which you can access from just about anywhere. You can sip your favorite overpriced cup of coffee in an overstuffed chair in a Starbucks in Idaho while watching Oprah on your home television set.
You can also have on-the-go TV: Satellite TV has found its way into your car. KVH Industries offers the Trac Vision A5 package, which sells for $2,300. The pizza box-sized antenna funnels satellite TV into a seven-inch screen mounted inside your vehicle. Local channels aren’t available yet, but that probably won’t be much of a drawback. Just leave the array of DVDs home on the next road trip and rely on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network to keep your kids occupied.
Another thing that kids (and big kids!) turn on when they want to zone out is Apple’s hugely successful iPod. These indispensable little devices—I’m listening to mine right now—have evolved, as most good gadgets tend to do. Now, as you may have already guessed, you can watch TV on the new Video iPod. Apple started selling downloadable versions of shows like “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” in October. Within three weeks, they sold more than a million of the $1.99 videos. Time will tell if the majority of the viewing public will decide that their favorite shows look better on their iPod as opposed to the plasma screen TV in their living room, but anything can happen. If you had told me ten years ago that I’d be able to carry in my pocket a device holding a digital recording of every single CD that I own, I’d have laughed out loud. When I heard about being able to watch TV on that same miraculous little device, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, “Well, that sounds about right.”
The only thing that iPods can’t do right now is place phone calls. Cell phones like the Motorola Rokr, which is iTunes-friendly and can store up to 100 of your favorite songs, are incorporating the ability to store and play music, but will they be able to call for help when the levees fail? Probably not. If you want a seriously dependable phone, you’ll have to turn to a company like Globalstar, which offers satellite phone service starting at $39.99 a week. It’s more than you’d pay at a conventional carrier, but satellite phones aren’t tethered to an earth-based infrastructure, so you’ll be able to place a call when everyone else is scrambling to find high ground.
In fact, Globalstar’s service remained uninterrupted throughout the worst that hurricanes Katrina and Rita dished out. The company donated more than 100 satellite phones to the governors’ offices in Louisiana and Mississippi. These somewhat clunky phones used their giant antennas to link up to satellites and help officials coordinate relief efforts in the hardest-hit areas. Satellite phones can operate using one antenna for a vast area, unlike conventional cell phones that rely on a network of towers that can all be damaged in a storm or other natural disaster.
So the next time you find yourself stuck waiting in line at Wal-Mart or stalled in miles of traffic, don’t despair. You can always watch TV, or count on your satellite phone to let you catch up with all those calls you haven’t returned.
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