Once you have sold plenty of HDTV’s, what’s next? How do you get consumers to keep upgrading their televisions? I understand the motivation but 3D is completely the wrong answer. It’s a gimmick, and not a very good one either. The same thing is happening with movies in theaters. Way too many 3D movies that have no reason to be 3D and they don’t even look better. Read Roger Ebert’s great article on why 3D movies suck.

We may have a solution, however. What will propel the televisions in 2012 and beyond will not be the evolution is so-called “smart” tv’s. These are televisions with Wi-Fi and Internet applications built in. We have been waiting for this convergence for a long time and it’s looking like 2012 is the year it will happen. Apple is driving this change with their still rumored TV product. Even before the rumors are confirmed, other manufacturers are racing to get their own smart tv’s out. I will write more on smart tv’s later but for now let’s hope the smart tv technology will spell the end of the great 3D TV scam.

It’s hard to describe how wrong the show is. The kinds of pressure they put the kids under, the complete obsession with “winning”. I literally make me upset just to talk about it. I suggest you watch an episode yourself to fully understand. I can’t stand watching the kids on this show, no matter how much they seem to enjoy it at times. I’m sure an elephant at a circus thinks it’s got it good at times, but we all know he would be just as well and probably better free on the safari.

The general objectivity of beauty at such an early age, the mothers who often act horribly and yell at the kids. The pounds and pounds of makeup, the mouth inserts to change the jawline. This show literally makes me want to cry. I cannot watch it. There is nothing cute or funny about it. These are real kids who deserve to just be kids and not parade around and win crowns to make their moms feel better about themselves.

“I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”

The simplest user interface you could imagine. Some people are theorizing about a gester interface like the Kinnect on XBox, but this is wrong. The interface revelation is Siri. What could be easier than talking and simply telling your tv what you want. “Change channel to ESPN”, “Record this program”. “When is the next episode of The Walking Dead on?” Sounds like giving commands to an iPhone. Build your television with iOS and you have it all. iCloud/iTunes integration, Siri, apps, everything.

Trust me, Apple will have a television in 2012 and it will be built on iOS and you will talk to it via Siri, and you will die to have one.

Mad Men was a breakthrough when it came out. A beautiful period piece set in the world of Advertising in the 50′s and 60′s. The writing is superior and the attention to detail in the show is remarkable. What is sad is once something becomes very popular, people in TV rush to copy it. So it’s no surprise to see these two new shows. Frankly I wonder what took them so long. There is such a void of creativity in television, truly great shows only come around once and awhile and most of what is out there are rip offs. CSI became popular and what did they do, replicate it several times. Same for Law and Order.

I guess it’s been this way for quite awhile though. Television goes through phases. For one period, everything is a cop drama, than a hospital one. Lately, the traditional cop drama has morphed into more of a psychic cop drama like Medium.

I predict both The Playboy Club and Pan Am will be failures. People do see through this pretty well and neither bring anything original or interesting to the party. None of the actual creativity comes from the major networks anyway. Virtually everything that is decent now comes from networks like AMC, FX, and HBO.

For the record, here are the only shows I watch these days that I think are worth watching.

Breaking Bad – I came late to this show but I’m hooked now

The Walking Dead – I have read the comic and it’s awesome. I was very worried they would mess it up, but so far the show is great.

Sons of Anarchy – How can you not love crusty Ron Perman as the head of a rough and tumble motorcycle gang?

The Daily Show – When the actual news is so insane you want to tear your hair out, this is the only thing that may keep you from completely loosing it.

I’m sure there are some shows I have missed but with three kids, I only have time for so much. Add your favorites in the comments below.

Despite what Comcast says, I don’t like this deal, not a bit. Here is the key point:

“NBC has been careful not to put too much cable content on the Internet. We think that’s a smart strategy…

It’s simple logic. Comcast, under their current business model, has little to gain from pushing Internet TV forward. They will do enough to prevent people from freaking out but they will hold things at bay. I think a distributor like Comcast owning the content is a conflict of interest and not at all consumer friendly. This is good for nobody but Comcast.

Posted via web from David Jacobs’s Connected World

• Cable News: I’ve gone into this on the podcast. There is no more news left in the news. It’s all opinion and people yelling at each other. The focus is on the most sensational stories and there is no intelligent analysis. Fox News is especially hilarious when they say “we report, you decide” just before they tell you what to think. I think there is something here related to the rise in citizen journalism and social media. Fortunately, some people can still see through this sham and are seeking out news in other places. When the traditional can no longer inform us, we must inform each other.

• Viagra Commercials: Crass and embarrassing is the only way to describe the infamous “smiling bob” commercials. None of the other commercials have any subtlety or tact either. This is the spam of commercial television.

• Cougar Conventions: Oh, yes, it’s true, the first annual Cougar Convention will be held in Las Vegas next year. I’m sure one of the goals of the convention is to put a more positive light on the whole Cougar phenomenon but I’m not sure a convention in Las Vegas will be enough to remove the smarmy tarnish of the whole Cougar thing. Just think, if this was older men going after younger women people would be outraged. It’s not my business what older women want to do and I don’t care, but the glamorization of it all bothers me.

• Ashley Madison: This is a website that encourages and promotes dating other men while married. They provide a vehicle for infidelity. They have been hitting TV pretty hard lately with ads and it gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Have we really come this far? Is infidelity so ok that we can brazenly and openly promote it like this? Is marriage so devalued? Again, not my business what goes on in anyones marriage but neither should be it Ashley Madisons either. And one final sick point, they are profiting off all this.