In many houses the TV and broadband line can be found only inches apart and in most cases no connection is yet made. The Internet had the power to bring about a revolution in the choice of programming available, instead of scheduled streams of programming that we have no control over we will be able to pick and chose what we want to watch from thousands of producers. Media centre software such as MythTV is a great option for this, with the capability to deliver a full TV friendly experience, but up to now media centre software has primarily focused on TV tuners and media available locally, such as your collection of videos and MP3s. Now a new entrant onto the media centre scene is offering a different focus, putting web services at the heart of the TV experience, but this goes beyond just consuming web content, they are also adding a social, Web 2.0 dimension by integrating with popular sites such as Twitter, Last.fm and FriendFeed. Boxee is not just software, but also a social networking site where you can form communities and rate content. It makes TV a social activity.

The OU produces a range of podcasts covering a wide variety of subjects that can be interesting not only to current students but also to people who enjoy more informal learning, or who are maybe just curious about a subject. Up until recently, this treasure trove was sadly locked away in iTunesU and so unavailable to Linux users (as iTunes is not available for Linux). Users of other platforms also had to use iTunesU as well, regardless of how they felt about this software. Fortunately, the OU has put this situation right though the release of a website that makes these podcasts available to all, it can be found at: http://podcast.open.ac.uk. The website is so new the paint is practically drying on it, but, despite being in beta, it is still capable of delivering a first class experience. It includes a number of ways to easily subscribe to podcasts, including RSS feeds (useful for programs like Amarok), a really great feature though is the sites ability to integrate with Miro, an application which is described as an "internet tv and video player". Miro is free, open source, cross platform and provides the ability to subscribe to, watch and manage video and audio podcast feeds. You can use the OU podcasts site entirely within it, providing a nice integrated experience and leaving you to enjoy the content.

If you have treated yourself to a High Definition (HD) TV the chances are you aren't using it to its full capability. According to a recent report in The Register, only 1.7% of Western European households have the equipment necessary to receive HD broadcasts, and these consist of only a handful of channels. This situation is set to improve, in the UK we are lucky enough to have Sky HD and Freesat which both carry HD content, but the report goes on to claim that the widespread availability of free-to-air HD channels will not occur until 2015. However, there is no need to despair, luckily there is another interesting source of High Definition content; this time in the form of video podcasts: Miro. The advantage of video podcasts, or vodcasts is that you can subscribe to the content you want, no more being spoon fed by scheduler in a remote TV station! You don't have to watch these vodcasts on your computer either, pretty much every HD television can be hooked into your computer so you can enjoy HD content on your new TV.

The EEE does lots more fancy multimedia stuff. One great program that is on board already is Amarok (although it has been renamed Music Manager here). This has got to be one of the greats of the open source world. Through this application you can listen to your music collection, listen to internet radio, subscribe to podcasts and it integrates with last.fm (so you can listen to streams and scrobble tracks).