Wait, the TV? Did he really just say that? You bet I did. TV 2.0 is coming, and it’s going to change everything. Here’s why:

First of all, you almost certainly already have one. Almost everyone does. That’s a huge part of the disruption hurdle we’ve already crossed! The problem is that TV hasn’t changed much in the last half century, so we’re used to thinking of it the way we’ve always thought of it – a one-trick pony. The massive shift will happen (soon) when people stop thinking about it in terms of “cable”, and start thinking about it as “a really big screen hooked up to the internet”, and begin buying the (relatively) cheap add-ons that will get us all to a culture of TV 2.0.

For the people that have been watching, there’ve been some cool developments in the last 12-24 months. Devices for the TV are starting to make their way into homes and into mainstream consciousness. The concept of streaming is being popularized by companies like Netflix and devices like the moderately successful Apple TV. Similarly, we’re going to start seeing a lot more “internet on your TV” thanks to marketing for devices like GoogleTV and Boxee, as well as “app markets” for the TV similar to those of on iPads and iPhones thanks to Samsung.

Google TV

All of these developments, of course, are incremental changes to the way we use our televisions, but that’s how disruption usually happens – a little bit at a time.

But then there are technologies coming our TVs that are going to feel completely foreign like telepresence. This December, Cisco aired its first commercial for a consumer telepresence product called the Umi. I’m absolutely baffled by why more people aren’t talking about it. Maybe the commercials make it seem too much like Skype so people are feeling “meh” about it. I personally think that when the TV becomes accepted as an HD-enabled face-to-face communications device, we’ll see an upheaval of the way personal services are delivered across the board. Ken Wirt, Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Cisco, had this to say in a recent video blog post, and I think he’s right on the money. In fact, it’s entirely possible that telepresence technology is going to turn your TV into the most social media tool available.

What’s your take? Do you see the TV becoming a social tool?

This post was written by Steffan Antonas. Find more at blog.steffanantonas.com

The Next Disruptive Gadget Is Here. And You Already Have One.

The volume of pictures I’ve taken on my 3G  shows that Apple definitely crossed the usefulness threshold (for users like me at least) with their first stab at putting a camera in a phone. The image quality is lacking, though, and there’s no real manual control and it performs horribly in low light. Apple did a heck of a lot to correct those issues with the 3GS, and even caught the attention of photographers with the improved sensor, an increase in resolution, low light performance and tap-to-focus. (side note: If you haven’t heard about Chase Jarvis‘s new book “The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You” check it out…awesome iPhone photography)

And with this release, Apple’s shown that they’re still listening and has put even more useful features into the camera:

• Video recording in HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio and in-camera video editing with iMovie – I’m skeptical about what using this will be like, but how can you say this isn’t cool?
• 5-megapixel still camera – instead of uselessly increasing megapixels they’ve focused on putting in a kick-ass low light sensor, which will make much more difference to image quality.
• The new front-facing camera - finally I can take a picture of Jules and I when we’re out and about that I don’t have to re-take 3 times because all I got was the sky or “just” my stomach.
• Tap to focus video or still images – awesome for isolating your subject and blurring the background – this is the feature that made photographers go banana sandwich when the 3G came out.
• LED flash - huge – this sucker even stays on to light your subjects when you’re shooting video.
  
• Photo and video geotagging -neat if you care about this sort of thing, which I do because iPhoto’s sorting by place is awesome.

The New Camera + App

OK, so I’ve told you all that so that I can now tell you about this. Now that the iPhone camera is 17 new kinds of awesome, you’re going to start looking for apps, right? Only natural. Along with the “Best Camera” app, I’d recommend this one – Camera+. What’s different about this app is that it gives you lots of control and a much closer experience to an actual DSLR that the pros use. Plus the lightbox, zoom and custom filters are sweet and you can do some really cool “post-production” type of work directly on your phone. For $2.99, it makes the whole experience of using the camera way more than $2.99 cooler…check the video, you’ll see what I mean. If you end up buying it and loving it, you can thank Lisa and TapTapTap for their hard work. 

This post was written by Steffan Antonas. Find more at blog.steffanantonas.com

New in the iPhone App Store: Camera+