I am not psychic, a paranormalist or any type of futurist. To show you how well I do in predicting the future, here are a couple of examples. I once owner a Ford Pinto and thought it was a superb car, then a Chevy Chevette (both failures in the public eye). When videotapes were the “big thing” I backed and believed in Betamax and not VHS (Ron lost again). I also bought a bunch of Laser Discs (they lasted maybe a year before they disappeared). I decided Blue-ray Discs would not be very popular and DVDs are all I have and all I will purchase until they are all gone (Blue-ray is taking over the market). Now I just stream video and do not buy much but a very few streaming services. I recently bought some dogecoin and bitcoin (very small amounts)…do not emulate me unless you like to lose, thank you Elon Musk.
So moving on to today and my thoughts for the future in one specific area. Years ago when they first came out I bought a Google Chromecast. It performed as promised, no complaints. I could broadcast most anything from my computer or phone to my TV with an HDMI port available on the TV. The HDMI port is where you plug in the Chromecast to your TV. There is a wire on the other end to plug it into an electrical outlet.
The Chromecast is a rounded, rectangular object about two inches across, with a short wire on one end and a port on the other. The original Chromecast came out in 2013 for around $39 when I bought mine. I used it occasionally to broadcast some videos to from my phone, computer, tablet and whatever to the TV. It worked pretty well. I could even use it to surf the web or write a column on a large TV screen instead of my notebook computer. I really did not write on it but once to test it out.
Then more modern TVs started appearing with that were streaming all sorts of entertainment. So, one day I bought a big screen TV. An LG brand TV which has been working very well for several years. However, LG and Discovery+ are apparently not friendly with each other. My wife and I wanted to test out and watch some Discovery+ shows. But they are not playable on an LG TV, at least per LG.
I replaced my old nine-year-old Google Chromecast with a new Google Chromecast TV. This is slightly larger than the original Chromecast and cost more, about $49. However, this one allows you to stream almost every streaming service available. Some of my friends and relatives told me about Apple TV, Roku TV and others that allow you to plug them into your HDMI port on your TV and do the same thing as Google’s device. You still have to pay for the streaming services with these devices. However, mine now also plays Discovery+ on my LG TV.
My quick prediction for the future is that one day you will just purchase a large monitor without any streaming services, cable channels, etc. They you will pick with device you want to purchase for a relatively small price and watch whatever you want on the TV from those little devices. You will only need a monitor with an HDMI port, or whatever they may be named in the future.
By-the-way, my Chromecast device was easily set up and working in about five minutes. It did not take a geek to do it either. Also, now I just hold a button and tell it what I want to watch and it will go right to it. If it is a episodic show it will go to the last one we watched and ask me if I want to continue. Easy.
