Thursday, November 20, 2008

The future has arrived...

There's a scene in The West Wing where Leo McGarry laments the disappointing nature of "the future," and asks why none of the cool stuff he was promised as a child ever came to fruition. In short, he asks, "Where's my jet pack?"

Well, my own personal jet pack arrived today and it's called The New Xbox Experience. Now, keep in mind, I'm a very easy futurist to please so basically all it took for me to squeal with joy was the realization that I can use my Netflix and XBox accounts TOGETHER. Have a hankering to watch Season One "Doctor Who?" No need to wait for the mail, run down to the local Blockbuster or even move my ass off the couch one single inch -- nope, now I can just queue it up and press play and voila, there it is! Like magic, people, like goddamn MAGIC!

Now I know I can easily download stuff from the internets and watch it on my computer screen but we all know deep down that's not at all as cool as watching it on the actual TV where the little people live to entertain me.

As for the NXE's other features -- well, apparently, there's games and shit on there too and you can make little avatars (*cough*notatalllikemiis*cough*) but mostly -- NETFLIX TELEPORTED RIGHT INTO MY FREAKIN' TV!!!! OMFG!!!

If you'll excuse me, I have Season Two of "Coach" to watch followed by seven or eight hours of "Gimme a Break." I am going to become a shut-in and it's going to be AWESOME!

P.S. I promise not to capitalize this much ever again. Mostly because I'll be too busy watching TV.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to out-geek you, but some of us have been downloading movies to our TV room for years now. Mac mini + EyeTV + DVI cable + Projector = 8 foot wide TV, movie & Internet bliss.

Liz said...

Wow, I think I may have just salivated a bit. Eight foot TV, you say? David Tennant would be HUGE on that thing.

crone51 said...

Party At Tara's house...

Anonymous said...

Man. And I thought I geeked out when I realized the thing on the side of my iMac was a remote...
That sounds AWESOME. I'm jealous! Netflix at your fingertips..what a concept!

Anonymous said...

That is damned fabulous! We JUST bought an XBOX Sunday. Do you have to pay for NXE or just do the wireless router thingy? This is freakin' sweet! Oh and anyone playing Fable II? What's up with the empty crates and the glitchiness?

Adri said...

Amazon Unbox video also plays natively on the xbox via windows media center or media player sharing and it is also AWESOME.

<3 my xbox for tv

Liz said...

Starbuck, the husband says you have to have XBox Live Gold and an unlimited Netflix account to be able to use the watch instantly option. Not sure about how the wireless works. For the XBox Gold, you can buy it in monthly or three month packages. He says if you just got the Xbox, though, it should come with a free month of Gold. Enjoy!!

agent57 said...

WHUT?

Man, I love Netflix Watch Instantly, and would use it ALL THE TIME if they didn't hate Macs. :(

Or if I had an Xbox.

:( :( :(

Anonymous said...

Gigantic Doctor Who is indeed a blissful evening of entertainment. :)

I highly recommend projection systems to those willing to re-arrange their TV-watching room to accommodate one. In terms of diagonal-inches per dollar, you simply can't beat it, and the picture quality on these things keep getting better every year.

Oh, if you're going to drive one with a computer, like the Mac mini (which is a good idea. Not only do I get to instantly watch downloads, but I get HD PVR capability, and a vast library of videos & music stored on my hard drive), I also suggest the deNovo Edge bluetooth keyboard. Remotes are fine and dandy, but a slim keyboard with a little touchpad allows me to... for example, visit this blog and post comments, all without leaving my armchair. Oh, and I play City of Heroes on my big movie screen, too. That's pretty cool as well.