T-DMB
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Sharp's new 4.3-inch DMB / PMP educatin' machine
Good old Sharp. They just can't be happy with themselves if they're not squeezing an electronic dictionary or other such educational tool into otherwise perfectly good portable media devices. Their latest efforts center around the new SP700, which sports a 4.3-inch touchscreen, T-DMB receiver and SD card slot, and supports various forms of audio and video playback. There are also options for a 30GB HDD and GPS navigation, but with all of this education breathing down our necks, we wouldn't want to get close enough to find out how well it all holds together. Price? Availability? You must be kidding!
China rolls its own digital television standard
Somehow, when we weren't looking, China decided to thumb its nose at the myriad of global digital television standards. On August 18, the Standardization Administration of China approved DMB-T, its new digital television standard for the world's largest television market. No, it's not the same format that the South Koreans have chosen to adopt, called T-DMB. According to PC World India, this will become the new standard in China by August 1, 2007. Apparently the Middle Kingdom's digital television market is worth a staggering $125 billion, ($100 per person), or about $300 for each of the 400 million television set owners. Still no word on whether or not Hu Jintao has booked the Dave Matthews Band to play the launch date of DMB-T, though.[Via PC World India]
Maxtek's MNT-4300DMB has T-DMB and GPS but skimps on PMP
We're a bit miffed that Maxtek chose to go soft on one of the three pillars of Korean gadgetry: PMP playback, but their new MNT-4300DMB device has plenty to love all the same. First off, there's a 4.3-inch touchscreen, which can handle picture-in-picture just in case the GPS isn't enough of a reason to keep your eyes off the road. Navigation is powered by a SiRF III GPS module, and TV is of the T-DMB variety. The device can also handle MP3s and photos with its unmentioned amount of storage, but there doesn't seem to be any PMP functionality in sight. Not too terrible for 349,000 won ($363 US), but if PMP is your thing there will always be plenty of other choices.
BlueBird's BM-300 Pocket PC does DMB too
It takes a pretty special phone-less PDA to pique our interest these days, and even though Korean manufacturer BlueBird's new Pidion BM-300 doesn't really push the envelope in areas like processor speed or screen resolution, the fact that they threw a DMB tuner into the mix puts this model in some pretty distinguished company. Besides the PM80 from LG, in fact, we're hard-pressed to think of another palmtop that sports a built-in digital TV receiver -- which is probably because there's little demand for this feature anywhere outside of Korea for now. Specs-wise, the WiFi- and Bluetooth-equipped BM-300 definitely comes out on top, as its 512MHz Bulverde CPU, 64MB/128MB RAM/ROM configuration and Windows Mobile 5.0 OS are all superior to what the LG model offers, though the two do share the same unfortunate 320 x 240 resolution. South Korean TV fanatics can expect these to hit stores sometime in October -- from the look of things, they need some time to polish up that design a little -- for a price that's yet to be announced.[Via Digital-Lifestyles]
Qrio's QT-9 portable DMB player
Here ya go kids, another tiny DMB TV from Korea. Like the iRiver B10, this QT-9 from Qrio appears to be a dedicated player which goes pink, black and large with a 3.5-inch display packed into an ultra-slim, 9.8-millimeter slice of mobile TV goodness. Huh, Qrio!? Damn them for taking our dearly departed humanoid's name in vain... attack QRIOs of the world, attack!
World Cup tech: HD, mobile, and web TV makes Cup hard to miss
With the FIFA World Cup set for kickoff at 11:55AM EST today, most of us Americans are still sitting around scratching our heads trying to figure out how to pronounce Pelé, and whether we'd be offending anybody if we just called football "soccer" so things are less confusing. Turns out we are very alone in this predicament, since in 2002 the World Cup nabbed a total TV viewership of 29 billion, with 1.1 billion people viewing Brazil's defeat of Germany in the finale. The tournament takes place among 32 teams over the course of a month, and is being hosted by Germany this time around -- who have built or retrofitted 12 stadiums to host the 64 matches. Suffice it to say that this is the biggest sporting event in the world, making our American football's Super Bowl look quite minuscule by comparison. And what better way to celebrate this month of sporting excess than to round up all the tech it entails? If you need a bit more convincing, we recommend Larry Dobrow's "The Ignorant American's Guide to the World Cup," and if that doesn't help, might we remind you of the decent chance of celebratory and/or irate crazed-fan rioting -- brought to you live in HD? While there are a myriad of ways to actually receive live TV of the matches all over the world, the main source for all this video is a team-up of HBS and Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems Media&Broadcast. HBS (Host Broadcast Services) is a dedicated organization set specifically to produce TV and radio coverage of the tournament, and they're all set with a staff of 2,000 to produce live 16:9, SD, PAL, and HDTV coverage from all 12 stadiums. The 1080i/50 MPEG-2 signals alone run at 1,485Mbps, with a minimum of 20 HDTV cameras running for each match. That's where T-Systems Media&Broadcast steps in: pumping out all that data. They'll be on the scene with ISDN, Ethernet, WiFi, DSL, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA to shoot HBS signals to the International Broadcast Centre master control in Munich, and to manage all the other data from the 15,000 or so press people on the scene. From the IBC, the video and audio "pool feed" gets shipped off to more than 180 broadcasters worldwide. You think we're done? Not a chance, click on!
DMBO T-DMB receiver works as P2P repeater
With an incredible demand for portable live TV about to hit the world thanks to next week's launch of the FIFA World Cup, onTimetek has figured out a clever way to feed video to the masses using incomplete T-DMB infrastructure and without breaking anybody's bandwidth bill. Their new DMBO device is just a regular USB T-DMB receiver, but it mixes with the DMBO software to provide live video to others via P2P. It seems the system is mainly designed to fill in the gaps for those with poor reception, but we could really go for something like this broadcasting to the rest of the world -- we were always dreamers.
Debitel launches Samsung P900, T-DMB in Germany
Productivity everywhere stands to suffer for the next month or so as World Cup Fever sets in, but expect German productivity to take an even stronger hit -- carrier Debitel is using the tournament as the launching pad for its new T-DMB service. No word on how many games will be available for viewing, but we suspect there'll be enough to justify stealing off to the office bathroom at an alarming frequency. The service launches today along with the compatible Samsung P900, which will set you back €199 (roughly $250) with contract.
POSDATA shows off WiBro PDAs for Korea
When a manufacturer takes styling cues from a number of popular devices -- in this case, the RAZR, the Wizard, and the gone-but-not-forgotten Clie -- and throws in a number of high end features whose acronyms make us a little weak-kneed, the resulting products are bound to be pretty sexy. Such is the case with a trio of WiBro-capable PDAs being marketed under the Flyvo brand by POSDATA, all of which run Windows CE 5.0 Professional Plus on an ARM processor and let you get your 'net on with WiFi as well in case you have to travel outside of Korea. Introduced at this year's Wireless Broadband World Forum, these upcoming devices (which frustratingly lack either names or model numbers) also feature either 512MB or 1GB of flash RAM, with two of them adding T-DMB and VoIP capabilities, and the high-end model throwing in a little GPS action to boot. Lucky Koreans will be able to pick these up -- and possibly even drop their cellphone services altogether -- sometime early next year. Keep reading for more pics...Read- The one that resembles a WizardRead- The one that resembles a PSPRead- The one that resembles a Clie
iRiver's PocketTV B10 for portable DMB
Looks like iRiver is getting set to launch a terrestrial flavored (judging by that telescoping antenna) portable DMB TV dubbed the Pocket TV B10. In a refreshing salute to minimalism, this pup features a 2.2-inch QVGA display on a device apparently dedicated to digital TV and DMB and FM radio -- no attempts to cram in a bunch of PMP features here folks. Said to be dropping in Korea on May 23rd for about $140. But hey, judging by the pics we're calling prototype on this one so who knows. [Via Akihabara News]
Samsung's SCH-B570: the 8GB i310 music phone now with T-DMB
In the E3 fury that was last week, we managed to overlook that Samsung dropped a pretty major update into their 8GB i310 music phone – some of that sweet T-DMB mobile teevee sugar. That change bumps the model to an obscure SCH-B570. Other than some additional, unspecified multimedia capabilities, that's about all we know for sure. Though it's likely to carry the same specs as the i310: WinMo 5.0, microSD expansion, 2 megapixel shooter, Bluetooth with A2DP stereo audio support, TV-out, and integrated dual-speakers. Normally at this point, we'd tell you there's no chance in Hades we'll ever see this phone in these United States. However, with the FCC approving T-DMB phones of late, well... you just never know.
FCC approves Samsung SGH-P900 T-DMB phone
Setting the stage for some good 'ol mobile TV squinting here in The States, the FCC just approved Samsung's SGH-P900 T-DMB handset. Announced back in February for the European market, the P900 represents Sammy's first DMB handset push outside Korea and sports tri-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE, a 2 megapixel cam, Bluetooth, and MicroSD slot. But what makes this phone notable is support for digital mobile TV sure to slake that 2.2-inch mobile TV viewin' jones you may or may not be suffering. Now all that remains is for someone to launch a T-DMB service 'round these parts. Hello...anybody there, XM...anyone? [Warning: PDF link] [Via Unwired View]
Viliv N.70 GPS navigator and PMP
Just as Viliv starts spreading the PMP love to the US, they go and launch into the in-car navigation biz with their first GPS/PMP combo device for the Korean market -- the N.70. This WinCE 4.2 device features SiRF Star3 GPS navigation, an MP3, photo, and video player, wireless remote, built-in stereo speakers, CF/SD memory card slots, and even an T-DMB digital TV option. However, that big 7-inch display barely pumps 480 x 234 pixels meaning your flicks won't exactly look their best. Regardless, we have to question the merits of slapping a 7-inch media-playin' distraction on the dash with all those GPS-enabled drivers in the UK plummeting off cliffs and such.
LG shows another T-DMB swivel phone, the LB1500
The design team at LG is getting plenty of mileage out of this swivel shell for for their DMB phones, with the LG-LB1500 as the latest in a long line of similarly styled units. Of course, we're not complaining. There's a nice big 2.2-inch QVGA display dominating the unit, and an overall thickness of 0.77-inches. There's also some sort of "IPS method" to enhance viewing, but we're rather low on deets. The phone should be available in May -- in Korea no doubt -- so we suppose we'll know more then.
