The Usual Suspects (Mark Evans, Om Malik, et al) recently blogged their assessments of upstart internet appliance maker Ooma (dumb name, by the way), a company launching an internet appliance in September that enables you to make free local phone calls with nothing more than their device and an internet connection.

Om relates the device to the Slingbox, yet another internet appliance that enables you to stream media (most notably your television signal) from your home entertainment system to your PC anywhere, anytime with nothing more than their device and an internet connection.

I was really hoping that as all of our content–voice, music, television, movies, written word–became digital I’d be able to decommission many of my single-purpose devices like VCRs, DVD players, stereo systems, and cable boxes and move to a more integrated multi-purpose digital system.  I was pretty proud of myself when I replaced my DVD player, VCR, streaming media server. and desktop PC (including dual 19" monitors) with a single home entertainment PC connected to my new LCD TV.

But just as I’m starting to make a dent in my goal of rationalizing my electronic device inventory, this new wave of companies has decided that their new software is so special that it should be sold as a standalone, single-purpose hunk of plastic that sits on a table somewhere in my living room.  I could quite easily fill up an entire entertainment center with a TiVO, Slingbox, Squeezebox, and an assortment of other devices.

Are these new applications SO specialized that they really need their own hunk of plastic casing?  What happened to the good old days when I could just purchase the software and maybe a PC card if some special inputs or outputs were required?  Is software piracy having such a profound impacy on new inventions that they need to be encased in a plastic box?  Am I too old-fashioned?