Hollywood, meet wireless.
Several new products from the world’s biggest consumer electronics companies could allow mobile-phone users in the near future to tune into their favorite TV shows, from soap operas to the latest Broncos game.
Most recently, Sony Corp. introduced a new video recorder accessory that allows owners of its Clie personal digital assistant to record TV shows and then watch them later on their devices. The recorder works by connecting to a TV or cable box via a coaxial cable. The system can record more than four hours of TV onto a Memory Stick Pro memory card, a thumbnail-sized storage disk, which can then be inserted into the Clie PDA for viewing. Although the service is designed for the Clie, a variety of high-end wireless devices and mobile phones include slots for such memory storage disks.
Separately, Sony in Japan unveiled a new mini digital broadcast tuner module that would allow mobile phones to act as televisions, according to Reuters. The tuner would be the size of a postage stamp and will ship in December.
The moves follow the introduction of several high-end wireless devices capable of picking up TV signals. NEC Corp. recently introduced a mobile phone/TV device, as did Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
