Watch the 2009 Presidential Inauguration without a TV

[Ichingcarpenter]

the Ars staff thought we would hunt around for ways to follow President-elect Obama's swearing in and the following festivities online and on-the-go.

Online video to the rescue!
Luckily, if you have an Internet connection and a fully-functional browser, the world is pretty much your oyster. The NBC-owned Hulu plans to offer a live stream of the Presidential Inauguration directly from its website (which can also be embedded on your own website or blog).

Hulu is undoubtedly going to be one of the most popular options for online inaugural viewing tomorrow; however, if you're looking for somewhere else to go in the event that Hulu comes crashing down, C-Span also plans to offer multiple video feeds on its website through the "C-Span Inauguration Hub." In fact, C-Span already has a few video feeds up as video crews test things out before the festivities begin.

Joost also plans to offer a live video stream of the inauguration (offered through CBS). Now that Joost no longer requires a special desktop player to watch, all you need is a working web browser with Flash installed. And, of course, CNN will offer a live video stream of the event, combined with relevant updates from Facebook users logged into Facebook Connect.

What if you're out and about?
Not everyone plans to be in front of a computer tomorrow during the inaugural activities. If you have a phone that can play Flash videos, then the above options are still available to you—hooray!

If you have an iPhone that can't play Flash though (boo, hiss), you still have a handful of video options. UStream.tv, which will offer a video feed of the inauguration on its website, also plans to release an iPhone application that will stream the event live. Previewed to TechCrunch last week, the iPhone app will not only display the live video feed in an iPhone-friendly format, it will also let users participate in the live chat about the video.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090119-follow-the-2009-presidential-inauguration-without-a-tv.html