TiVo (and other information goods)
Satellite TV was cool. DVD's are really nice. HDTV is really sweet. But none of these things has changed the way I use my TV more than digital video recorders (DVRs). No longer to I have to wait for ESPN to run the replay of the close play. I just rewind my TV myself, watch it again at my own pace, then fast forward to get back to live TV. No longer to I have to worry about missing my favorite show (Pardon the Interruption) because of football practice. Instead I have set my DVR to record PTI every time it ever appears on ESPN. Well, my hard drive must be filled entirely with episodes of PTI, right? Wrong. My DVR only saves an episode for three days, meaning I never have any more than three episodes on my hard drive at once. And the best part of all, when I do watch my favorite shows, I don’t have to watch the commercials. Instead I fast forward through them and am able to watch a 30 minute show in about 22 minutes. All this, and I (well, technically my mom) pay(s) under ten dollars a month.