Having internet capability through webtv has changes my life for the better. here are many things that make me more capable, and in some of them the webtv experience is a real help.
1.-First is the email experience. I have had email capability8 before from my office computer, but using email througy webtv had expanded and enabled that interaction. I can look at television and when the string of 9 commercials start, can use the time to look at email. Yhis enables me to be MUCH more responsive to email, and often to be the first one to comment on society business offering ideas and solutions that change things for the better.
2.- I can access information on the internet, and when there is the interminable wait for connection, I can look at televisioni news or other things during that time. This is not connection speed, it is queueing time on many sites.
3.- Family communicaton is better and the family closer because all communication is copied to all others so the whole family is tuned in together.
4.- Directory assistance for US and international phone numbers enables me to contact people that I very much need to contact. I even have located people that have been out of contact for decades.
5.- I can get newspapers, not only USA Today, but the Japan Times and the Paris Herald Tribune. Also the MSNBC news on the webtv home page. Great
6.- I can get financial information set up portfolios and trade stocks and investments on lone. This has greatly enhanced my management of my investments.
7.- I can get airline travel information, through Expedia, and can either order tickets on line or go to my travel agent much better informed. I have been able to stop my subscription to the Offical Airlines Guide ( AG )
8.- I can get program information about technical conferences and make reservatons online. This is very enabling as I plan my travel.
9.- Church communication is much better - and things like choir cancellation due to snow, etc are immediate.
10.- I can find out about ancestors and otherwise do genealogic research . while not essential, it is interesting.
11.- I can add a light touch to my day ( and to the day of others ) as I selectively read humor columns such as the one from the University of Florida.
BUT THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT DOWNSIDES !
1.- SPAM is terrible, I get 30 t0 40 spam emails per day, and many of them are BIG files that saturate my inbox. Because of Webt's limited inbox capability, I must hire somebody to delete the junk mail when I travel, becaues if no one weeds my inbox, it will shut down and I will lose important "real" messages.
Sending back the "delete my name" messages only work for big reputable companies. The true spammer just uses another name and the spam continues.
2.- Software programmers on web sited feel "Driv by compellment" to change and improve things. Just when I get my investment portfolio on an investment site then the site has changed. Either I cannot get charts or it is a "jump the hurdles" chore, or they shut down the access to webtv.
Fidelity investments, CBS Marketwatch, CBS Portfolios, and others have just started dong this as of January this year. Evidantly the one million webtv customers are too piddling to bother to offer access.
3.- Free web sites are a trap. the go out of bu7siness without any grace period to store or retreive the informaton to place it elsewhere. There is no guarantee from a free site ( and from some paid sites ) that information will be available for weeks, months or years. This is a major concern and time waster.
4.- Search engines re a major time waster. One gets so much irrelevatn information. There are ways to link the words to make the search selective, but they rarely work well. It comeimes pays to hire someone to seardc if one cannot afford the time themselves.
CONCLUSIONS:
Deinitely an asset. Life changing. but frustrating. But a penalty not so great as to outweight the BIG advantages.
John alde
When i first got webtv,it was very entertaining.Then it got very stressful,as i got more deeply into it.
Some sites that i went to every day changed their site so we could no longer used it for webtv.
I complained, but it didnt do any good.
I got so involved that stress finally caused me to have another heart attack,and the doctor told me to stay away from any computor or webtv for awhile.
What bothers me is that these sites have "contact us" on their page,but they will not answer your emails.
This has become a big problem,as if they dont care.
Anyway i am back on webtv, but i dont get involved like i use to,and really i found the less i get on webtv the better i feel,probably drop the whole thing in the future.
When i first got webtv,it was very entertaining.Then it got very stressful,as i got more deeply into it.
Some sites that i went to every day changed their site so we could no longer used it for webtv.
I complained, but it didnt do any good.
I got so involved that stress finally caused me to have another heart attack,and the doctor told me to stay away from any computor or webtv for awhile.
What bothers me is that these sites have "contact us" on their page,but they will not answer your emails.
This has become a big problem,as if they dont care.
Anyway i am back on webtv, but i dont get involved like i use to,and really i found the less i get on webtv the better i feel,probably drop the whole thing in the future.