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Samsung Puts Satellite TV in Cell Phones
prostoalex writes "Japanese subscribers will be able to get 70 television channels with a new cell phone, currently developed and tested by Samsung. Using an ARM microprocessor, Samsung makes it possible to receive satellite TV transmissions in 2.6 GHz range. No dish is required, however, for clarity of the signal the company is currently installing a network of repeaters. This could substantially increase the number of satellite TV subscribers, which in the United States is still a distant second to cable television."
Wow! Now I can talk on my phone -and- watch tv while I drive! ...
./weed | bong
Now instead of getting run over by somebody yakking on their cell phone, pedestrians can now get run over by people watching TV on their cell phones...
Humor aside, it's kind of weird to see people take more and more steps into a kind of nomadic existence - cellphones displacing landlines, PDAs and notebooks displacing desktops, huge-ass SUVs replacing small studio apartments...
Does this have any relation to satellite phone?
Sure you can get service when your in the middle of nowhere...but inside a building, you can't get service because of a roof over you.
-Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
If this ever makes it to the UK, due to the TV Licensing Nazis - if, say, every member of a household had one of these phones and used them while out of the house, a seperate TV license costing around $160 a year would be needed for each phone.
I doubt it will be an ARM microprocessor. The article only mentions an ARM core, so it will probably be a Samsung mpu with an ARM core. In the last few years, Samsung came out with some impressive ARM-based microprocessors.
- Cell phones "add-on" sizes get standardized,
- You can buy a cell phone model with n = 0,1,2,3 feature slots,
- You choose your n features: color screen, GPS, Satellite TV, 802.11, Super Mario Bros, won't-go-unnoticed-vibrations, fax, printer, serial port, folded parachute...
i mean that is really bad. it is already annoying having cell phones packed with not wanted, disturbing, useless functions and features when almost nothing useful like calendars, proper os which can run downloaded or even selfwritten scripts/programs and so on is implemented.
yet an other useful tool made by modern technology turned into bussiness driven marchandise crap...
Aure entuluva!
70 channels seems kindof low. shouldnt they be able to get more than cable tv?
thats no technical problem, I've got around 1000 channels using digital satellite tv, but about 70 percent are encrypted, 20 percent are in a foreign language and the rest is crap.
** A TV set powered by its own internal batteries - a pocket sized TV for example - may be covered by a licence at your home address.
In Japan, Vodafone sells a NEC phone that has a built-in TV tuner. Go to Vodafone's Japanese site (English link) to check it out (and their other awesome models).
The advertisements for this phone show two businessmen standing on the train platform. One of them is using an older DoCoMo style phone, and is standing alone on the right side of the picture. On the left side of the picture stands a younger businessman with one of the NEC TV phones: he is surrounded by lots of people peering over his shoulder at the phone. He has a huge grin on his face. The older man on the right side of the picture is looking sad and alone as he holds his phone out in front of him and looks enviously over at the younger man.
------- "One of the joys of travel is visiting new towns and meeting new people." -- G. KHAN
So now I can get TV on my phone, along with a PDA, a game console, and a camera, etc...... But they still can't make a simple phone that just calls people and has a phone book. Super.
Oh my, I think Dave just turned into a bear.
I gather it's a lower frequency than satellite. I think this means fewer channels available.
Since only a handful of channels account for most viewing, 70 should be more than adeqaute. The portability should compensate for fewer channels.
The small pocket TVs that you can get from the likes of Casio are much larger than a mobile phone and can take larger cells.
aken straight from TV licensing web site:
** A TV set powered by its own internal batteries - a pocket sized TV for example - may be covered by a licence at your home address.
That is correct. Notice the use of the word "may". The "may" would apply IF no other TV was being used in your house while you were using the portable. This is why it is ok to have a (perhaps battery operated) TV in a holiday caravan, so long as your TV back home is not being used. It's like seat licensing for software.
If a TV receiving phone were used out of the house while the home TV were in use, you could be fined. (Catching you is another matter entirely however).
A vital step towards realizing the service -- the successful launch of the satellite that will carry the programming -- has yet to be made.
Looks like we won't be seeing this for a few years, at least.
If you must build a network of repeaters won't you effectively make this a groundbased and not satelite based service?
The article was not clear if it was possible to build such a network without these ground repeaters.
Most ground based transmission is already based on satelite feed so what is new?
This could substantially increase the number of satellite TV subscribers, which in the United States is still a distant second to cable television.
In the US, they'll market the phone with a TV socket and extension cords.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
You can already watch any cable TV channel on your cell phone, but it's done in-network and not receiving directly from the satelite like this Japanese system.
Here the telco streams it to your phone over 3G. The advantage is that it works anywhere there's network coverage - which is everywhere including the entire Seoul subway network (tunnels, trains, everywhere).
The disadvantage is that you pay through the nose for the packets!
maybe I am wrong but don't we leave the house so we can do things other than watch TV...or is this a substitue for doing work at work or when your favorite show is on and you have to pick up the kids so now you can do both? Here's a sidenote to think about: Cellphones use basicly 1 sense and thats hearing which is an important sense but you do have sight so you can concentrate on other things like walking or driving (people argue with this one but truck drivers have been talking on CBs for many years now and they seem ok...maybe not), basicly do whatever. But TVs use both Sight and Hearing...what are you gonna use to walk down the street, smell? Maybe when the Segway takes over for using our legs for walking and they put in cruise control than we will be ready for Mobile TV
Trix are for kids!
once again, pron channels will be the most watched thing.. lets be honest Porn is the greatest driver of technology anywhere (VHS, Internet, DVD) ect.
come comment on the madness at http://slashdot.org/~phreak03/journal/
I'm just gonna sit back in my nice recliner here, eat this cheeseburger and watch mobile phone TV 'till the checks start rolling in...what the? Am I moving? HOLY CR@#kjl3.@!.*
The handset design is one thing, but I'd really like to see the design of the satellite.
Since the article discusses the use of a single satellite, for use by Korea and Japan only, one concludes that the satellite must be in geosynchronous orbit (otherwise there would be service outages as it passed behind the earth). That puts it 22,300 miles up (in the Clarke Belt).
Since the Clarke Belt is so far away, a combination of
high transmitter power in the satellite,
good sensitivity (low noise figure) in the receiver back on Earth, and
high antenna gain at both transmitter and receiver
are typically used to make the link work. Modern satellite television (e.g., DirecTV) uses a relatively high frequency of operation (12 GHz) so that high antenna gain can be achieved in a physically small (i.e., less than two foot diameter) package. However, the article says that the proposed system operates at 2.6 GHz. This would seriously kill any hope of significant antenna gain at the receiver, even if one could design a gain antenna that could track a satellite in a mobile, handheld system.
Said another way, in the DirecTV system, the typical Earthside antenna has a gain of about 33.5 dBi. The handheld antenna gain will be doing well to reach 0 dBi. Since the DirecTV receiver has a noise figure of only 1 dB, no receiver sensitivity improvement is possible there. The only way to get back the 33.5 dB of link margin is to either increase the satellite's antenna gain by an additional 33.5 dB (which would make it impractically large, especially given the low frequency of operation, and give it a very small footprint on the Earth's surface) or increase the transmitter power by 33.5 dB (or 2239x).
How is the system to work?? Does anyone have a link margin calculation for this system?
Remember we're talking Japan, not America. Very low car to pedestrian ratio, and very low incidence of huge-ass SUVs.
Your point stands, but I doubt this will be as bad as you seem to be inclined to believe. In the US I suspect it would be a nightmare...of steel and blood!
True, but I think the parent is responding to the general trend in the threads here of talking about the TVness of the phone, as opposed to the satelliteness of the phone. My guess is just that very few Slashdot users know that there is already a TV phone in Japan, and that as such it's the satellite bit that's news, not the TV bit.
I dreamed of the day when I could watch Satellite TV in all it's glory on a small LCD display
Instead of putting it on cellphones, why don't they focus on a consumer-price oriented portable DVD player with, let's say, a satellite TV reciever on it? I love DirecTV and, if a device like this was affordable (Considering.. i'm thinking around $500) better yet... when's the DirecTV Car satellite coming? Big SUVs with CNN playing in the back... ahh
Technology is great.... but can't they actually come up with something USEFUL instead of trying to sell on the 'Ohhh, ahhh' factor?
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
One word answer for you:
Trains
You have to remember that we're talking about Japan, where your entire commute consists of just sitting there, reading a book, or, if you're out of reading materials, slowly going mad.
I'm not up on cell phones, so maybe you can tell me that such a thing already exists.
I want a stupid simple AM radio in my cell phone, so that in case of blackouts, terrorist attacks, transportation shutdowns, or just huge snowstorms, I can listen to the news. (Yes, I live in a large city where I've experienced all these things in the past five years).
With this technology you can do it freehand.
Less is more !
Sorry, I'm being flippant. I realize your post is somehow about conformity, but I just don't get what you're driving at.
Oh, no, MY apology is needed. It's just that 95% of all cell phone conversations most people overhear in public tend to be the type that illustrates that the speaker has nothing better to do than speak at it or use it as a security blanket.
My cell phone is now inactive, but when I used it I would move away from prying ears, not shout "I have a cell phone" to everyone within earshot, thus confirming my insecurities. Or worse, "Look at me! I'm important, I have a cellphone". Yeah, I had one of those original 10 pound Mitsubishi's and service back when cell phones were new and cool.
Have those things improved at all? Is there any viable new video goggle/glasses technology on the horizon? The problem with so many small devices capable of doing video or even more traditional computer-based work is the tiny screens, or the companion problem, the requirement for a larger screen making the overall device too big for easy portability.
Even on an airplane where lugging my laptop is an option, it's a problem. If I'm in a non-emergency row coach seat, I have to hold my laptop with the bottom tipped up towards me so I can hold the screen at a decent viewing angle. It gets worse if the person in front of me decides to lean their seat all the way back; I end up with my laptop essentially rotated 90 degrees away from me.
It will be a huge leap forward for portable video and computing when we can get large displays without needing even the relatively small space of an airline seat. I know that the previous (current?) iterations of video goggles kind of sucked; too big, too power intensive, too hard on the eyes, whatever. Anything getting better?
...this idea might at first sound retarded (who'd want to watch TV on their cell phone?), but it's actually something I thought of over a year ago as something that would be a really novel feature, especially for the type of people who find themselves sitting around waiting for extended periods playing games. (For examples, teens who can't yet drive waiting for a ride.)
I'm eager to see the next step: we can now receive TV, and we can now transmit pictures. I'm waiting for the phone that has a built-in camera on the side of the phone you put to your face, so you can hold it at arms length and have a real-time videoconference with someone. It would take a good deal of bandwidth, but it'd be pretty neat to be able to have a videoconference with anyone you could talk to on a cell phone.
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suwain_2
Uh, define "narrow slice of history". You would be more accurate to say that the nomadic way of life is a phase that a given society goes through until they discover that agriculture surpasses hunting and gathering as a way of sustaining a population. Once that occurs, then villages form, then cities. When a people realize that the land yields sustenance and wealth, some form of property rights take hold. Mostly those rights favor some kind of Big Man or hierarchy over the people who actually work the land, but the rules serve to tie the people to the land even more. As the better fed people of the agricultural society expand, they crowd out the nomads and push that way of life into history. You can see this happening right now, in certain parts of Africa, as the last of the nomadic tribes are supplanted by urban dwellers and farm workers.
What would the battery life be on such a device. My cell phone (A Motorola v60g BTW) only JUST makes it through a single day on one battery at full charge, and that's for a black-and-white screen that's off half the time (when the phone is flipped closed). And I don't even talk on my phone too too much. For an often-on, long-viewing, satellite-receiving, full colour video phone, I can't imagine the battery life would even border on "acceptable".
As a side note: I'm assuimg this phone has the typical 2" (max) screen. That's an awfully small screen to watch TV on. I wonder if there's really a demand for this (after all, one of the reasons Steve Jobs says there's no video iPods is because nobody wants to watch TV on a screen that small-a statement I would tend to concur with).
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein