| Ablang 2005-10-14, 5:48 am |
| LG's Cell Phone That Can Pause Live TV
Got a call coming in? Don't miss a second of the Simpsons.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
ILSAN, SOUTH KOREA--A cell phone that can receive satellite TV
programs and "pause" them--just like a living-room digital video
recorder--when the user needs to take a phone call has just been
announced by LG Electronics.
The handset, called the LG-SB130 or KB1300, depending on the carrier
version, was unveiled today at the Korea Electronics Show here in
Ilsan, which is just north of the South Korean capital of Seoul.
Cell phones that can receive satellite TV began appearing in South
Korea earlier this year when TU Media began to offer a service that
beams a handful of video and audio channels to mobile devices from a
satellite that was launched specifically for that purpose. Handsets
from LG, Samsung Electronics, and Pantech are available for the
subscription service, but the TiVo-like ability to pause broadcasts
while you take a phone call is new.
How It Works
In a demonstration here, the phone was shown tuned into a satellite TV
program. When a call was received, a message appeared on screen
offering the user the option to pause the program and take the call.
When the option was accepted, the phone immediately began recording
the TV broadcast to its internal memory and freezing the image on the
screen. When the call was done, the phone began showing the recorded
program from the moment it was paused but still continued to record
the program in its memory. In such a way, users have the illusion that
they have paused a live broadcast.
The phone packs 80MB of internal memory and can record up to an hour
of programming, said Lee Chang Kyu, an LG Electronics representative
at the show.
Specs
Other features of the phone include a QVGA resolution (240 by 320
pixels) 2.2-inch TFT (thin film transistor) screen, an MP3 player, and
TV output. It's designed for South Korea's CDMA (Code Division
Multiple Access) networks and versions won't be available outside of
the country largely because the TU Media satellite signal has only
domestic coverage.
LG hasn't decided on a price for the handset but Lee estimated it
would cost around $700 and be available later this year.
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