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Australia's initial 3DTV broadcast will be delivered OTA
Australia's getting its first 3D at home OTA, as Channel Nine will have a free-to-air broadcast of three New South Wales Rugby League (rugby is all about the 3D) matches May 26. This is the first we've heard of anyone sending HD 3D over radio waves, and to accommodate things the government has apparently provided additional spectrum in the form of two bonded channels for the one-time event. Nine is looking into technology to transmit a 3D signal that's backwards compatible with 2D televisions so it doesn't need the additional bandwidth, but for now early adopters will have to retune their TVs to catch the channel when the time comes. The short term future of 3D could continue to be terrestrial only as cable and satellite providers on the continent haven't announced any tests for this year, but we'll be waiting anxiously to hear how well it works -- watching Glee in 2D just doesn't satisfy anymore.
NV's Lifestyle does free-to-air TV, is inspired by the cosmos
While Australia's NV might not win awards for website with fewest flashing stars and streaking comets, they seem to have a pretty feature-packed handset in the Lifestyle. This flip's screen rotates for the built-in digital free-to-air TV receiver, can record said programming -- though we've no idea about quality or limits -- triple-band GSM, FM stereo radio, 3.1 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a host of software apps. The Lifestyle also touts itself as 3G / Next G compatible, while we've no clue if that means it does, can, or will support 3G, we do see it's ringing in at $549 (roughly $350) and are almost willing to throw caution to the wind to find out. That's right, almost.[Via PC Authority]
