Anyone living in a house with more people than TVs has run into the problem at least once (or if you grew up in my family, pretty much every night): People want to watch different shows at the same time. A startup called ScreenzTV is trying to fix family fighting by offering a box that lets you split your TV into multiple screens all playing something different at the same time.
It’s basically as dumb as it sounds. ScreenzTV gives you access to gaming systems, your smartphone or tablet, streaming services and cable packages, and if this $US500 ($US500!) box was launching in, oh, 2004, the TV-within-TV concept might be a fascinating concept. And just maybe it still is appealing for especially passionate sports fans who really want the ability to pull up multiple screens.
For families jostling over-programming though, I can’t image this will have broad appeal for a simple reason: tablets, laptops and smartphones. You already need to plug your headphones into your mobile device in order to hear the sound on the TV when you use ScreenzTV, since otherwise all the different channels would play over each other and sound terrible. If you already have a tablet out, just watching your show on a mobile device seems far more pleasant than staring at a certain corner of a television, trying to ignore all the other stuff going on.
If you disagree and ScreenzTV fulfils your dream of turning your TV into a custom version of the Brady Bunch opening credits, you can pre-order the box on Indiegogo. And, hey, dumb as it may be, at least this doesn’t defy the laws of physics. [The Verge]