Look, we fully understand that someone, somewhere put a lot of time and effort into designing a
$250 handheld that does nothing but watch pixelated mobile TV for a lofty per-month price, but seriously, there
has to be better uses of one's time. The 3.5-inch
FLO TV Personal Television is on sale today at Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack, though we suspect that the $249.99 up front price will probably keep most potential buyers at bay. Six months of service are included, but afterwards you'll be paying at least $8.99 per month (and a rate that low requires a
three-year contract) to keep the signals flowing. If we're being honest, this thing is still more useful than Celio's
REDFLY, but that sure ain't sayin' much.
posted Nov 13th 2009 10:19AM
Nice but the problem seems to be the normal one... NO CONTENT!
Exactly. Your choices are Obamavision (MSNbc), the has been (mtv), Spongebob, and America's #4 (out of the big three) TV network (nbc).
looks good and i'm sure there are many people who will make good use of it...
This wouldn't be bad for long car rides. Currently, I can't watch live sports games while on roadtrips (like college football on Saturdays), and so DVD players in cars don't cut it. Is there a less expensive way of watching live football games so that everyone in the back of a 8 passenger can see it?
So 8 people are going to watch a 3.5 inch screen? Either 7 of them are leprechauns or it ain't happening.
Not that you can fit 8 people around a smartphone, but you can get full content using the mobile player for Sling or Hava. It is not as nice, but the Hava is 1/3 the price of Sling.
Additionally that NBC icon will disappear with the merger with Comcast. Bastards.
Contract? $250 AND a contract? What a complete joke.
Actually I think its some type of KIRF device. Why do I have that assumption? EVERYBODY knows that spongebob is only 30 minutes long...
A three year contract?
Hold on...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!
...big breath...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!
The days of dedicated devices like this will soon be dead. When people can get something with a touch screen and an open platform, as well as a proper SDK, one device will be able to do everything you can code for it. You know, like smartphones.
Touchscreens mean there are no dedicated buttons you have to code around (ie, a calculate cant serve most functions even if you could reprogram because its button interface sucks) Buttons (ahem, screen real estate) can be placed anywhere, with any size, and any look.
Give it proper connections and a small expansion port. WiFi, 3g, Edge, MiFi, Bluetooth, RF, 3.5mm stereo port, USB port and your set. You know have a device that can (currently) talk to many networks, can be programed to do pretty much anything (from check facebook, to watch mobile tv, to detect poisonous gasses with a USB addon. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/features/2009/cell_phone_sensors.html)
What are all these companies coming out with dedicated devices? Their purpose should remain static! My TomTom GPS could have been a PMP as well as GPS if it designed to allow the code (it has been hacked to do just that. Thank you linux!). So why are we limiting the potential of all these devices and saying they can only be used for one thing. Designing something like this, and only letting it work for mobile TV will be looked upon as a horridly idiotic move by the next generation. This is why things like the Pre, Zune HD, and iPhone are popular. They can carry as many purposes as you can code for them. They are adaptable, and you no longer have to have 10 devices for 10 tasks just because, even though the hardware supports, companies are to big-headed to allow room for expansion.
In a handful of years we will have one device that will be used for phone calls, mobile tv, internet, streaming to our tv's, analyzing sodium content in our ground, checking voltages, and anything else someone somewhere might need. It will bloody be like startrek.
So yeah. Sorry bout my rant, but I felt the need after seeing another software dedicated device that limits its potential.
There is zero on television I want to watch for $8.95 a YEAR, much less a month.
That's why I use Hulu
the price is completely not worth it, but what do you expect from providers that sell overpriced phones and plans to a good percentage of the population..
http://www.tvlesson.com/video/41804_FloTV%20Personal%20Television%20Review.html
It's a real shame this has a contract attached to it. I wouldn't mind having one if I could activate it only for months when I'm on vacation and/or within the service area (which is not nationwide). Neither my home nor my college are within the service area.
How many millions of $250 "pocket" TVs were sold with analog tuners? They are all 100% obsolete now. A lesson is hidden in there somewhere...
"Yo Flo, tell Mel to whip me up a toasted bagel with cream cheese. You want one too? Make that two and kiss my grits, nooge."
where's jason? it's the 13th and there i'm so sad when a few random posts break the spirit of the day! c'mon!
He's in the MTV symbol
This would actually be somewhat useful if it had an ATSC tuner, with no monthly contract, had an internet browser and had multimedia functions
Whos network is this running on? AT&T?
Aw man, I missed SpongeBob...
you used to be able to get tv over the air for free...
Wait, this is newly launched? I was in Best Buy a little less than two weeks ago, and I spent like 10 minute playing with this thing.
The quality of the image is pretty absymal, or maybe it was just the channels I was playing with. Either way, maybe useful for a very small number of people, but I have not seen any proof it can hold a signal while in a moving vehicle, and that kills its potential for replacing a portable DVD player or a PMP.
Yep I was playing around with one Wednesday. Couldn't play anything, though.
fail.
Did Gizmodo swipe your image Engadget? I noticed the "MTV Jason" image logo in their 'Now Shipping' roundup article which features the FLO TV! What's with that?
blah - with eyetv I can watch the cable I already pay for on my iPhone
We need the same but with mobiTV, like they use on Sprint via 3G streaming.