I received my Apple TV the other day, and decided to unbox it in front of the live audience. Yes, I know that the television currently in my home office sucks. If you have recommendations for a new one, I’d love to hear them.

I appreciate that the Apple TV is black and silver. It matches my home office perfectly. Poor Wicket wants a Google TV but has to be patient for a while longer. The remote app is nice for both the Apple TV and my iPhone. I will likely use my phone as the remote.

Unboing was pretty simple… pull out the device, the instruction book and the remote and you’re done. If you’re planning to get an Apple TV, how soon will you have one? If you’re not getting one – why not? I’m curious to hear what everyone in the community is planning to do, and why.

Apple TV has been redesigned to be small in size but big on entertainment. Rent from the largest selection of HD movies — many available the same day they come out on DVD. Watch Netflix titles instantly. Rent TV shows, commercial free in HD. And stream photos and music from your computer to your widescreen TV. Best of all, Apple TV is just $99.

The Apple TV is very portable… enough so that I will carry it with me wherever I want to use it in my house. I will likely also bring it along when I travel somewhere. Using iTunes with it to find movies is actually pretty simple and intuitive. The prices are comparable (and often cheaper) than what you’ll find anywhere else.

Have you tried an Apple TV yet? What are your thoughts?

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37% of young Netflix subscribers aged 25-34 have cut cable for Netflix only, and almost 30% of users between ages 18-24 are using Netflix only vs. cable or satellite. Are people cutting cable for On Demand services? Are you thinking about it? Lamarr is definitely thinking about it – or at least talking about it.

It’s interesting to see so many people getting rid of standard cable connections in favor of services such as Hulu and Netflix. A recent post on Mashable talks about the ways our living rooms are changing. They discuss every option available these days from Boxee to Netflix to Apple TV.

Lamarr happens to be in this “young age bracket.” He hasn’t cut his cable yet, but he did purchase the Roku Box. He is amazed by it – and the fact that Hulu will be coming to the Roku this fall. He’s replacing his standard TV in his living room with Google TV in the near future, as well.

At the end of October, Lamarr is cutting his cable. Are you doing the same?

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Will you become a Hulu Plus subscriber, or will you stick to the Hulu experience you’ve known to this point? If not, why not – and if so, why so? Some people are upset over the way Hulu decided to support the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad – but the other alternative seems just as expensive (either with media ala-carte spending or time spent on converting illegally-attained videos). It certainly works – no doubt about that. If you don’t like what they’re doing, you can vote with your feet – but complaining about it in a YouTube comment probably won’t get you very far.

There are more than thirty currently popular television shows (from ABC, NBC and FOX) available to watch in their current season via Hulu Plus. In addition, you can catch up with hundreds of your favorite shows’ past seasons and episodes. There are more than 120 seasons and 2,000 episodes of rich library content—that’s thousands of hours of entertainment.

You can use your Hulu Plus subscription on several devices – not just your Apple ones. You can use certain Samsung televisions, your Xbox 360 and more. They’re accessible anywhere you can get to your account, so you can watch these easily on the road.

If you do plan on getting a subscription, know that you’re going to sit through commercials. Commercials on Hulu aren’t intrusive in my opinion. Only you can decide if paying for Hulu is worth it to you. It’s definitely worth my money – and time.

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After entering my credentials, it took me ten minutes to bang this out on the remote control and virtual keyboard. It would have taken half that time if I hadn’t pressed the wrong key and the stupid widget software was intelligent enough to save a draft.

http://twitter.com/ChrisPirillo/status/17590959990

As far as I’m concerned, the Internet widgets on Samsung TVs are a total #FAIL.

3D technology has been around for several years now and has undergone significant changes during that time. Ryan called from the UK asking my thoughts on 3D TV in general, and whether I feel it is a “fad” or not.

I would say that 3D isn’t a fad – it’s a feature that will be over-used in the near future. I expect we’ll see 3D in places that it should never be found. I’m sure that the adult entertainment industry is chomping at the bit. I don’t even want to think about that possibility, seriously. If anything drives technology forward, it’s them. Look at the history of their excessive use of tech that no one else really ever caught on to.

The idea of 3D in the home is long overdue. Having seen various movies in 3D, it was a seamless experience. I would welcome the ability to experience it in the comfort of my own home. It’s tricky because right now, 3D requires too many processes. You need the right signal, the right glasses and the right hardware. There’s too much that can impede the process.

At some point, most of the content distributed online (or from regular TV distribution channels) will cull a groundswell of support for 3D TV. With the proliferation of HD television, we’re still seeing media produced in the plain old format. There is still hardware being produced that doesn’t stack up and give you an HD experience.

It’s going to take awhile before 3D in the home catches on.

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Someone in the live chat room asked me last night what my thoughts are about Google TV… bringing the Google experience to your television instead of just the Internet. It makes sense to me, given that Google owns YouTube. They are working with manufacturers to bring the Google TV experience into your homes around the world. Some people compare Apple TV to Google TV, and I don’t feel that’s exactly fair.

Apple has their content locked up in their Universe, much like iTunes itself. Google is more like “HEY! It’s out there, so let’s throw it in here!” It’s a more open approach to deliver content to your doorstep. The more interesting idea to me is Clicker.TV.

If you head over there right now, you’ll see a web experience that runs right within your web browser. You can navigate shows using your keyboard, instead of a mouse. The idea is that you could use a device connected to your television and control your experience without having to use an actual keyboard. What Clicker is doing is aggregating all of these shows you can find across the Internet. It’s an application that doesn’t rely on Flash. It runs off of HTML5, which is more open. Some of the videos themselves may run off of Flash, but not the interface itself. If you’re wondering what a Google TV experience may be like, check this out first. I have a feeling they’re going to be pretty close.

If anything, I think Google TV would compare favorably to Boxee. I expect a lot of development over the coming months (and even years) from Google with this idea, and I have a feeling it’s something that could end up in many of our homes before all is said and done.

What are your thoughts on Google TV, or even Apple TV? Do you feel these types of services are what we will be using in the future, instead of traditional cable or satellite programs?

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The people over at Tremendous News are going to miss the popular television show LOST. In case you may have missed out on watching it in the past, the team put together this awesome one-minute video. It purrrfectly describes the entire show, and the whole thing was done with adorable little kitty cats.

If you have been following the show all these years, good for you. Our friend Traci Toguchi played a role on there in season four. I had a fantastic time touring some of the sets in Hawaii, and almost felt as though I was a part of the show. Alas, I admit to not really watching it. I don’t watch a lot of television. Who has time for that these days?

Are you a LOST fan? Does this video come pretty close to resembling the show?

Some people ask what products I choose to buy myself to use in my home. This television is the latest acquisition of mine, and it’s one that I’m seriously happy with. This gorgeous TV is the Samsung 46″ 1080p LED HDTV. The picture is so much better than what this video will show you. It’s seriously crisp, clear and beautiful. This ultra-slim 46-inch LED HDTV boasts full HD 1080p resolution for the sharpest, smoothest picture possible.

This TV is so much more than just a television. It features Samsung’s new Internet@TV online content service. Developed with Yahoo!, Internet@TV uses either a wired or wireless Ethernet connection to access content onscreen from Yahoo!, Flickr, YouTube and more with the push of a button. The widget-based interface and scrollbar run along the bottom of the screen for easy browsing of the latest programs and content.

Samsung’s 1080p panel uses a new high-speed liquid crystal to cut response time to 4ms. The fast response time dramatically reduces motion blur and shudder. There’s a huge difference between seeing a game, and in seeing every single second of it. That’s where the new Auto Motion Plus 240Hz technology comes into play! All of the action – in every single frame – is analyzed and adjusted… nothing will get past you. This quadruples frame rates from 60 to 240 frames per second. No images are ever repeated to make more frames!

You bet your booty that I bought this little baby for myself, and it’s a purchase I could not regret. The price is actually fairly good, I think. It may seem expensive to you. However, do your research on other televisions of this type. You’re likely going to pay a lot more for them, and I honestly don’t think you’ll get a better experience than you would with this Samsung.

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You have content scattered all over your network, I’m sure. The problem is when you want to watch your media on your HDTV. That’s where the FreeAgent Theater + from Seagate comes in handy! It allows you to not only access files from across your network, it also accepts input devices, such as memory cards. It has a variety of inputs, including full 1080p video and Dolby audio! It’s also compatible with the FreeAgent Go portable hard drive. I have to thank Seagate for sending me these products to review. It’s been fun to navigate my way through all of my content.

It’s a good system, and it works. However, it’s not all that easy to use. There are a ton of options. However, the user interface is kind of sluggish at times, and confusing for some people. This can be used with either a Mac or a Windows computer, which is something that I love.

Use the included sync software to copy all of your media to the FreeAgent Go drive. Or, just drag-and-drop your files directly onto the drive. Then, dock the drive into the FreeAgent Theater + HD media player. When connected to your television, it puts your entire media library at your fingertips!

Video quality is excellent. It has HDMI and allows resolutions up to 1080p. h264 video playback is smooth, as well. It supports multiple audio tracks, so you can encode the commentary into the same file as the main audio. It’s also quite responsive, quickly moving into play, fast-forward and other modes.

Get your media onto your tv with a great deal of ease. At only about $120.00, this is definitely an excellent option!

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Traci Toguchi covered the 2010 CES for us last week in Las Vegas. She was able to spend a few moments talking to Andrew about the new Boxee Box! The Boxee Box brings all your favorite TV shows & movies from the Internet or your hard drive onto your TV, without needing a computer. Why pay money for shows you won’t watch? Simply use the Boxee Box to watch what you want – on your own schedule!

Boxee is software that is the best way to enjoy all the entertainment you have on the web, or on your home network. This includes your tv shows and movies from Netflix, photos from Flickr, and even music from Pandora!

It won’t be available until second quarter this year, and will retail for about $199.99. When you think of all the money you’re wasting for television programming you don’t watch, that 200 bucks isn’t a bad deal at all!

Make sure you sign up on the website in order to keep up with the developments, and be ready to buy your Boxee Box when they become available!

Thanks, Traci, for all of your hard work during CES!

Thanks to Creative for sending the Vado 3 along for Traci to use during the show!

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I never thought I’d see the day when a USB device worked on both OS X and Windows to allow me to record video signals, including digital cable video signals! I can also schedule recordings, even remotely from my iPhone! There’s also the ability to chat with others, and see what other people are watching.

I’m talking about the TubeStick. With TubeStick you can stream live TV directly from your computer to your iPhone and remotely schedule recordings, ready to watch them later on your computer – or even on the go. The TubeStick works out of the box. Everything you need is there: a TV receiver, the matching white mini-antenna, an adaptor for external antennas and a USB extension cable.

Do you know what the best thing is about the TubeStick? You can win this one in my hand for yourself!! Simply log into Twitter, and tweet the following link: http://go.tagjag.com/tubestick. Add anything else you’d like to the tweet, as long as that link is in there. One of you will be a winner!

I’d be interested in seeing what shows all of you watch, so I’m looking forward to seeing you get signed up. It’ll be fun to see if I’m watching the hottest shows out there, or the lamest!

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• The Microsoft ad department isn’t very popular in Europe right now.
• What were your thoughts on Chris Brogan’s Gnomedex presentation?
• Is Microsoft supporting head transplants?
• Scams happen to smart people who do stupid things.
• Lazyfeed is a go!
• The Pre wants to be in iPhone commercials – what?!
• Can Yahoo outsmart Microsoft?
• Do we really want AppCenter on Ubuntu?

This week, I’m taking the Green Screen Challenge a step or two further than usual! Normally, I make a blog post, showcasing a few of my favorite entries. This time around, you can actually win a couple of very cool things!

The challenge: Create a Gnomedex commercial! My annual Gnomedex conference is only five weeks away, and it’s shaping up to be the best one yet! To help spread the excitement, I want you to come up with your very own Gnomedex commercial. Be as creative and innovative as you can – but please keep Creative Commons licensing in mind. We don’t want any legal troubles.

So what will you potentially win? I’m so glad you asked! Next week, I will choose one winner from all of the entries submitted via video response. That person will win two very cool “prizes”…

• Have your commercial featured on television! Yes, that’s right – on television. The winning entry will be featured on the Seattle-area Comcast network!! Your name will of course be prominent, giving credit (and maybe fame?!) where credit is due.
• Win a full-access pass to the Gnomedex conference! If you are over 18 and can pay your own travel/hotel/expenses, you can find yourself right in the middle of things during Gnomedex. It’s an amazing conference, and attending can literally change your life by giving you new perspectives and ways of thinking outside the proverbial box. Of course, if you cannot attend, you can do as you wish with the ticket – sell it to someone else, or give it away to someone who might not otherwise be able to attend.

If you aren’t sure yet how to work with these videos, make sure you check out the tutorial I wrote awhile back.

I’m very excited to see what everyone is going to come up with. Based on past entries for our weekly challenge, I know that the level of creativity out there in our community is astounding. Have fun with this – and good luck to everyone!

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