Two weeks ago I reported on a new cell phone by NEC that included a DTV tuner in the cell phone. This week analog TV tuners appeared in a new Samsung cell phone and in a multimedia laptop from Toshiba.
The Samsung MITS 400 offers mobile phone, handheld computer, camera, camcorder, navigator, MP3 player, 2-way radio and yes, TV receiver functions. The "phone" has a 3.5" LCD display and 128MB of memory, expandable to 512MB. According to the Samsung Press Release, "the built-in TV tuner allows users to view regular TV channels (KBS, MBC, SBS and EBS in Korea) free of charge." The device also allows TV images to be recorder. The combination digital camera/camcorder has a 300,000-pixel sensor. Pictures of the unit are available in an article by Jørgen Sundgot, in Infosync World.
Toshiba's Satellite P25-S607 notebook computer has a 17" screen and uses Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition. The large notebook includes a DVD recorder and has the ability to record TV shows. Neither the Toshiba Press Release nor the product description had much detail on the tuner. More information is available on the Toshiba Computer Systems web site (click on the "News" link). Specification and features of the Toshiba Satellite line of notebooks can be found here.
Slashdot reported on a recent study showing Youth spend more time on web than TV. Perhaps these two devices will allow TV to get some more screen time!
