Good short post on Apple’s TV plans by MG Siegler, where he observes, among other things, that an iPad is as much a television as anything else:

At the same time, a whole generation is now growing up used to watching television content on their phones and/or tablets. Or, at the very least, their laptops. For all intents and purposes, these are televisions. And guess what? Apple already makes them!

This begs/begets the question, “what is a television?” And as MG points out, whether you’re looking to the past, present, or future, it’s hard to come up with a better answer than “a screen.”

Of course, television, not a television, is a service, not a thing; a medium, not furniture. Even then, once you go digital, it’s tricky. (Is YouTube television? Is Netflix?) Still, Apple (or anyone else) selling you a television is very different from Apple selling you television. The first is easy — they’re already doing it! — but, without the second, unsatisfying.

NB: On the 19th, Zach Seward tweeted a story that he didn’t write that day, prompting this exchange:

Then this morning, I saw MG’s post because Zach had recommended it here on Medium.

Stay woke.