How To Safely Watch Free TV Shows Online

Little did developers realize so many years ago that what they would find themselves allowing years later is the biggest exchange of information imaginable on daily basis. So much that people do not have to ever leave their computers for the content and entertainment they are looking for.

If you are someone that rather enjoys television, you might have not even realized the massive amount of content that is available online for you. No matter which show you might be looking for, you should be able to find it with limited trouble just by browsing online. How to do this, though, might not be something that is as simple as opening a window on the computer.

Streaming Boxes

You are now able to stream to your TV with streaming boxes such as Apple TV via Airplay

Roku TV

There are now streaming boxes such as Apple TV and Roku which are available in the market, Roku’s $50 streaming box for instance comes with an impressive lineup of content, which icludes but not limited to Amazon Instant, Netflix, Pandora, NHL Game Centre, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, MLB.TV, NHL GameCenter, Epix, Crackle, Picasa, Flicker, Mog, Rdio, TED Talks, Revision3, TWiT.TV, NASA, just to name a few. You can take a look at the full list of the content available on Roku’s site, Unfortunately, YouTube is not yet available but it’s available on Apple TV

Flickr image courtesy of robertnelson

Apple TV

Apple TV on the other hand started as a relatively limited streaming-video box, but with constant update, this box has become transformed from what we could call a glorified Netflix player to one of the best streaming-video boxes available today. Just like with any other apple product, this product is twice the cost of Roku ($99 in the US), I bought mine for £99 in the UK but you get what you paid for which is high quality and a very good browsing experience that could be described as first class for movies and TV shows.

Flickr image courtesy of methodshop.com and nakagawa

Tips

You need to be careful about finding content on the internet, often times this great content that you stumbled across is carrying a Trojan virus or something similar that can quite literally destroy your computer. This is not something that should keep you from hunting out the real and legitimate sites, because these are in fact worth your time. The point in saying this is that you should always be operating an antivirus program that can scan your computer in real time for incoming threats.

Simply searching those key terms “watching tv free online” should generate numerous websites that can get your search started. However, many of these websites are going to ask you to download things or complete participating offers for membership to the site. While downloading things should not be too much to ask, especially if you are running your scanner, you should shy away from completing participating offers to watch tv online.

These are often coupled with spyware and adware that can access personal information of yours, and you never end up close to getting what you were hoping for in the first place. Remember that there are websites that are actually offering free streaming television online, and you do not need to jump through any hoops to find them and access what they have to offer. All it does take, is a little bit of patience.

As regards to the earlier mentioned downloading, this often means a particular player that is designed to play the files that they have created with the content. This is not an uncommon thing, and many streaming websites only upload their content with specific file types. So it should not necessarily be a red flag when asked to download a player.

Whether you are looking for classic television programming from the 70s or 80s, or even a show that might have aired the night before last,  ”How to” is as simple as finding the website, but be mindful of some precaution that should be taken.

Tags: Free Shows, Free TV, TV For Free, Watch TV

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

How CouchSurfing should use that new $15 million

CouchSurfing his outgrown its humble roots to attract some serious money from investors. But what should the free travel site do with the money?

Yesterday, the hospitality-exchange network CouchSurfing announced that it has raised $15 million in funding, an impressive amount for a niche travel site devoted to pairing local hosts with visitors from around the world — for free. But along with the money, the company announced it wants to transform CouchSurfing into a more than a utilitarian connect-and-book website: It wants to become a travel social network.

According to a note announcing the funding, there are two things on the CouchSurfing agenda:

1. The CouchSurfing website, as it currently exists, needs a lot of help. It’s unstable and not very easy to use.

2. CouchSurfing is amazing because it’s free and based on generosity.

This new round of funding gives us the opportunity to deal with the first reality without messing around with the second, and for that we are extremely pleased. Our priority is to make sure that we’re serving the community as best we can. And we now have enough money in the bank that we can give that our full attention.

Before there was Airbnb, before there was Zipcar, before the travel and commute industry was turned on its head by the sharing economy and relatively recent tech startup scene boom, there was CouchSurfing. The company started in 2004, a veritable lifetime ago by startup standards, and during that time it has managed to amass an incredibly loyal, passionate, and active userbase while simultaneously surviving the onslaught of sharing economy startups who have followed after.

CouchSurfing had pinpointed the sharing economy movement before there was a sharing economy movement, and it has thrived since.

Of course, along with all the praise, there’s some criticism to be heaped as well; namely that CouchSurfing’s platform needs some serious fine tuning. The team readily admits there is room for improvement.

“…We’re focusing all our energy on making a website that’s a more sustainable home for our community: one that works reliably, and easily. It’s going to be a big project, and one that will take us a lot of time, but we’re now in a position where we can take that time and do it right.”

So with the new money and focused attitude, there are a few things CouchSurfing needs to do to be taken seriously as a big social network contender.

Better profile creation

If there’s one thing I hate when filling out social profiles, it’s a blank paragraph box. Give me boxes to check, or personality-focused question, or pointed requests — like what’s your favorite book, movie, are you a loud or a quiet person, etc. The giant blank box asking me to describe myself is intimidating, and how people fill it out won’t be consistent.

Smoother sign up

Right now, it’s sort of slow and buggy. It took me a few times to get CouchSurfing to connect with my Facebook, and then getting through all the requisite nearly lost my interest.

Visuals

As much as I don’t want to say it, I have to. When it comes to design and format, CouchSurfing could stand to take a page out of Airbnb’s book. The latter site has made looks a priority, even enlisting professional photographers to take pictures of hosting accommodations, and it has paid off.

Couchsurfing very much errs on the side of Craigslist when it comes to accompanying images, and big, high-res visuals go a long way. Any social network worth its salt right now has noticed that photo-sharing has hit in a big way, and CouchSurfing would be wise to implement some of this.

Mobile

There’s nothing much to explain here, except that CouchSurfing’s mobile apps could use a significant upgrade.

Of course the complications come in when you talk about CouchSurfing’s original users, who are wary about what all this means for their beloved platform. Just browsing over the first few comments on the CouchSurfing blog post shows that there’s plenty of worry about what this all means for the site. But in a quest for bigger things, the company might have to convince them to embrace the change.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com