Best Inventions 2005: Home Runs

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Your TV, Anywhere
Inventor: Blake Krikorian
Availability: Now, $250
To Learn More: slingmedia.com
Every so often, a handy gadget comes along and changes our TV habits. In the 1990s WebTV married the Net with the tube, and TiVo famously began freeing us from network schedules. Now comes a new appliance to shift not when you watch your TV but where. Slingbox hooks up to your home set and beams whatever is onscreen to any Web-enabled device loaded with special software. Waiting for a plane in Paris? Use your laptop and the airport's wireless network to watch the local news from back home—or a DVD or an old show saved on your TiVo. You can even change channels. Best feature: no subscription fees.
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