Intel have unveiled how it sees TV sets changing in the future. It sees a more connected device, that is hooked up to the internet to receive extra content and communicate back to various social networking systems.
With more and more of us getting hard disk recorders (be it Sky+, a Freeview HD recorder or a Media PC) there are more options with how to connect these devices, and thus the TV to the internet. I personally like my MythTV driven media PC (www.mythtv.org), there are alternatives in the form of Windows Media Centre PCs, Apple TV boxes, and more recently other software solutions including Boxee.
Once connected, the options are limitless on what can be provided to your TV, from the plain old internet, to extra features overlayed over your current TV program, to catch up TV over IPTV.
Intel wants to be in on the action, developing and delivering System-on-Chip (SoC) style solutions to set top box manufacturers.
The TV as we know it is changing already, no longer do we have to be at the TV when we want to watch our favourite programmes, what the future brings for it is yet to be known but there are various new ideas under development.