The small screen is redefined - downward, to about the size of a Post-it note - in smartphone apps that play television programs.
But if that makes you think you'll get frustrated watching "CSI: Miami," "Hawaii Five-O," or old "MacGyver" episodes in the airport lounge, you should think again.
At the park (at least in the shade), on a train, in the passenger seat of a car or when you're hiding in the corner at a cocktail party, TV applications are surprisingly easy to watch on the high-resolution touch screens that now grace phones.
The viewing selection is much wider if you pay for a subscription to, say, Netflix or Hulu, which have their own apps, or if you are a cable subscriber who gets HBO.
The brand-new HBO Go app from Home Box Office Inc. is free for subscribers and extends your access to what it says are 1,400 HBO shows, along with "behind-the-scenes extras." It's available for Android devices and Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad.
One app for watching free TV on the iPhone, iPod Touch and Android is from CBS-owned TV.com. It has video clips and full episodes of "Late Show with David Letterman," "Blue Bloods, the "CSI"s, "60 Minutes, and classic "Perry Mason" and "Twilight Zone." The app also plays webcasts from the CNET tech-news operation, and episodes of a Web show, "Clark and Michael," about two nerds.
Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news organization, streams its English-language programming live via a free app, Al Jazeera English Live, from Livestation Ltd., that also displays written news articles and social-media tie-ins. It's available for Apple, BlackBerry and Android devices. Livestation also has apps for CNBC and BBC World News.
A free iPhone app called i.TV, from a company by the same name, works as a television guide on Apple devices. Set it up for your location and TV provider - cable, satellite or antenna - and away it goes, building a grid to display shows, times, and episode synopses. You can use the app to log into your TiVo DVR and manage recordings. And there's a feed of entertainment news.
A caveat to all this is that video apps are a huge drain on power.
My iPhone battery indicator dropped from about half-strength into the red zone within about an hour of testing TV apps. Be aware that you many need to plug in after an episode or two of "Star Trek."
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