Not surprisingly, shifting the DTV transition date to June 12th could mean that converter boxes will run out.
Because there are 1.4 million households on the underfunded digital converter voucher waiting list, the Senate is finalising a proposal to delay the DTV switchover to June 12th—a bill that’s expected to pass unanimously.
The gradual, relentless digitisation of everything takes a little longer to seep into the more obscure technological quarters. The latest outmoded gadget to fall? The analogue player piano.
This Digital/Analog clock design is a pretty interesting take on the old “clock” concept. Shown off a Tokyo Design Week ’08, this version displays the hours digit-style while keeping the hand free for minute-pointing. Going half digital is a good start, but here’s our challenge to concept designers out there: all digital. Who’s with us? [Design Boom]
Next February, when analogue TV signals go dark in the US of A, a whopping 20% of the people who rely on them to get their TV signals won’t bother to get a digital converter, instead letting their TVs go dark. They’ll move on to watching DVDs and broadband-based entertainment instead. Could the least-tech-savvy people in America actually be turning into the most forward-thinking?
As most of you know, commercial analogue TV in this country will become all but extinct on February 17th 2009. However, the digital revolution begins today in Wilmington NC. Basically, the town and its 197,760 TV-watching households will serve as guinea pigs for the nationwide rollout. The town has been bombarded with information about the switch, but the powers that be will be watching closely to see what unfolds. Will throngs of old people run screaming into the streets when Wheel of Fortune goes black? We will just have to wait and find out. [TVWeek]
