Watching TV on your cell phone appears to be a forthcoming popular trend, or at least that's what the technology providers want you to believe. We're not exactly sure how many people would be interested in watching video on a cell phone's tiny screen, but many companies—including Idetic, Microsoft, and Texas Instruments—are focusing on just that. Idetic is offering its MoviTV service in the United States on AT&T Wireless and Sprint PCS cell phone networks. For a small monthly subscription, MoviTV lets users receive TV video highlights from news, sports, and science stations such as MSNBC, Fox Sports, and The Discovery Channel on compatible cell phones. AT&T Wireless' latest smartphone, the Audiovox SMT 5600, ships with Microsoft's new Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, which lets Windows Media Center users download full length recorded TV shows and movies to the device. The feature relies on the availability of sufficient storage memory, which is achievable through the use of miniSD memory cards, and uses a USB connection to the PC for downloading, but it's still fairly simple to use. Texas Instruments announced last week that it plans to bring HDTV to cell phones by as early as 2006. The company is developing a new chip that will enable phones to receive HDTV over the air using traditional TV antenna technology, rather than using cell phone data networks. As with the other solutions, battery life and small screen will certainly be concerns, but if you want to watch TV on your cell phone, the future looks bright. And tiny
