Today is June 12th, which means if you don’t have cable or satellite TV, or a digital converter box, then you probably aren’t getting TV anymore.

Why? Well if you haven’t seen the news recently (or any of the many ads about it both on TV and online), the TV signals will be switching to digital tomorrow from analog, as per a law passed by the government. The reason for the law? Its benefits will very soon be amazing. See, the analog TV previously used till now for the air stations like CBS, NBC, FOX, etc. (stations you can get with an antenna for instance, which are free “over the air”), use something called the 700 MHz spectrum. Basically, the government wanted to clear up this spectrum for a number of reasons, but the most relevant one to you is: Verizon and AT&T will use this for their 4G networks. Not only does this rake in a whole lot of cash –over $1 BILLION! — for the government, but it will allow for plenty of air for Verizon and AT&T to begin their intended rollouts of  their 4G networks later this year and early next year, respectively. Both of their upcoming 4G networks should be INSANELY FAST but we’ll cover 4G networks later in another post.

So what can you do now to adapt to this new transition to digital? For one, you can always use this as an excuse to jump to cable or satellite, and get yourself a boatload of extra channels as I’m sure your well aware of (yeah, we thought you’d want that as your first choice). You can also order a $40 coupon the government is giving out to purchase a converter box to attach to your antenna and TV, which will essentially give you all your current, standard, “over the air” channels in a much better digital, near HD picture. You can read about the transition and order the coupon here, which will arrive in a couple days (I ordered mine about a week ago and got it Wednesday). You can then buy the converter box at a bunch of places, including Best Buy, CVS and Radio Shack among many.

So there you got it. Now go out there and get your converter box, and let us what you think of this new “digital TV revolution”: you getting better picture and sound, exicted for the future 4G networks coming because of this transition?

It has been a long time since Microsoft gave their Xbox 360 the ability to download and watch HD Movies and TV shows, but starting this summer, Sony will install the same feature in their PS3 system. For the details on this new add on to the PS3 hit the more link.

Now how exactly this new TV and Movie service will all be packaged is unclear– this feature though is already available on their Braiva TVs, sold under the brand name “Bravia Internet Link“.

Three possibilities on how Sony will work this new system:

1. Go rental service with a tie-in to Netflix for renting movies online
2. Go like Hulu (where we mentioned here) and offer free video with ads supporting it
   
3. Go like iTunes and charge for downloading movies and TV shows (unlikely due to Sony’s long failed history of digital downloads in contrast to the successful Apple)

Time will tell which way Sony goes, but we do know this: Sony’s Bravia Internet Link TV’s, and therefore, presumably, their PS3′s as well, will offer movies before they go on DVD and Blu-ray (one example is the upcoming Will Smith movie Hancock).

So PS3 owners- you gonna try this? and if so which way do YOU want Sony to go? And to potential PS3 owners: is this gonna sway you now into the PS3 corner–the ability to now play HD video games; view Blu-ray HD movies; browse the Internet straight from you PS3; and now download movies and TV shows to it? Let your opinions out in the comments.

Information here adapted from Cnet’s Crave