iPhone® Fully Loaded, Third Edition

Chapter 7. Glorious Television

The Skim

TV to PC to iPhone

I like the iTunes Store, I use the iTunes Store, and I want to support the iTunes Store. Those plucky Apple kids are showing a lot of spunk with their little garage startup, and if this is what they want to do after college instead of going on to law school like they've always said they wanted to, well, it breaks our hearts — mine and their poor mothers' — but we always said that we wanted to raise kids with enough confidence and self-reliance to choose their own paths in life.

But all too often, folks count on the iTunes Store as their sole means of acquiring content. It's like fast food. It's quick and it's easy and it's always available. But it's always more money than you need to spend, and it only offers a limited menu.

I'm pretty surprised, for instance, that folks pay $30 to $50 for season passes to their favorite shows. If you're willing to be a season behind at all times, that's more than the cost of that same season on DVD. And you don't get a DVD's higher video quality or its huge quantity of extras.

And if you don't want to wait, then hell, you can buy simple TV tuner hardware that plugs into a USB port. A USB TV tuner is afford-able. It's a tiny and simple piece of hardware, usually no larger than a USB thumb drive.

Figure 7.1. Recording WinTV shows to your iPhone on a Wing

Whether over-the-air (ATSC) or clear-QAM cable ...