Surfed the net... on a TV

Went to Harvey Norman's to see what the fuss was about with these newfangled TVs that you can surf the internet. One of the concerns I had was whether or not there were any issues on the websites Gantt creates.

After some mucking about connecting to the internet, Gerard (the sales consultant) and I were on the net on a brand new Samsung 6000 series TV. The home page (NZ Herald) loaded fairly fast - Gerard said that it was cached.

Using the remote control to navigate and input text took a bit of getting used to - but once we'd figured out that it supported pre-emptive text (T9) then it became easier. Also, the OK button doubled as a scratch pad - something that we discovered by accident!

I asked if the system could handle Flash - and Gerard was pretty sure it couldn't - but we agreed to check. I suppose that question was on my mind, given that the I-Pad was launched without that capability. So to confirm, we browsed to one of the sites that Gantt makes: www.pacificpowerboat.com - logged in, and opened an online magazine. It started loading - although it was a bit slow, it got there in the end.

The pages didn't turn as smoothly as on a 'proper computer' - but other than that it all worked fine! I'm wondering how many of us will surf the net on TVs in a few years time. Or perhaps we'll be watching TV on our computers.

Either way, it's good to know that the coding works on new devices.