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Recently dubbed the Telly, this pillbox size TV tuner by PacketVideo (PV), may soon be distributed and sold in carrier stores. PV is already known for small display technology through its parent company, NextWave Wireless, Inc. and foresaw this day in handset display capability over ten years ago. So back when we were just staring at text screens, NextWave was working in labs with Japanese manufacturers such as NTT DoCoMo and everyone literally thought they were crazy to believe the tiny phone or PDA screen had potential.
PV raised eyebrows however, when at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress this year they announced the availability of a pocketable mobile broadcast receiver. According to their press release, the tiny tuner turns WiFi-enabled phones and personal media players into mobile TVs.
When I saw the Telly in Vegas at a press event last April, I was impressed with its portability in two ways: First its size is perfectly suited for taking anywhere, and second that it will turn any wifi-enabled video playback appliance into a television. WiFi-enabled video playback screens are, in my opinion, a use of current technology that is barely being tapped. (The digital picture frame is one such use, but hardly mainstream at around $100 MSRP, unless it could be combined with a streaming delivery mechanism such as a TV tuner.) For now, the Telly appears to be the first device that allows for broadcast TV services to be as portable as say satellite radio is today. But this tiny tuner isn’t the only thing that has made PacketVideo an up and comer in the future of the handset.
PacketVideo is part of a larger consortium that is enabling mobile devices to breakout of carrier confines. The company’s contribution as founding members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) was to bring the multimedia component to Android.
Android is a Linux-based mobile platform architecture built by Google developers and came into being so that the world’s community of software developers could bring mobile devices to a whole new level. PacketVideo built Android’s Media Subsystem and called it OpenCORE, which provides essential media features for device development. Including the software that enables playing and streaming standard formats, communication, and the ability to record images and video. PV’s OpenCORE on the Android enables developers to build devices that support music applications, video creation and playback, video telephony, podcast services, and real-time streaming.
Last November, Google initiated a developers’ challenge. Along with a release of the SDK (software developer’s kit) and 10 Million dollars worth of reward incentives designed to encourage developers to create projects for the Android, Google challenged imaginations of students from MIT and corporations alike to dream of what they want a handset to be able to do. Over 1,700 projects were entered from around the world and 46 of those projects were recently announced as the winners of the first round of Google Android Developer’s Challenge. (To see a list of these winners and the projects they proposed, simply google “Andoroid Developers Challenge winners”.)
However, as open as Google is being about the challenge, progress on Android is maintaining hushed tones and there is limited information about the current status of this effort to eventually bring Android to market. But that is not inconsistent with many of Google’s best products. There are some mixed reports about the breakout handset on the horizon, however, PacketVideo has already made inroads within the carrier model as it stands today.
PV is the supplier of multimedia software that enables such services as Verizon Wireless’ VCAST music and video services, NTT DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA service and Orange’s Orange World service. Its software is in more than 200 million devices worldwide, spanning more than 200 different models. For those cellular devices that are not equipped with embedded delivery options, the Telly tuner will work as an accessory.
Ph.D and CEO, James Brailean believes that consumer adoption of mobile broadcast services will be greatly increased by the removal of barriers such as upgrading. He makes his case to carriers in a quote, “It’s our mission as a multimedia software innovator to discover new ways to help our operator customers deploy services faster, with the best possible user experience and minimal disruption to their existing network. PV’s mobile broadcast receiver device does that.”
The Telly is a “white-label” product, meaning that like Novatel wireless modems get branded by the carriers, the Telly also provides the same option. The mobile broadcast receiver measures 6.4 cm wide by 1.8 cm high x 4 cm deep and will be available later this year.