Cutting your cable can work, if you're a TV snob
Cable cutting has garnered a lot of hype lately, but it can become a lot less appealing once you dive into the details. CNET Senior Editor David Katzmaier didn't even last a full month during his cord-cutting experiment last November, and CNET contributor Geoff Morrison was similarly unenthusiastic when he broke down the details of what it would take for him to be cable-free.Those cautionary tales are excellent resources for anyone thinking about taking the leap, but not every cable-cutting story ends in failure. I canceled my cable more than four and half years ago and haven't looked back. That's not because I have any secrets or tricks that Katzmaier and Morrison don't know. It's because my TV-viewing habits are substantially different from theirs. Below are the main reasons why being cable-free has worked for me, which could wind up being a good test to see if you're a good candidate to become a cable-cutter.I don't watch a lot of TVI don't like calling myself a snob, but that may be the best way to put it. The reality is that I can only think of a few current TV series I watched last year: "Mad Men," "Parks and Recreation," "Louie," and "Delocated." The first three I purchased on Amazon Instant (which is a convenient app on my HDTV), and "Delocated" I bought via iTunes.According to a report (PDF) by The Convergence Consulting Group, "the average TV subscriber home pays its access provider $74/month and watches 240 hours of TV, equating to $.31/hour." That's much, much more TV than I watch. I probably average more like 40 hours of TV a month and a lot of that is Netflix streaming and DVD rentals, not cable TV. It's not that I don't like TV, but I lean way more toward quality than quantity, not to mention having lots of other hobbies and interests filling up my spare time.Related links• TV without cable: How to cut the cord• Recap: Diary of a cable TV cord cutter• Which streaming media device is right for you?I don't like to channel surfEven when I had cable TV, I wasn't a big channel surfer. I tend to find out about new shows from friends or reviews from places like the Onion A.V. Club, rather than flipping around until something looks interesting. So I'm not missing anything by not having always-on cable TV with tons of shows being beamed to my TV at any given moment. Similarly, a lot of people like to leave the TV on while they're doing other activities, but I never got into that habit. First-time cable cutters are often surprised by how much they miss just having the TV on.I don't watch any reality TVHere's where the snob aspect comes in again. Again, even when I had cable, I wasn't a big reality TV viewer. While it's relatively easy to keep watching scripted TV shows without cable, it's much harder (if not impossible) to do the same with reality shows. The lack of reality programming was a big reason why the cable-cutting trial in Katzmaier's household failed.I'm OK only watching sports on network TVMy biggest compromise is missing out on watching the Yankees. I'm not the kind of die-hard fan who would watch all 162 games every year, but there are generally a few games a month that I'd want to watch. I'd gladly pay a $100-a-year subscription for MLB.TV, but because of blackout restrictions, I still wouldn't be able to see the Yankees. I also typically watch every Giants game during NFL season, but they're all broadcast on major networks, which I get via free over-the-air HDTV. Which leads me to...I get excellent over-the-air TV receptionThe final piece of the puzzle as to why cable cutting works for me is I get crystal-clear over-the-air HDTV reception. If I couldn't watch the Giants every Sunday via an over-the-air broadcast, I'd be back to cable. I'm in a lucky location where all I need is a small indoor antenna to pull in all the major networks and PBS. (And don't worry, my current antenna setup is a lot less of an eyesore than the one in the picture above.)Should you cancel your cable?When people ask me if I think they should cancel their cable, my standard reply is no. When I look over this list, it seems obvious that unless you have a lot of things going in your favor, cutting the cord will be a struggle for most people.That's why I think the picture at the top of this post encapsulates cable cutting--it's kind of a kludge at the moment. Cable TV is incredibly convenient and when you go without you have to mix and match a lot of different content sources to make it work. And even then, you'll probably have to make compromises.Still, when I recently moved to a new apartment and considered going back to cable TV, I ended up deciding against it. If you're like me and you don't watch that much TV to begin with, it feels crazy to spend $100 a month on a lot of programming you don't watch and that's chock-full of commercials. Maybe that makes you a TV snob, too, but it's much easier to embrace the label when you're saving hundreds of dollars a year.
Rooms lets you IRC from your iPhone
Rooms lets you IRC from your iPhone
Rooms is, so far anyway, the first and only IRC client for the iPhone. It's pretty stripped down as far as IRC clients go, but for simple chatting, it works really well. That said, it has quite a number of bugs, probably because it's only version 0.5.For the uninitiated, IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, and involves real-time Internet communication on chat rooms called channels. There are hundreds of IRC servers located around the world, and is probably one of the oldest forms of Internet chat rooms.When you first start Rooms up, you'll be prompted to add a new server, a port number, as well as a desired nickname, which is typical with most IRC clients. Then you can decide if you want to always connect to the server, plus you can set up default rooms (or channels) to join upon connecting. Rooms also has a nice console view that lets you see the connection status. Other settings include the ability to save chat logs, the choice to disable the iPhone's autolock feature (meaning it'll prevent the phone from going to sleep), plus the choice to stay constantly connected. The latter means that even when you get disconnected, the client will automatically try to reconnect you. You can join multiple rooms on multiple serversNicole Lee/CNETFrom there, you can join any channel you wish, and you can even switch between different channels by swiping your finger horizontally across the screen. However, when we tried to connect to two different IRC servers simultaneously, we sometimes found that channels would freeze and not show up. This is probably a bug with the first version of the software, but just keep that in mind. The channel layout is pretty self-explanatory. The nicknames are along the top, while the chat goes on beneath it. Typing out chat messages is as easy as tapping the empty field on the bottom and then typing away on the iPhone keyboard. You can also toggle auto-correct off by hitting the "ABC" button. To send a private message to someone, you can tap the person's name or select the name from the pop-up menu on the bottom right. There are a few limitations, though. You can't do the typical IRC slash commands, like /op or /me, so you'll be pretty useless as a channel moderator. Of course,chat and data transfers in the form of DCC (Direct Client-to-Client) aren't supported either. Also, as we mentioned, there are several bugs that can occur with this first version of the app. For example, one of the bugs I encountered was that the Disable Autolock feature sometimes crashed the app altogether.If you can live with the occasional bug, though, I think this is a well-executed app, especially for those of us who simply must continue to chat online even when out and about. Rooms costs $0.99 cents on the iTunes App Store.
Rooms is, so far anyway, the first and only IRC client for the iPhone. It's pretty stripped down as far as IRC clients go, but for simple chatting, it works really well. That said, it has quite a number of bugs, probably because it's only version 0.5.For the uninitiated, IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, and involves real-time Internet communication on chat rooms called channels. There are hundreds of IRC servers located around the world, and is probably one of the oldest forms of Internet chat rooms.When you first start Rooms up, you'll be prompted to add a new server, a port number, as well as a desired nickname, which is typical with most IRC clients. Then you can decide if you want to always connect to the server, plus you can set up default rooms (or channels) to join upon connecting. Rooms also has a nice console view that lets you see the connection status. Other settings include the ability to save chat logs, the choice to disable the iPhone's autolock feature (meaning it'll prevent the phone from going to sleep), plus the choice to stay constantly connected. The latter means that even when you get disconnected, the client will automatically try to reconnect you. You can join multiple rooms on multiple serversNicole Lee/CNETFrom there, you can join any channel you wish, and you can even switch between different channels by swiping your finger horizontally across the screen. However, when we tried to connect to two different IRC servers simultaneously, we sometimes found that channels would freeze and not show up. This is probably a bug with the first version of the software, but just keep that in mind. The channel layout is pretty self-explanatory. The nicknames are along the top, while the chat goes on beneath it. Typing out chat messages is as easy as tapping the empty field on the bottom and then typing away on the iPhone keyboard. You can also toggle auto-correct off by hitting the "ABC" button. To send a private message to someone, you can tap the person's name or select the name from the pop-up menu on the bottom right. There are a few limitations, though. You can't do the typical IRC slash commands, like /op or /me, so you'll be pretty useless as a channel moderator. Of course,chat and data transfers in the form of DCC (Direct Client-to-Client) aren't supported either. Also, as we mentioned, there are several bugs that can occur with this first version of the app. For example, one of the bugs I encountered was that the Disable Autolock feature sometimes crashed the app altogether.If you can live with the occasional bug, though, I think this is a well-executed app, especially for those of us who simply must continue to chat online even when out and about. Rooms costs $0.99 cents on the iTunes App Store.
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