TVs That Turn Themselves On

from the warning,-warning dept

Later this year, new TVs will be on the market with an added feature: if there's some sort of important storm warnng, the TV will turn itself on to let you know. On first reading this, my fear was that this sort of service would eventually be abused in an Orwellian sort of fashion. "We are now forcing you to watch this Presidential broadcast, please stand at a attention". However, the current implementation is customer controlled, and has different levels of alerts, from just a light indicator, to tuning in to a weather warning, or even having a siren. For people in tornado country, such a system sounds very useful.
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  • identicon
    Adam Barr, 24 Jan 2003 @ 12:14pm

    something to think about

    What would people say if Microsoft announced this?

    - adam

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Brian, 24 Jan 2003 @ 1:30pm

    it's cold out here

    Thanks for reminding me that I live in Tornado country Mike.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Aaron, 24 Jan 2003 @ 3:57pm

    Does it run on batteries?

    Usually, speaking from experience, when the weather is that bad, the power goes out.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Kevin Joyce, 24 Jan 2003 @ 4:21pm

    They've had this for years

    It sounds like they are just putting a weather radio inside a TV set. Its a pretty good way to get those into more homes but my friend had one 10 years ago and it would go off whenever there was a severe storm or tornado warning. It would make a very loud noise followed by an NWS broadcast.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    kai, 24 Jan 2003 @ 8:15pm

    No Subject Given

    I grew up in tornado country. They just had these loud sirens (think air-raid sirens) that sounded if a tornado was in the area--oh 20 years ago. That seems like a simpler, cheaper, and more effective method than "everyone buy TV's that turn themselves on when sent special signals, and then program them to alert you that a tornado is coming."

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Al, 25 Jan 2003 @ 1:08pm

    No Subject Given

    My TV turns off by itself, an occurence that freaks me out. Quite frankly, if it turned itself on as well, I would probably go grey overnight, like the Mother in "Poltergeist."

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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