Hurdles for digital TV's global reach
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Conditions in developing nations could hamper the spread of digital TV, a broadcast conference is told.
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Bill Gates predicts a future for the entertainment industry in which traditional broadcast television is rendered irrelevant. It's a positive vision, however, because new and better business models made possible by technology are emerging.
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Personal TV Channel system is making its debut at IFA consumer electronics show.
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NEW YORK -- TV's big switch from analog to digital broadcasts will be complete in just one year, on Feb. 17, 2009, and many consumers are puzzling over how the shift will affect them: Do they need a new converter box, a new TV, a better antenna? But it's pretty clear which business interests stand...
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TV's big switch from analog to digital broadcasts will be complete in just one year, on Feb. 17, 2009, and many consumers are puzzling over how the shift will affect them: Do they need a new converter box, a new TV, a better antenna? But it's pretty clear which business interests stand to gain.
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By Nolan, Hamilton  ANALYSIS  NEW TV NEWS networks with truly global designs don't get launched too often. They're hugely expensive to staff and operate, and their success involves negotiating with cable carriers in different countries with different audiences and different agendas.
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New technologies wirelessly transmit high-definition video.
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A chipset allowing users to send HD video wirelessly throughout the home faces hurdles due to competing technology standards.
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NEW YORK -- Flat-panel TVs look lovely on a wall _ the cords hanging from them, less so. After a few years of false starts, the industry finally seems close to tackling that problem. At least three dueling wireless technologies for high-definition TVs will be on display at the Consumer Electronics...
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Broadcasters have spent billions on the technology--but is free over-the-air digital TV a viable alternative to cable and satellite?
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Asia is set to overtake Europe's early lead in adopting mobile television broadcasting.
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A coalition of big technology companies wants to bring high-speed Internet access to consumers in a new way: over television airwaves. Key to the project is whether a device scheduled to be delivered to federal labs today lives up to its promise.
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An entirely new generation of digital TVs is being produced now, but manufacturers are using ingenuity and wherewithal to try to distinguish their products from each other's in unique ways.
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The file-sharing company swallows up one of its rivals in a bid to ease distribution of video and movies to cable boxes and mobile devices. Can the digital dream of peer-to-peer television become a reality? Analysis by Scott Gilbertson.
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Turn on, tune in, turn off again 3GSM It's not just the slow uptake of video services that should worry network operators, it seems that more than half of European users who've tried TV on the move decided it wasn't worth the effort.â¦
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Nielsen Media Research has  estimated that more than 13 million U.S. households are  ill-prepared for the digital TV conversion next year.
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Just a few years ago, Japan&#39;s lead in all things digital was easy to see. Japanese consumers could buy new domestic gadgets from companies like Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic, often a year or two before they hit the market in other countries. But now things have changed. With gadgets increasingly coming out at the same time around the world, it&#39;s no longer the hardware that makes something cool, but what you can do with it.[Note: To see some of the technology and services described here in action, watch PC World&#39;s video,&#160;&quot; Made in Japan: Future Tech Today.&quot;]Mobile Digital TVTake OneSeg, Japan&#39;s mobile digital TV system. The entire electronics industry, TV broadcasters, and the government all agreed on a single broadcasting standard,&#160;eliminating the technical competition that&#39;s holding back such services in the United States&#160;and Europe.The result is a popular service that features all the regular terrestrial channels at no cost. Already, 14 million cell phones with the service have been sold, and the sight of people watching TV is becoming more common on trains and in cafes across Japan.The latest phones also allow you to record TV shows. And if you&#39;re in a public space but forgot to bring your headphones, it&#39;s no problem. A couple of button presses brings up the subtitles so you can enjoy the show with the volume turned down.&#160;In addition,&#160;a companion data service provides information about the current show, promotions from the broadcaster, and, often, a link to the TV station&#39;s mobile Internet home page.Mobile Wallet ServiceSomething else that&#39;s popular in cell phones these days is the &quot;Osaifu keitai,&quot; the mobile wallet service. Phones have smart cards embedded inside, and&#160;these cards let you&#160;add applications like electronic money, your commuter pass, an airline mileage card, or a credit card just by downloading some software.The strength of&#160;Japan&#39;s mobile wallet&#160;system is that the industry has settled on a single smart card, Sony&#39;s Felica. Once a person&#39;s phone has this hardware, he or she can add more functionality with software.NTT DoCoMo, Japan&#39;s largest cellular carrier, gives all its customers an electronic credit card application called DCMX Mini. It has a 10,000-yen ($94) credit limit, and charges appear on the phone bill. Big spenders can apply for more credit and use it just like a regular credit card. All you have to do is bring your phone within an inch of the reader, and the transaction can be completed.Electronic money--something that was tried many times but failed during the dot-com bubble--is now becoming very popular, thanks to &quot;Osaifu keitai.&quot;Of the electronic money systems in Japan, Edy from BitWallet is the market leader, accepted in more than 71,000 convenience stores, bookshops, and coffee chains&#160;as well as at&#160;vending machines. More than 37 million cards and cell phones&#160;that support Edy are on the market, and the network handles close to a million transactions per day on average.Connected CarsIn Japan, car navigation systems have been a must-have accessory in&#160;automobiles for years. Streets in cities like Tokyo often don&#39;t have names, so a navigation system can really save you time. But the latest systems, offered by companies like Nissan, come with something extra.Hook your navigation system to your cell phone, and you have a connection through which you can get the latest road and traffic data. The navigation system already knows where the nearest gas station is, but with the network link, it can also tell you where the cheapest&#160;station is, thanks to daily updates on&#160;gas prices.When you&#39;re driving, the phone can connect you to an operator who&#160;will help you on your journey and even remotely reprogram your navigation system so that you never have to take your hands off the wheel.About 10 percent of streets are covered with sensors that provide information on traffic. Nissan is experimenting with a new service that collects data about the roads you&#39;ve driven and the speeds you&#39;ve achieved, and feeds it to a central computer that adds the information&#160;to the traffic database for a more complete picture of jams.High-tech is also being employed in car safety systems like the Round View Monitor. The video from four cameras around the vehicle is processed and brought together into a single image so that you get the illusion of seeing your car from above. It makes backing into tight spaces really easy and is a big-step beyond the single cameras now found on some large cars&#160;and trucks.Warning of the Big OneOne area that&#39;s taken very seriously by people in Japan is earthquakes and disaster prevention. The problem is&#160;you never know when a quake could strike, right? Well, not necessarily.A new warning system has just gone into operation that seeks to quickly detect the weak but fast-moving primary waves from a quake and use them to estimate when the slower-moving but destructive secondary waves will hit.The system won&#39;t help people living at the epicenter of an earthquake, since both kinds of waves arrive virtually simultaneously. But in the event of a major quake, warnings of anywhere from a few seconds to up to a minute can be supplied almost instantaneously.That&#39;s enough time to halt trains and&#160;bring factory equipment to an emergency stop, and for homeowners to switch off the gas. Most deaths in the Kobe quake of 1995 were from fires that started after the quake, so preventing flameups is important.RobotsNo discussion of cool tech in Japan would be complete without robots. Japanese researchers are leading the world in robot technology, and humanoid bots like Honda&#39;s Asimo are especially impressive.The latest version of Asimo can serve drinks on a tray and has gained the ability to work intelligently with other Asimo robots in the vicinity to get jobs done faster. Two of the robots have spent most of January working at Honda&#39;s Tokyo offices, bringing tea or coffee to guests--and almost certainly entertaining the visitors at the same time.Rival car-maker Toyota has a clutch of robots, including one unveiled in December that plays the violin. (It follows a trumpet-playing robot created&#160; a year earlier, so perhaps a robot orchestra is in the making?) The company also has Robina, which is intended to serve as a guide in a public space. Toyota put it into use last year at a public hall in Japan and expects robots like Robina will be commercially realistic in the middle of the next decade.Taking on a much more serious role is Twendy One, a home-help robot developed by Tokyo&#39;s Waseda University. It can do many of the basic tasks that a frail person may need help with, such as&#160;assisting people out of bed and serving up toast and drinks.The robot is still under development but could have a bright future. Japan&#39;s population is aging fast--already, 22 percent of people are over 65--and the birth rate is slowing. That likely means a future shortage of workers. It&#39;s one of the reasons money is being poured into robot technology in this already technology-saturated nation.