Frightening device sends TV anywhere

Submitted by acohill on Fri, 07/07/2006 - 14:38

This little device uses the videoconferencing facility of Skype (the VoIP software) to send a television stream to anyone with Skype. It's one of those odd little devices that often end up in ads on late night TV, and will probably amount to nothing, but it could become the monster that ate the Internet. It sounds like you could plug this into your cable or satellite TV jack, then have your computer call you at work to stream your favorite soap opera to your work computer, among other devilish uses.

It is just the kind of thing that frightens the pants off the cable and telephone companies that are selling broadband connections for fixed prices that have zero relationship to the things that people actually want to do. Their response is to stop people from doing anything they don't approve of, rather than redesigning their networks to support what people actually want to do (and will pay for happily in most cases).