“Addressing a widely-publicized feature omission for Japanese iPhone users, local carrier Softbank on Thursday announced plans to begin selling a TV Tuner add-on later this year that will also serve as an extended battery pack,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider.
“Expected to retail for around US$100 when it goes on sale in mid-December, the rechargeable brick-like receiver will include an internal Wi-Fi module and external antenna for tuning into the One-Seg (or 1seg) mobile terrestrial broadcasting service available in Japan and parts of Brazil,” Oliver reports.
“The device will deliver the One-Seg signal to iPhones via Wi-Fi through a specialized application that will be made available on the App Store free of charge. This frees users to place the receiver in their purse or pocket. Alternatively, the gadget can be connected to iPhones via the dock connector, where it can then serve as an secondary iPhone battery,” Oliver reports.
Full article here.
On Wednesday, Japan’s Softbank said “its operating profit for the second quarter reached a record high on cost cuts as the iPhone pulled in more mobile phone subscribers,” AFP reports.
“The company’s mobile phone carrier Softbank Mobile benefited from the July launch in Japan of Apple Computer’s iPhone 3G, allowing Softbank to attract more customers than its rivals NTT DoCoMo and KDDI’s ‘au'” service,” AFP reports.
AFP reports, “Softbank president Masayoshi Son, one of Japan’s richest people, said he used an iPhone every day. ‘It’s useful, and the more I use it the better I can understand its strong points,’ he told a news conference.”
Full article here.
We need that to come to America, I’d buy one !!!!!!!
Tuner looks like the iPhone Nano
Sweet, First time being FIRST !!!!!!!!!
“…the rechargeable brick-like receiver…”
Hmmmm, where have I heard that word (BRICK) before?
Oh wait, I only have a first gen iphone. S#%T !!!!!!!!!!
“We need that to come to America, I’d buy one !!!!!!!”
@EBster
wouldn’t do you much good in America, there’s no ISDB-T broadcast you’d be able to pick up! would still work as an expensive external battery however
According to the SDK rules, you’re not allowed to tap into the dock connector.
So, either this is a violation of terms, or the terms are loosening up.
Also, I’d like to add:
I’d love to see a dock add-on that contains the buttons for a game controller! Imagine a small game pad, that plugs into the iPhone. It would give novelty iPhone emulators a real lease on life.
I currently have the NES emulator on my jailbroken iPhone, but it’s not as useful as a real game system, as it is a means to show off my iPhone. VIrtual buttons can only take you so far.
I guess you’d have to be a TV freak or Japanese to have a need for a 1seg tuner. I’ve lived here (in Japan) for 6 years. To me Japanese TV sucks. It’s full of show about people travelling and eating food wildly exclaiming “YUMMY”, people travelling to beautiful locations and weeping at the beauty. And from what I read (yes, no personal experience) the reception isn’t dependable or always acceptable.
Put me down as not planning to buy this gadget.
I believe the dock connector is only used to supply power to the iPhone, ie acting as an ext battery for it. the TV signals are transmitted via Wi-Fi, not the dock.
It’s not tapping into the Dock connector. The Dock connection is for adding battery life to your iPhone. The Brick itself communicates with the iPhone over wifi.
i just saw an ad in the subway station for that very same thing…i didn’t pay attention to it much. huge posters all over the Herald Square Station. Could it be that they are releasing it in the US too?
A serious case of “convergence”
@Scott in Japan – One wonders about the narrowness and homogeneousness of Japanese TV programming, until one sees parallels in other fields in the country. Sucks indeed.
Much preferable to the stuff that Hollywood puts out these days.
Crime Drama focusing on Violence
Reality Show focusing on Sex
America’s Top Whatever focusing on Sex
Gameshow focusing on greed.
Japanese TV is (for the time being) actually clean to watch and isn’t filled with inane reality shows. You can’t turn on TV these days after 10.
Finally, a 3G iPhone arriving at a 3G party, rather late, and not even fully dressed at that. It has got the interface of the future but the features from the Victorian times compared to Japanese mobiles.
Vodafone didn’t get it, Nokia still don’t get it and you would have thought that Apple would have done better market research for Japan. Carrying the Apple flag is not a compelling enough reason to switch. For now, domestic mobiles are still ahead.