Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

What The Future Holds, a column that introduces tomorrow technology and trends today, is written every Thursday. This week’s submission was written jointly by Adam Berger and Mickey Katz.

It happens every four years and it’s bigger then your anniversary, kids birthday, and even your worth missing the next month of work. Yeah so what you’ll get fired, lose your wife and your kids will disown you but at least you wont miss Ronaldo, Zidane, or Ronaldinho. Ladies and gentlemen the 2006 World Cup used to be an excuse to miss out on all of the real important things in life. Alas, call your kids take your wife out and show up to work on Monday in your finest suit, because thanks to Texas Instruments, your mobile phone and your cellphone provider you can watch every goal on your personal devices.

Prior to Pepcom’s Digital Experience we had the opportunity to sit down with Yoram Solomon, James Hymel, and Tracy Wright from Texas Instruments. They were showcasing DVB-H (digital video broadcast for handheld devices), the next wave of video content delivered directly to your cellphone, Smartphone, or other mobile device. The DVB-H chip is much smaller than a dime and (in my non-technical opinion) can easily fit onto the circuit board of most current handsets. The cost of the component is a mere $10 (or less in large quantities). The chip enables the delivery of video broadcasts, audio broadcasts (Sirius and XM), terrestrial radio, and data (i.e. a channel program guide, much like your home TV).

Read on to learn how this technology is different than current cellphone video offerings, what effect it will have on your battery life, and why you need it.

You may ask what makes this different than Verizon’s V-Cast or another cellphone video service? Broadcasting reduces the costs to the customer as well as to the provider and is available for all phones (mid to high level phones or 60% of available handsets).

I know, “This won’t work because my phone battery already dies on me, and now I’m adding video,” not true. The video or audio broadcast itself will not decrease your battery life, the LCD backlight is the real culprit. So whether you are watching streaming video or downloaded clips the battery faces the same issue. Though the Nokia N92 currently can deliver > 4 hour of battery while running constant video. And the audio? Well that does not change; if the speaker is on or if a Bluetooth headset is connected it uses the same power consumption.

The key is for the video broadcast to be on the same schedule as your home TV, so you can go from the couch, to the car, to the bleachers, and back to your home all on the same channel and program. Additionally, by around 2010 with the increase of memory on phones, you now have a mobile TiVo allowing you to view live content, record content, remotely set programs to record, and watch video recorded on your home DVR on your phone.

Don’t miss your American wannabe turn into the next American Idol because of Dinner plans, or don’t miss pinning the tail on the donkey at your kids’ party because you’re checking the stocks on CNN money. As the saying goes your free as the wind blows just as long as you’ve got one of tech’s next best gets later this year in select cities and nationwide in 2007.