TV aficionados are all abuzz about the news that Google is about to launch Google TV, redefining the experience of watching television. Soon fans will be able to Tweet about Glee and blog about baseball, live, for the world to see. There are plenty of surprises in store too, or as Google says, “The coolest thing about Google TV is that we don’t even know what the coolest thing about it will be.”
Netflix cofounder and CEO Reed Hastings is willing to make a few bets. At a talk delivered at the Del Mar Theatre in downtown Santa Cruz on Tuesday night, he described what he called a “Web television world.” Technology takes time to develop, he said, reflecting on his own company’s gradual transfer from mailing DVDs to streaming them. On the other hand, in just a few decades, we could have a personal relationship with our TVs. One day they will greet us when we plop down on the couch, and depending on the intensity of the plop or some other feature, our TVs will be able to sense our moods and pick the right program for us, whether it’s the 65th season of SNL or reruns of that award-winning series Law and Order: Omaha, or perhaps even the Ultimate Jetpack Frisbee World Cup.
Some 400 people attended the talk, which also focused on educational issues. Hastings is a founder and board member of the Pacific Collegiate School in Santa Cruz, one of the top schools in the country. During the talk, he admitted that he cried when he first saw the documentary film “Waiting for Superman,” about the dismal state of education in the U.S. What he failed to note is that one day, his TV may decide he needs a good cry and start playing the film as soon as he plops down. Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel.
