I Love Technology

Perhaps it’s because I spent the better part of 9 hours today at the OnMedia NYC conference hearing all about the next great thing in digital media, but I think the below is so cool.

After the conference today I had a dinner with a client so I was precluded from watching the Carolina basketball game against Maryland.  The game came up in conversation over dinner so I was able to take a peak at my Blackberry and see a halftime score of 60-44 in favor of my Heels.  60 points in a half!  Needless to say, I was hungry for a way to see highlights - or better yet - a replay of the game.

The problem is that the game was carried on Raycom regionally and was not shown on cable in NYC.  So even if I didn’t have the dinner commitment I would have been forced to go to a sportsbar or somewhere else with a satellite package.

Yet, when I came home tonight I went onto ESPN360.com to see if by chance they had a replay available to watch online.  To my delight I was greeted on the homepage by the image below and loaded up the game on my PC.

So I was able to watch a full replay of the game with the added convenience of TiVo-like fast forward and rewind capabilities.  And the best part, the service is free.  Commercial breaks are filled with ads from ESPN, but all are easily avoided via the fast forward feature.

The next step is watching online content, on demand on the big screen TV.  It’s possible today but will only become more ubiquitous in the next few years.  In fact, a NYC-based company called Boxee has created a specialized browser for viewing tv shows, movies, online video, Flickr photos and tons of other online content, either on your laptop or straight to your HDTV.

In a rapidly changing technology world, the standard TV/cable model is being attacked from a lot of different angles.  Personally, I’m a huge fan of the innovation - especially when it allows me to watch the Heels!