Cable is indeed losing subscribers, but it's happening very slowly. According to the latest data from Nielsen, the number of U.S. homes with cable subscriptions has declined 4.1% in the last year. Meanwhile, TV service provided by telephone companies like Verizon increased 21.1%.

Nielsen reports considerable growth in the sector of consumers who watch a combination of Web-based and non-cable broadcast television. This is the crowd that Boxee hopes to target with its live TV antennae dongle. They watch half as much TV and stream twice as much online video as the general population.

It's a group that has grown quickly, but still makes up only 5% of consumers. By comparison, nearly 71% of households subscribe to both broadband and cable television. Cable's penetration rate alone is more than 90%. In short, it's not going away anytime soon.

The cable industry faces real, longer-term threats from the likes of Netflix, Hulu and increasingly, Amazon Prime, as well as from set-top boxes and connected TVs. Trends in technology, coupled with the high prices of cable subscriptions, are slowly making cable less attractive to consumers Realizing this, the cable companies have put a renewed focused on innovating for a hyper-connected, multi-screened future.

TV content - wherever it may originate - still takes up an extraordinary amount of our lives. On average, Americans watch 33 hours of television per week. Television has long dominated the media diets of consumers, but what's changing is when and how they access it.

Today, the social TV and streaming media center service Boxee became the latest to join in on the trend when it announced a new partnership with Facebook. Users who opt in can automatically update Facebook about TV shows and other videos they watch through Boxee's interface.

With this latest update, the process is streamlined and updates are posted automatically based on what users are watching. The feature will work with Boxee's new Live TV dongle, so even if you're watching the latest episode of "The Office" during its original broadcast time, your Facebook friends will all know about it.

Like some other implementations, the Boxee and Facebook integration has its limitations. When you click on a link on the News Feed or Timeline, you're not taken directly to the content itself, but rather to a landing page with more information abdout the show. This may be annoying to some users, who expect to be able to consume the content immediately.

Mindful of privacy concerns, Boxee makes very clear that the feature is opt-in so one needn't worry about blasting their friends with excessive or updates.

Boxee Facebook Live TV Integration from boxee on Vimeo.

According to the post, the team has been able to bring "Boxee for Computers to about 85% of the Boxee Box in terms of features and functionality."

The Revolution Will Not Be Shown on Your PC

The post thanks computer users of Boxee, but says that the future of TV "will be driven by devices such as the Boxee Box, Connected TVs/Blu-Rays and 2nd screen devices such as tablets and phones." The number of people using computers connected to TVs "is likely to decline as users find better alternatives."

For what it's worth, I tend to agree with the assessment – but that doesn't mean that users who still want to use Boxee for Computers are going to be eager to spring for a Boxee Box or another connected device.

Users will have the 1.5 release for as long as it's usable, and most of the Boxee code is open source (based on the project).

Last year, chatter on Twitter helped the MTV Video Music Awards boost its audience to the biggest it had been in eight years. In 2011, services like Twitter and Facebook served as the virtual water cooler for just about every major news story and broadcast media event. It may not have been invented this year, but 2011 was pivotal for social TV.

Revolution in Egypt. The death of Osama bin Laden. The launches of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. Amy Winehouse's death. The royal wedding. Losing Steve Jobs. A lot happened in 2011, but very little of it didn't unfold, at least in part, on the social Web.

Twitter continued to be a driving force in the convergence of social media and television this year. With or without the encouragement of Twitter's management or TV networks, people would naturally be inclined to talk about shows in real-time on the Internet.

This fact has even helped the company start to carve out one viable idea for monetizing its service. Its social advertising products can let media companies tap into a passionate, pre-existing audience, gain more viewers and then get a rich and detailed amount of data back about how people responded to their campaign. Promoted tweets and topics aren't available exclusively for television shows, but the volume of TV-related chatter on Twitter, combined with the marketing budgets of TV studios and networks, make it a win for both sides.

Twitter has further embraced its social role in TV, for example by teaming up with the creators of X Factor USA to implement live social voting mechanism for viewers to use during the program. To help encourage TV producers to get involved, Twitter published a best practices guide for integrating social media with television.

These social media-fueled discussions are more than just meaningless chatter. For those in the business of producing television shows, the phenomenon can be hugely valuable, with or without paying for social ads. This year, we saw more evidence of a positive correlation between Twitter buzz about a show and actual ratings.

Trends like this are not lost on digital marketers, who banded together this year to form the first trade group for advertisers and marketers looking to tap into future opportunities Internet-connected TVs.

Second Screen Apps, Content-Shifting and Tablet TV

The growth of tablets and smartphones is having a huge impact on television. About 86% of those who own such devices use it while they're watching TV, according to a study released by Yahoo in the beginning of the year. Many of them are tweeting and posting updates to Facebook about shows, while others are looking up pertinent information about programs they're watching.

The proliferation of these devices has given rise to the growth of so-called second screen apps. This includes social check-in apps for entertainment such as GetGlue, which by September had seen an 800% increase in check-ins from the beginning of the year. Mind you, that was just before the Fall television season started.

Yahoo got in on the second screen app game this year by launching Yap.tv, digital TV guide of sorts with Twitter integration and live chats and polls about television shows.

We're also beginning to see the early evolution of content-shifting for video and TV. Just as you can hit the "Read It Later" button for Instapaper, videos you come across during the day can be saved for later viewing as well. The "Later" button on all Vimeo players lets you save videos to a queue, while Boxee has its own bookmarklet for saving nearly any Web video to your Boxee account for later. It can be viewed from the desktop, of course, but perhaps more conveniently, the video will also appear immediately on Boxee's set-top box or its new iPad app. The app allows you to view saved videos, as well as browse a selection of videos shared by your Facebook and Twitter contacts, not unlike what Flipboard does for text-based content.

Watching TV content directly on tablets also grew more common this year. Apps like Hulu Plus and Netflix have been on the iPad since last year, but networks themselves are warming up to the idea of letting viewers catch up on their favorite shows on smaller screens. NBC released an iPad app that offers limited access to recent episodes, while HBO Go expanded its reach, although it's still only available to cable subscribers. Comcast subscribers can stream some content from the Xfinity iPad app, and the cable giant is even testing out live TV broadcasts over the Internet.

The future of TV is still very much emerging, but we fully expect 2012 to be another crucial year in its evolution. From Apple-branded TV sets to new (and quite possibly cheaper) tablets hitting the market in 2012, it will be interesting to see where things end up by this time next year.

The Live TV stick, as they're calling it, is simply a way to build a bridge between your Boxee Box and an HD antenna (sold separately), which of course can pick up all the basic local channels in HD for free. This allows viewers to enjoy their Web-based streaming content and jump over to live TV broadcasts without fiddling with different inputs on their TV sets.

Boxee is very deliberately marketing this move by framing it as a call-to-arms against cable companies and their high-priced subscriptions. As Boxee CEO Avner Ronen points out, nearly 90% of the most-watched shows from last year were broadcast on networks like NBC, Fox, CBS and ABC. For the few popular shows that are only available on cable, Ronen argues, consumers are paying way too much.

Is the Live TV stick enough to make the Boxee Box palatable for mainstream consumers? It certainly makes it a more attractive option, but it probably won't kill the cable subscription anytime soon. Sports fanatics, for instance, will probably stick with the myriad viewing options cable offers them.

Plus, there's still a bunch of content that isn't readily available outside the cable box. Take HBO. The premium channel offers a way to watch online, and it even works on set top boxes like Boxee's. But in order to use HBO Go, one needs to subscribe to a cable or satellite provider.

It's worth noting that Google TV set-top boxes support live TV viewing as well, and the first generation of those devices haven't exactly flown off the shelves.

Consumers Are Moving Away From Cable, But Slowly

Still, the number of U.S. cable subscribers has begun to slowly erode, and that trend is expected to continue. Part of the reason may be a tight economy, but as Ronen points out, it's also because viewer's habits and expectations have changed significantly, thanks in large part to services like Hulu, Netflix, Vudu and YouTube. No longer can many consumers justify paying as much as $100 per month for a selection of content in which they're mostly disinterested.

So, things are certainly moving toward a world in which bloated cable packages are less of a must-have for consumers, and the Web offers an increasingly viable alternative, perhaps coupled with broadcast content and maybe even basic cable. We'll see what Apple has to offer in this space, probably next year. If their track record with tablets, smartphones and MP3 players is any indication, Apple could turn television on its head, depending on how they disruptive they are in designing and marketing the product.

For a certain segment of consumers, solutions like Boxee are a great fit, and upgrades like this only make them more attractive. It may not wreck the cable business overnight, but we suspect that as long as the set-top box and smart TV manufacturers keep innovating and making the cord easier to cut, the cable TV business as we know it won't be around forever.

Yet every now and then, even the most ardent cord cutter still has a need to tune in to something in real-time. It could be a sporting event or a local news broadcast. For me, it's the fact that members of my family are being featured on the current season of PBS's This Old House, something I like to check out when each episode first airs. Soon, I'll be able to watch those broadcasts without leaving Boxee.

The new feature is enabled by a USB dongle that will plug into the back of the Boxee Box. The company has not announced when the dongle or the software upgrade will be available.

When it arrives, it will help bridge the gap between live TV and Web video content in a way that may make devices like the Boxee Box a bit more attractive to the average consumer.

With this move, Boxee follows in the footsteps of Google TV, which already integrates with broadcast TV. Google's set-top box software recently saw a major update designed to reverse the product's initial failure to catch on with consumers. For its part, Apple is reportedly building its own HDTV set, something the late Steve Jobs saw as a major next frontier for the company.

Rather than killing off traditional TV, Web-based premium video services and set-top box software are better positioned to supplement it. Web TV is going to need to peacefully co-exist with its legacy media counterparts, at least for the time being. Updates like this are a step in that direction.

Specifically, Comcast and Verizon are talking with Microsoft about the possibility of including cable subscriptions via the Xbox 360, according to a report from Digiday. The tech giant's gaming console, which already streams content from sources like Netflix, Hulu Plus and others, could in effect become a cable box if Microsoft manages to strike a deal ahead of its upcoming release of Xbox TV.

For its part, Apple has famously described its set-top box as "a hobby" but is widely rumored to be working on producing an Internet-connected HDTV set, which may hit the market as early as next year. Smaller companies like Roku and Boxee have found enthusiastic niche audiences for their set-top boxes, but nothing approaching mainstream adoption and not without content-related issues of their own.

With over 53 million units on the market worldwide, the Xbox has a far bigger reach than all four of those Web-only devices combined. By enabling consumers to subscribe to cable from Xboxes, Comcast and Verizon would help make the the device much more attractive to consumers, who may be less likely to cut the cord if the cable experience is made easily available from the same device they use to stream Internet video, play games and so much else.

Comcast has been aggressive in its attempts to thwart the disruptive challenge the Internet poses to its traditional business model. Inclusion on Xbox gaming consoles makes sense as part of the company's "TV Everywhere" model, which is designed to keep its offerings desirable in the eyes of consumers, who are increasingly expecting the ability to watch content at any time, on any device. The cable giant has also invested heavily in everything from hardware to content.

Do you think Comcast and other cable companies will hang onto subscribers by adapting like this or are they pretty much doomed? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The project to produce a TV set running Boxee, which was due out before the end of the year, was cut short by Viewsonic. The company cited high costs of production and underwhelming consumer interest in Internet-connected TV's, according to GigaOm's New Tee Vee blog.

The Logictech Revue and Boxee were both originally priced considerably higher than the $99 Apple TV, which has sold relatively well on Amazon, despite only being what Steve Jobs famously referred to as a "hobby" for the company.

Will Apple's HDTV Increase Demand For Smart TVs?

Apple TV may not be a top priority at the moment, but the company may be playing a more prominent role in our living rooms soon. Apple has long been rumored to be produced a smart HDTV set of its own, which may be on the market as soon as March 2012.

If Apple's impact on the markets for smartphones and tablets is any indication, an Apple-branded HDTV may serve to popularize connected TVs in a way that Boxee and Google TV have failed to thus far.

Few doubt that the future of the living room will be Web-connected, socially-engaged and interactive. In fact, this picture is already coming into focus thanks to mobile technology, social networking and the rise of "second screen" apps. What remains to be seen is how the connected TV market will shake out, and whether Apple will play a significant role in its development.

For its part, Boxee is still putting out set-top boxes. In addition to its D-Link-manufactured Boxee Box, the company has also partnered with Iomega, who will produce a Boxee-powered box with built-in storage of up to 2 TB.

I've always wanted to have an Instapaper-like service for videos, an application which would allow me to save videos so that I can watch them later. Preferably when I'm relaxing on the sofa at the end of a long work day. Because who has time to watch videos during the day? Indeed, maybe your work place forbids that. Earlier this month Internet TV service Boxee launched an iPad app, along with a bookmarklet to put your daily video finds in a queue to watch later. It takes a bit of setting up to get both working properly, but it's worth it. Here's what to do.

The first thing to do is create an account at Boxee. Don't worry, you don't need to have it connected to your TV.

2. You'll then need a central app to use as your Boxee home. There are a few options. The Boxee Box, an appliance that connects to your TV, is probably the easiest method. It costs about $200 and enables you to stream Internet content from your computer to your TV. Alternative products include Apple TV and Roku (which are in many ways just as good, we're just using Boxee as our example in this post).

If you don't want to spring for the Boxee Box, no worries. You can download the Boxee app to your computer for free, or "make a Boxee" by installing it for free onto a secondary computer that connects to your TV. I tried to make a Boxee using an old computer, but the cable and adaptor required would have cost nearly as much as a Box. So for now I'm just using the PC app version.

Boxee PC app

3. Find some friends to connect to. Boxee is a social Internet TV app and this will come in handy later. Also you may want to connect to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks - although this is mainly for sharing purposes. That is, you can share what you're watching to your social media accounts.

4. If you're an iPad owner, go to iTunes and download the Boxee iPad app (which we reviewed earlier this month).

Boxee iPad app

5. Back to your PC now, where you'll want to install the 'Watch Later' bookmarklet to your browser. Do this by dragging this link to your browser's bookmark bar; see illustrated instructions here on Boxee's website. Note: I had to manually give the bookmarklet a title, as it didn't come with one (to do this, right-click the bookmarklet and press 'edit').

I'd also recommend installing the bookmarklet onto your iPad's Safari browser, so that you can save videos while you're surfing the Web on the iPad. It's a bit more of a hassle to install the bookmarklet on the iPad, but instructions are here.

6. Now go to a site where you know you'll find a good video to watch. The TED Talks website is packed with inspiring videos, or check out Vimeo for music videos and the like. One warning: as we noted in our initial review of Boxee's iPad app, a lot of Web videos still use Flash - which the iPad doesn't run. So some YouTube videos, for example, won't work in Boxee's iPad app. Still, there are plenty of great non-Flash videos on the Web.

When you find a video that you want to watch later, click the Boxee bookmarklet in your browser's bookmark bar. It takes a couple of seconds to fire up, but you should see a message pop up at the top of the webpage indicating that the video has been saved. The message disappears pretty quickly, mind!

7. Now open up the Boxee iPad app, or turn on your Boxee Box to watch on TV.

On the iPad app's homepage, there is a column called 'Watch Later.' To refresh this, put your finger anywhere in that pane, hold it down and drag it to the right. You should see the video you just added refresh in that pane.

Also check out the 'Friends' pane, which is populated by videos shared by your friends that you connected to in step 3. Finally, there is a 'Featured' tab which is content curated by the Boxee team.

The Boxee iPad app has other features, such as the 'My Media' tab which allows you to watch videos downloaded to your computer and streamed to the iPad. That requires a separate PC app, the Boxee Media Manager, which I had a bit of trouble setting up. But that's outside the scope of this post.

For now, just enjoy the 'Watch Later' feature. It's a relatively small thing perhaps. But anything that helps get you out of your desk and into your sofa or elsewhere has got to be good, right? That's the Web world we're increasingly living in, it just takes a bit of adjusting to as services like Boxee figure out the optimal user experience away from the computer.

Let us know in the comments other hints or tips you have about watching online video on tablets, TVs or smartphones.

Image credit: Andrew Scott

Recreating the experience of the full-size version of Boxee would be impossible on the iPad, given the widespread use of Flash-encoded video on the Web and Apple's refusal to support it. Instead, the app was thoughtfully designed to make the most of the features that are most appropriate for the iOS platform.

Watch Videos From Twitter and Facebook Friends

Boxee's iPad presence is decidedly social. The "Friends" stream, which pulls video links from your network's Twitter and Facebook posts, is also a feature on the television-sized version of Boxee, but it's more front-and-center on the iPad. In a sense, it's like Flipboard for video, but with more limitations on what content can be displayed.

For example, Wired's Tim Carmody shared a link on Twitter to the latest episode of the FX comedy "Louie." It showed up in our feed, but when we tapped through to watch the video, it couldn't be displayed because it came from Hulu, which utilizes Flash and notoriously blocks Boxee from accessing its content anyway. Attempts to load Hulu videos from the Boxee app result in a prompt encouraging users to subscribe to Hulu Plus and download their app.

The feature works beautifully with YouTube videos, which are displayed natively within the app itself. Other HTML5-friendly videos can be opened in Boxee's in-app Web browser, which is still a relatively seamless experience.

It's Like Instapaper For Video... Sort Of

To help bridge the gap between the desktop and the tablet, Boxee has a bookmarklet, which lets you send videos to Boxee from the browser. It's a great feature, doing for video what Instapaper or Read It Later do for text. Of course, video formats and compatibility are not quite as universal as text; so, once again, this feature doesn't work with all video content. We tried to add a video from The Daily Show's website to Boxee and watch it on the iPad, but were shown an error because the video was encoded with Flash.

To be fair, Boxee can't be blamed for these limitations. Either The Daily Show and similar sites need to better encode their video content for iPads or, less realistically, Apple needs to change its uncompromising refusal to support Flash content on its mobile devices.

Like the "Friends" stream, the "Watch Later" feature works great with videos from YouTube, Vimeo and any other source that has non-Flash video content. And even if you end up saving a few Flash videos for later, you can always watch them on your desktop or television set, since the queue of content is synced with your Boxee account.

Stream Videos From Your Computer

In its most wholehearted attempt to circumvent the limitations of the iPad, the Boxee app lets you stream locally-stored video content wirelessly from your computer, which eliminates the need to convert that content into an iPad-friendly format. This process requires the Boxee Media Manager, an additional piece of software for the desktop, which lets you queue up local media files to be streamed to the iPad.

What's an Internet TV device without support for streaming video subscription service Netflix these days? Not in the game, might be the answer there. After all, Netflix is available on a plethora of devices, from gaming consoles to streaming players to embedded Blu-ray players and TV sets.

Today, the Boxee Box has finally jumped aboard the Netflix bandwagon, at last putting it on equal footing with nearly every other Internet TV device out there.

Why is having Netflix on your device such a big deal? The company recently released its Q4 numbers from 2010 and announced that it had signed on more than 7 million new members in 2010, with more than 3 million of those in the last quarter alone. The launch of its streaming-only service in both Canada and the U.S. has proven to be a huge success. Well, all that and the simple fact that Boxee users can now watch streaming Netflix content using their Boxee Box.

According to Ronen, the service will be available as an update to Boxee software and will launch simultaneously in both Canada and the U.S. How do you get the update if you don't want to wait?

To instantly watch movies streaming Netflix on your Boxee Box, you'll need to update the software on your Box - it will update automatically to the new version (1.0.4.17443) within the next 24hrs or you can manually check for the update by going to Settings>System>Update.

Welcome to the party, Boxee!

Boxee Box, the rather oddly-shaped device that brings Internet content to your TV, announced today that VUDU would finally be available with the latest version of the Boxee Box firmware.

VUDU and Boxee first announced their partnership last October and today that deal will bring thousands of HD movies to Boxee Box users.

The list of enhancements in today's update is followed by a list of bug fixes nearly 60 items long, so hopefully the upgrade not only means HD movie rentals, but a smoother viewing experience. From the list, it sounds like Boxee has been running into some issues with hanging, crashing and sharing on Windows 7. The upgrade will bring VUDU to U.S. users and Netflix users should keep any eye on Boxee too - the company claims that a Netflix app is in the works and on the way soon.

What do you say, Internet TV fans? Will Boxee's deal with VUDU sway you, or is your Netflix-loaded Roku box serving you just fine? Or maybe Amazon's Video On Demand satiates all your needs? YouTube Leanback got your back?

Your Boxee Box firmware will upgrade automatically in the next 24 hours but, if you're impatient like me, you can upgrade manually by going to "Settings>System>Update."

The new NAS devices include the same features as the original Boxee Box, but also lets you store your own personal media collection, providing you with easy access to the best of both worlds - local media and Web-based content.

The Iomega product will be available in 3 different hardware configurations: diskless, 1 TB and 2 TB. The diskless version is $229, the 1 TB is $299 and 2 TB is $349.

Since the diskless version costs significantly more than the original Boxee Box ($199) and doesn't provide a hard drive for storing content, it's unclear why someone would choose to pay more for the Iomega device - dubbed "Iomega TV with Boxee" - instead of the more affordable original hardware.

Of course, it's because you don't want a bizarrely-shaped object - whoa, what is that thing? - cluttering up your previously attractive home media center.

The Original Boxee Box

You either loved or hated its looks!

The Iomega Boxee Box

Now, you can get a more traditional looking, black box device which better fits into most homes' design aesthetic.

Just the Specs

Both models of the Iomega TV with Boxee offer HDMI ports, composite video and audio outputs, Wi-Fi (802.11n), 2 USB ports for additional storage and are DLNA-compatible. As always, Boxee is capable of streaming a number of different file types and codecs in 1080p, including H.264, WMV, MKV and others.

The devices use an Intel Atom processor CE4100, run a TV browser, play Adobe Flash 10.1 content and run EMC's LifeLine operating system, a suite of applications that provide storage and security technologies. LifeLine supports Mac, Windows and Linux.

The content offerings provided by the Boxee service remain the same - Internet content, as mentioned above, as well as TV shows and movies from sources including CBS, NBC, Comedy Central, HGTV, Cartoon Network and VUDU, a previously hardware-only provider of HD movie rentals which partnered with Boxee earlier this fall.

The Iomega products will be available Q1 2011.

Time to Cut the Cord?

According to recent data from JP Morgan’s Imran Khan's 2011 forecast, 28% of consumers said they would consider switching from Cable to Broadband Video - like the that which Boxee provides - while 72% said no. Interestingly, the potential cord-cutters include the 16% of folks who aren't unhappy with their current cable provider. They just want to save a little money. While the numbers are still low, and the language ("consider") is soft, the figures are probably high enough to scare both content providers and cable companies alike.

Solutions like Boxee make cord-cuttiing that much easier.

As we noted yesterday, Internet TV solutions is one of the major trends expected from this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2011) in Las Vegas. Last year, Boxee was just getting off the ground - will this year be their time to shine?

In this post we review the Internet TV market over 2010 and highlight the big stories of the year.

When it comes to Internet-connected consumer electronics, Apple dominates several key markets already: music (iPod), smartphone (iPhone) and tablet (iPad). However its Internet TV product, Apple TV, has been much less successful... so far. In an attempt to change that, in September Apple announced a re-designed Apple TV.

The new Apple TV has a lower price (now $99, compared to $229 for the first generation product), streamlined form (80% smaller), streaming functionality, no more local storage, Netflix and YouTube access, and 99c TV show rentals. It remains to be seen if the new version of Apple TV brings as much success to Apple as its other consumer devices.

It's a competitive field in the set-top boxes market, so Apple will have its work cut out in 2011. Boxee and Roku are two startups in this field worth keeping an eye on.

Google TV

In May, Google announced a new Internet TV product called Google TV. The most interesting aspect of the announcement was the developer ecosystem that Google introduced to television. Google TV will not just allow you to view television programs and online video content, it'll also give you access to Internet TV applications built using Google's mobile operating system Android.

Google is positioning itself as an Internet TV platform, rather than offering a hardware component like Apple TV and Microsoft Mediaroom. On the hardware side, Google partnered with electronics giant Sony. This quote from the Google Blog in May is key to understanding what Google is aiming for: "your TV becomes more than a TV -- it can be a photo slideshow viewer, a gaming console, a music player and much more."

Internet TV Web Apps: Clicker

Google TV and other similar platforms will foster an ecosystem of Internet TV apps, similar to what's occurred with smart phones over the past few years (albeit on a lesser scale). An app that may be a sign of what's to come is Clicker. Billed as a "TV Guide for the Internet" when it launched in November 2009, Clicker is essentially a browser-based portal for your TV. It enables you to search for online TV programs, subscribe to them, watch them inside the site, and more.

In September, ReadWriteWeb spoke to Clicker co-founder and CEO Jim Lanzone. He told us that Clicker's goal is to build "the ultimate programming guide for the next generation of TV, which is about navigation and discovery." He added that "it's not just finding TV shows, it's also how you decide what to watch."

Alternatives to Cable TV

Which brings us to the all important content. Television has always been about consuming content and 2010 was another step forward for services that provide online TV content. Hulu has been the most high profile of these services, due to its ties to the U.S. TV networks. In November, Hulu lowered the price for its premium service "Hulu Plus," in an effort to attract more users. Previously, Hulu Plus was $9.99 per month, but in November it dropped to $7.99 per month.

Hulu Plus is also available on set-top boxes such as Roku.

Overall, 2010 has been a year of much progress in online TV. Of course, in the U.S. the main television networks still rely mostly on 'offline' TV for their revenues. And consumers by and large still watch popular shows like Mad Men through cables piped to their television sets. But if 2010 is any indication, the Internet has well and truly arrived as the future of TV.

Let us know your thoughts on Internet TV in 2010 - do you watch much television online?

One startup, called Snapstick, is introducing a solution that is device and screen agnostic, meaning whatever content you wish, from whatever device, brought straight to the big screen in your living room.

The idea is that Snapstick exists as a software that can power not only these devices, but any device that is Wi-Fi capable and connected to your TV via an HDMI connection - this means Google TV, Apple TV, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and more.

Let's look at a simple use case: You're sitting around the living room with a couple of friends and you want to show them a YouTube video. You have your phone in your pocket, so you pull up the video on your phone, but now, instead of trying to all huddle around a tiny phone screen, you "snap" the video to your TV. The video plays on the TV and, in the meantime, if you get a phone call, want to keep browsing on  your phone, or just put your phone away, the video continues on the TV.

What makes Snapstick especially interesting is that it can do this same exact thing for the entire Internet. You can move your Skype video chat over to the TV or you can use the TV as a screencasting tool for a presentation, showing exactly what you're seeing on your laptop's monitor. Given the proper authorization, you can even "snap" content over to a friend's TV remotely, meaning you can share from afar. And if you'd like, you can even authorize multiple sources to control the same TV.

In speaking with Snapstick's founders, they noted how their product brings the interface we're used to - our phone, laptop, desktop or tablet - to the TV. Most Internet TV systems make use of a 10-foot user interface, which employs various display, design and navigational elements. With Snapstick, you don't have to learn anything new.

For now, Snapstick is launching in private beta and is in talks with various hardware makers, from TV to networking devices to gaming consoles. They hope to have something consumer ready by the second quarter of 2011 and I can tell you that I, for one, will be one of those interested consumers. If you are interested in seeing more, Snapstick will be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.