Those who don't Read History ...

Wind your mind back to 1995. Yuh - lots of weird things, like the internet, being introduced. The Web Bubble still five years into the future. Netscape being written; Internet Explorer doesn't yet exist! There's a guy called Steve Perlman with this idea that he can get TV to be interactive. Put a keyboard on your TV and you can do things like get the recipe for what you just saw made without having to go to a book. He calls it WebTV. It was kind of a good idea, but far too slow to succeed, as we can see now. Microsoft bought it when it still seemed like a good idea, and it's still alive, for some reason.

So what's the latest gimmick? Putting Twitter and Facebook on TV! Here's the advert - notice the use of the handset to control the video image of a phone keyboard. You think that it's a cool idea? Wait until you've tried using a Wiimote to work the on-screen keyboard on the TV - same idea; a disaster. At least WebTV gives you a keyboard!

Happy tweeting (do you pay Verizon FiOS to type in your tweet and Verizon Wireless some more to carry it?).

TTFN