If ever there was a week to make plain the writing on the proverbial wall of the personal computing world, this week has been it.

The desktop PC is dead; the era of the gleaming beige tower is over. The age of smartphones, laptops, and tablets is here--or so say numerous pundits and critics.

After years of sticking customers with clunky, ugly remote controls, television providers are suddenly infatuated with Apple's iPad. Cable companies, telcos, and satellite services are invading the iOS App Store with their creations, letting users take control of their televisions with touchscreens either from the couch or from afar.