A world full of crippled devices that only allow you to use them in the specific ways that the manufacturer allows (or has thought of) does not give you more options - it gives you less options.
The reason I say crippled is that a general purpose TV (or other device) can encompass all the functionality of specialist device. It can even masquerade as a specialist device, only exposing its extra functionality to users who really want it. Often it is easier for the manufacturer of the device to use a general purpose operating system to build their specific functionality on. So the specialist device is actually just a crippled version of a more generally capable device.
Remember we are only talking about computation here, not hardware capabilities. A TV with a inbuilt toaster is a stupid idea because you are combining hardware capabilities without any real purpose. However if both the TV and the toaster are controlled by processor chips with networking capabilities then why not let them to talk to each other? Why not allow a toastcam app to run on the TV? Why not a allow an app that would allow to to draw a shape on the TV's touchcreeen and that shape would be burnt onto the toaster? We are obviously talking about a future with very cheap processing power here (and very precise heating in toasters) but that is the direction things are moving in.
The reason I say crippled is that a general purpose TV (or other device) can encompass all the functionality of specialist device. It can even masquerade as a specialist device, only exposing its extra functionality to users who really want it. Often it is easier for the manufacturer of the device to use a general purpose operating system to build their specific functionality on. So the specialist device is actually just a crippled version of a more generally capable device.
Remember we are only talking about computation here, not hardware capabilities. A TV with a inbuilt toaster is a stupid idea because you are combining hardware capabilities without any real purpose. However if both the TV and the toaster are controlled by processor chips with networking capabilities then why not let them to talk to each other? Why not allow a toastcam app to run on the TV? Why not a allow an app that would allow to to draw a shape on the TV's touchcreeen and that shape would be burnt onto the toaster? We are obviously talking about a future with very cheap processing power here (and very precise heating in toasters) but that is the direction things are moving in.