Still remember having a ZX many years ago. Funny the article mentions about people only having one TV. This is where I was quite lucky, as my dad was a TV engineer we always had 1 TV in every room as my dad used to get old TV's given to him all the time by people who no longer wanted them.

VCR's were the same.

And my first computer was a clearance computer as the place wasn't selling them very well. However it has to be one of my most favourite 8-bit machines of all time, and I really can't see why it didn't take off (although the company behind it did) - The MSX. I later moved on to C64, but then went right back to MSX because it was rubbish compared to the MSX, and eventually the ZX Spectrum, which even though it's graphics weren't anywhere near as good as the C64 it was a really good machine and then came the Amiga days. Probably the biggest mistake I made was buying a PC instead of a Mac.

what ever happened to this?

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1567848/toshiba-adds-cell-tvs

although intel's rebranding of desperately-playing-catch-up-in-living-room Atom to history-defining-moment Atom is one of better marketing moves of late.

(yes, you already have cell, if you own a console, but we have windows! oh, you don't want your tv turned to pc? ummm...)

If only the INQ will do all its stories like this.
This I hate Apple/Nvidia/etc stories is getting old.

TV in living room = event = the whole family.

Now Intel tries to sell some piece of tech to that spot. Nice try, but where is the difference to existing console business?

Is it time to change messy and noisy again?*
*Press nappy here:
{Symon Coward to host "Blighty's Top Asbo-shevik"? jk}

Great read! Brings back good memories. "Proud" owner of B&W portablle telly and C64 ;)

... And when touch-sensitive holographic projections come to reality, and network connectivity be omnipresent like oxygen in the atmosphere, we will live 24x7 plugged into the that 'matrix' called Internet.

I bet this is something our grand-sons will grow with.

Now if there were more editorials like this, the Inquirer could make it back to where it belongs......

Me a proud Spectrum and Sam Coupe owner of the past.

How can you surrender the world beating UK home computer industry of the early 80s to just a quick mention of the Speccy?

As someone else mentioned, there was the ZX80 and ZX81 before the Speccy. The Acord Atom, and Electron.

You even managed to mention Elite without mentioning the machine that started it all, the BBC Micro.

Shame on you!

...the ZX80 (512bytes, screen turned off for a flash each time you hit a 'key') was probably the first major 'home' computer blah blah blah. Though admittedly the ZX81 was far more popular.

The ZX81 [1K Memory, 2Mhz Speed, Flat keyboard] was perhaps the first major "home" machine

Dear Mr. Steven Meagher my sincerest thanks for an eminently entertaining read.

Back In Smolder, When Bee//esyalan Was Telco & Your Local Telco Surgeons, TELCOMD Was Fine Deception, As Machine Constantly Listening To Your Home. Monitoring every Violations.
Parents, Teachers & Neghbors Feverishly wrote Down Everything Stated In Home, to Save Families Lives & Own.

To Show Film, Someone from Theatre Had to steal 35MM reels & Play Them into Station. So Theatres Abounded in Single Leap. Then Came Russian Sciientfic american Article on Disc Data going into NM scale(NoOne Had Even Heard of Optical Disc) & Small to point of Atom sized.
Oscar Napolean Samuelson got wind from My Home babble format, Oscar Founded academy of Motion Pictures in 1927. Saw Great Opportunity To Break From Film & Theatre Reeling.

DVD was born by 1961, turn it upside down & it Still Bee 1961 & DOD. TS, Yea Pretty Much, FEW remember ONE announcement, Yet There was Fair warning & then Gone Deep Into TV Studio. Arpennet tried to Keep WLAN, Yet there just was too much demand for worse Data, that took Precedent.

Now Mom & Dads Pencil Scrathing have become more sophisticated to protect Own Family & Property. Gone Are extreme Lucky Loos In Fantastic overwhelming quanties. It Costs Money to drive mile & 1/2 to run over Toad Stool'd children & hummer thru Auto Wash. Just Numbers & tracking Game That Creeps don't Want to waste time Over, let alone scarse Money.

With InterActive TV, Thousands of Machines track Your KeyStroked,Peepers, Product: YOU. Replacement Becomes tough. Shooting Oneself In Foot Is Way to Avoid service, Then EATING IT? well, It Could Only Go On So Long, as Private By golly Joke. Now Jokes Mostly Over, & perpetrators await Next round of Monitoring.

You Be Judge, Get 'Em & Get 'Em Again.

TS Drashek

ATi already released and sold one of those to BroadCom.
This Intel is the second coming crap is so old and tired.

And it will all be nice when there will be no DRM that make it imposible for some components to talk to each other...
on the other hand not sure I want my TV to talk with the fridge...

I live in Atlanta, GA (states) and recently decided to dump the cable side of cable. We had ATT U-verse and dropped for ComCast Internet only hookup. The reasoning...we only watch shows on cable that eventually make their way to Hulu, Xbox 360 has Netflix, and we can rent movies from Amazon cheaper/same as from "On Demand" cable solutions. I don't watch sports...only need the highlights and the news coverage is so poor that I have to use UK news sites to get the truth anyway. We have an i7 box hooked to the tv...will pay for itself in the first year (savings will be $900 without cable tv). Just my thoughts and our decision making process. ...and no I don't use the MS Media server. It sucks.

Great read, and many of the things mentioned happened in my household growing up, mainly using a 12 or 14" telly to code and game on ZX.

Keep it up!