In a press conference on Tuesday, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced the coming of a new product, tentatively called the iTV, which will lead crowds of personal computers to join the home-entertainment system.
To accomplish Jobs' promise of "getting Apple into your living room," the iTV is designed to join the stack of television boxes and work like a network hub, receiving wirelessly streamed multimedia content from computers.
For those who have endured nights straining to follow a DVD on a small computer monitor or the frustration of herding friends around a laptop to show off a new Internet video, the device has been heralded as a move that will bring their activities into the light, and big sound system of the living room.
But while the iTV might provide a needed step in that direction, the difficulty in bringing these worlds together, and the device's limited scope, are reasons to hesitate before we run to the living room with our laptops.
Critics say the effort is too little, too late, pointing to the failed efforts of other companies to bring the PC into the living room. Microsoft has had its Media Center PC out for years with little success.
And recently, Intel introduced the Viiv media center to similar consumer flop and lack of corporate backing.
To explain this, many point to what has been called the 2-foot and 10-foot interface gap between computers and TVs. Simply put, people go to their laptops and televisions for different reasons, calling for the different interfaces and experiences.
With TV, people want to sit back and be entertained in the way a cable box and remote provides for. With computers, people are more active and desire their devices' complex operating systems and applications.
In truth, a lot of computer activity is not appropriate for the living room. Much of it is best done in the office chair, leaning in and engaging the screen.
However, the final product of that work - a personally tailored space for navigating and using a unique mass of acquired content - is something that begs to be shown off.
Personally, I have to admit to the embarrassing scene of sitting at home with my family, each person with their laptop, excited to show off some new Internet video, software tweak, home picture or video library.
If only the home-entertainment system fostered this sort of exchange and took our work out of the realm of our small, beat-up laptops and into the more respectable arena of the home theater.
The iTV works to do that. Rather than making the mistake of past systems, which crashed into the living room and entirely took over, putting a computer at its core, the iTV is an addition to what is already in place.
It provides a point of access that looks for outside computers and gives them time when desired.
This less severe approach singles out the iTV. However, on the flip side, the device still does not go far enough. Rather than provide a way for individual computers to step onto the TV stage, the iTV seems to be designed to blaze a path for Apple's iTunes software.
The announcement of the iTV came alongside descriptions of new iPods, with new video-supporting capabilities, and an updated iTunes that for the first time will sell big-budget movies.
It seems that rather than taking a new great stride in bringing the computer into the living room, the iTV is another small step made to widen the application and profitability of Apple's two pillars: iTunes and the iPod.
With this sober reflection, it seems the iTV is not the device that allows me to show off the wonders of my computer system to a captive audience.
And with a $300 price tag and the promise of more TV clutter, I think I'll continue burning discs or hooking my computer up directly to get to the TV.
But still, iTV is a first, tentative step into the living room that might provide the beginning of a new acceptability of a computer powering the night's entertainment.
Even though the iTV seems to provide for Apple's own, maybe the personal computer can ride the iTunes momentum and show its promise for providing entertainment worthy of the living room.
Matthew Bowman is an English literature senior, and can be reached at: matthew.bowman@asu.edu.
