Now there’s been an explosion of options in content providers, in technologies to bring the content to your home, and in the devices you use to find, purchase, organize, and consume it. With a little research, planning, and comparison-shopping, you can expand your options and break free from your big cable or satellite TV bill.

The ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox networks all make their broadcast content available online, and there are now lots of providers that serve a mix of broadcast TV shows, cable channels, movies, music, and other original content. If you’re new to streaming content, check out Hulu, Vudu, Netflix, iTunes, Pandora, YouTube, and Amazon, among others. Many of these services are free, but some are moving toward also offering premium versions that cost a few bucks a month, for which you get more content options and advertising-free streams. The view keeps evolving as giants like Apple and Google aim to grab a larger share of the content market. USA Today recently published a good survey of the changing web TV landscape.

Roku®, Boxee, Netgear®, and Sony all make streaming-media players—boxes that you hook up to your television and your Internet connection to bring you their particular mix of content sources. If you like video games, you probably already have a streaming-media player in the form of your Wii™, PlayStation®, or Xbox game console. Television manufacturers are also taking a slice of the pie by incorporating streaming-media capabilities in their TVs and Blu-ray players and bundling services with the devices you purchase. My favorite among the equipment manufacturers is Samsung, whose equipment features services that include Netflix, Amazon, CinemaNow (from Best Buy), and ESPN.

I decided to cut the Comcast umbilical cord more than a year ago. The cable connection in my apartment was nowhere near where I’d decided to mount my TV. That obstacle provided the incentive to make a change. I decided on an Apple TV, mainly because I already have lots of movies and music in iTunes. Also, this device has a great interface for Netflix—to which I’m hopelessly addicted—plus an elegantly simple remote control and apps that will turn your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad into a remote as well. I added a fast Internet connection (AT&T U-verse®), and I LOVE my setup!

Did I mention that you’ll want to buy a hideously, obnoxiously large TV?

“2.1” means that this system includes left and right speakers plus a subwoofer. In the ProMedia system, the subwoofer contains the power supply for the other two speakers. The simple installation begins with setting up the left and right speakers wherever you want within the 30-foot range of where you’ll use your laptop or desktop computer. Connect them to the subwoofer, and plug it into a power outlet. Then plug the transmitter—a tiny device that looks like a thumb drive—into one of the USB ports on your computer.

Once you’re all hooked up, launch iTunes—or Pandora, or another source of your choosing—and play some music. If you have an iPod Touch or an iPhone, you can also install Apple’s Remote app to turn your handheld device into a remote control for iTunes.

Wireless, really?

For those of you who can’t forget the disastrous early attempts at wireless sound, keep in mind that Apple has been doing it well for years now through the audio‑out port on the Airport Express. Wireless sound has come a long way; it’s done digitally now, like good 2.4-GHz cordless phones, so it works well and sounds terrific.

Go give these a listen, and tell me what you think. (My bet: you’ll want to leave the store with a set of them.) And for those of you on a tight budget, I’ve found the non-wifi version of the same system for under $115.

Enjoy!

There are already lots of reviews talking about the iPad’s features, so I want to start mine by addressing the most common criticism: that the iPad is just a great big iPhone. Even if that were all it is, I think detractors have forgotten how radically the iPhone changed the world of mobile computing. Many tasks are easier to accomplish on the iPhone than on a desktop or laptop computer. For example, perusing music is quicker—and more fun, really—using my iPhone as a remote control for iTunes or just listening in iPod mode. (It’s like using a jukebox; remember how much fun that was?)

Sites like Facebook offer much cleaner interfaces on the iPhone. Web browsing in general is made richer and more intuitive by the Multi-Touch™ capability of the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. You can double-tap to zoom in on a column or use pinching movements to open and close or zoom in and out.

Many iPhone apps, such as Yelp and AroundMe, are location-aware, which means that the iPhone can not only tell you where you are, but it can supply information tailored to your location. The Safari browser, for example, in combination with Google’s location awareness, customizes your Google searches to your location.

The iPhone’s touch screen and accelerometers created entirely new ways of interacting with a mobile device. Among other innovations, these features have led to some ingenious new games. One of my favorites is Spider. Check it out.

New devices and new features often lead to entirely new ways to interact. I, for one, want to see more!

Now back to the iPad itself. At $499, I think it’s a game-changer. It’s an e‑book reader, a web browser, a photo frame, a jukebox, a movie player, and a remote control. And that’s just at launch time. Wait until developers get hold of it! Imagine it as an interface for your security system, your home theater, your new car. Imagine new features for magazines, newspapers, or textbooks. Apple has a track record of creating beautiful, elegant devices and giving developers great tools, which they then use to innovate all sorts of wonderful things that the rest of us haven’t even dreamed of yet.

Compare the Amazon’s Kindle: it sells for $489, and all that gets you is e‑books on a black-and-white screen. The iPad offers full color on a great screen with terrific off-axis viewing, plus audio, video, and more interaction. Imagine downloading updated content for your e‑book in the form of an interview with the author! Don’t get me wrong, the Kindle is a nice device that will have a place in the market—after they cut the price. But the iPad is going to offer a lot more function.

The interface is a version of the iPhone OS, a sort of hybrid between the iPhone and Mac OS X. Like an iPhone, there’s no file structure or navigating. If you’re familiar with the iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ll already know how to use the iPad. And nearly all of your current iPhone apps will work on the iPad—just super-sized, if you like. (That’s a real plus for older eyes who find the iPhone screen too small—and you know who you are.)

But as vendors update their apps to accommodate the larger screen, they’ll add more functions to the main screens. And new apps. And entirely new ways of putting this exciting device to work. We’ll have to wait and see.