Do We Need Separate TiVo-like Tech In Our Phones?

from the why-separate-it-out? dept

Texas Instruments is getting some press coverage for demoing "TiVo-like" features in a mobile phone, though they say the technology itself won't be available until next year. What's odd about this, however, is that it's not clear that we really need separate technology for this. If you can just use any media player on a phone, why not download the content to your phone, rather than "recording" it? Even more to the point, why not just use technology like Sling Media or Orb that lets you actually access your home TiVo or other PVR via your mobile phone? Then you get the same functionality, without having to pay for expensive additional tech in your phone. Also, it also makes it much easier to keep track of what shows you have recorded and watched, rather than separating the content out. This seems like another case of adding a technology to a mobile phone just because it can be, not because it's necessary and not because it adds any real additional functionality.
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  • identicon
    Brad, 7 Sep 2006 @ 11:19pm

    Tivo useful?

    What if you were able to skip back in a conversation a few seconds, rather than shouting "what?" into the phone.

    That'd be sweet. Or if you're getting an earful from a drunk ex, you can just pause, then skip to the end when it's done.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      alex, 8 Sep 2006 @ 8:58am

      Re: Tivo useful?

      they made that movie, it had Adam Sandler in it, and it was about as good as the Tx. Instruments idea.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    claire rand, 8 Sep 2006 @ 1:14am

    this call may be recorded... later

    or better still, wait till the calls over, *then* decide to 'record' it.. can see call centers hating that, it's something i'd pay for though.

    especially if it was easy to 'play back' recorded content while in another call, or that call. e.g. play back to a company what one of thier reps promised when they "have no record of that" etc.

    could be useful, but i'll bet it won't do this.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    oops, 8 Sep 2006 @ 3:45am

    disconnect

    The title of this piece is about adding tivo like features to a phone. I thought (from the title) that it might be interesting to rewind and record calls. For some reasone the article itself is about playing tivo content on a cell... one of the two (title or content) needs to change...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      oops, 8 Sep 2006 @ 3:50am

      Re: disconnect

      never mind Mike, I just followed the link and read the info world article... I think the user generated idea of recording calls would fly farther than what they are trying to do.. Of course I make fun of people what have to be at their house to take a phone call (noncells).. in 10 years people might think it is odd to have to go home to watch tv too..

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Republican Gun, 8 Sep 2006 @ 4:15am

    Dictaphone not Tivo

    Dictaphone has had this technology for years in major call centers and dispatch centers. Using the term Tivo-like is a bad as calling a website a blog. Just a stuped term so the masses will understand.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    me, 8 Sep 2006 @ 6:06am

    TV on a phone?

    How exciting! You get to watch an animated postage stamp. Why on Earth would I want to watch NDTV (that's no definition TV) and pay a small fortune for the privilege?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    GitErDone, 8 Sep 2006 @ 6:56am

    Recording calls from cellphones

    Software that records calls on todays phones: search for "Spy Call", "Call Recorder" for Symbian

    "Digital Recording Card" is a calling card that routes calls thru a service's switch and records calls in encrypted format, which is emailed to you.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jeff, 8 Sep 2006 @ 8:05am

    No

    No, we don't need this technology in our phones.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jeff, 8 Sep 2006 @ 8:05am

    No

    No, we don't need this technology in our phones.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ELS, 8 Sep 2006 @ 8:10am

    There are laws that vary by state about recording telephone calls.

    http://www.pimall.com/nais/n.recordlaw.html

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lay Person, 8 Sep 2006 @ 9:35am

    I need a job...

    I need a job where I can decide for a major company what ideas are good and which are bad.

    How does it happen that so many companies create so much useless stuff. What's worse is that, inevitably, soemone always ends up buying this shit.

    Does anyone know what the title is for such a position? I'm dead serious. I, for the most part, can see where consumers needs are headed and I rarely see companies satisfy them properly.

    I'm not talking about product development or design. I;m talking about walking into a meeting with all the top brass, I tell them this is what consumers need, they accept it and proceed to design, develop, produce.

    Anyone have the slightest idea?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Paul, 8 Sep 2006 @ 10:41am

    The Article Misses the Point Like Michael Bay Miss

    Broadcast TV is coming to cell phones, and this is a good thing. All of the viable scenarios for a widely-used launch for mobile TV use a separate spectrum allocation from the voice/data to broadcast higher quality video to the user.

    Just like TiVo services enhance your home broadcast TV experience, mobile broadcast TV will be enhanced in the same ways. Imagine watching a broadcast of a football game and receiving a call. Do you want to have to choose between watching the next play and answering your call, or would you rather answer your call, record the play and continue watching when you're done with the call? Mobility issues like these have already been thought through on portable gaming consoles. It's rare to see a game that can't be paused and resumed at whim, because nobody's going to want to put energy into something that may be interrupted and can't be resumed at whim. In a broadcast TV scenario, TiVo is the "save-anytime" analog.

    Perhaps what Mike really wants to know is, why separate out a broadcast mobile TV area when we have a viable set of terrestrial broadcast solutions and (apparently) gobs of wireless bandwidth to stream all our individual programs to our phones over it? Assuming we had enough wireless bandwidth for that solution to scale, why do we need even a terrestrial broadcast solution? If fibers have more bandwidth than RF, why do we even need broadcast? Why can't we have all media be on-demand downloaded from central content servers?

    Maybe some day we'll have enough bandwidth to scale this solution, but that's not now, probably not any time soon, and definitely not in the wireless world. While we're waiting for the limitless supply of bandwidth, TiVo features will enhance the user experience for broadcast TV.

    Full disclosure statement: I work for a competing company to TI that is developing the same type of product.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 8 Sep 2006 @ 10:51am

      Re: The Article Misses the Point Like Michael Bay

      HAHAHAHA.

      I would disagree with that. I think its absolutely absurd to think that broadcast tv will ever hit phones. Therefore a tivo for phones is useless and a waste of money.

      Now, there are perfectly good sources of video that may come to your phone, but most of those are streamed, not broadcast. there is a HUGE difference there as a stream can already be replayed and rewound.

      Tivo for cells would be useful for video conferencing. but I would still rather that get recorded on some other device. I dont need a hdd built into my phone so I can later take the video off and archive it on my desktop.

      broadcast tv on phones... haahhahahahaahha

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Scott, 8 Sep 2006 @ 10:58am

    Already in Japan

    People have been watching broadcast tv on their cell phone in japan for years.. and now it is all digital and they can record hours of it tivo-style.

    I think it's great... do we REALLY need it?
    well you can ask that question for just about anything.

    But I would be happy to buy it. I travel a lot.. it would be a good way to pass time in the airport. And I refuse to buy a video ipod. I prefer all my devices combined into a phone/pda I don't have pocket room for a seperate device for each function

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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