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Softbank’s One-Seg iPhone TV tuner handled

By: , IntoMobile
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 6:19 PM

Softbank recently announced their 1-Seg TV tuner/battery pack add-on for Japanese iPhone 3GS. The Japanese iPhone 3G was criticized for its lack of an integrated TV tuner, and the One-Seg TV tuner accessory was to be Softbank’s answer. The external TV tuner connects to the iPhone 3G over WiFi, streaming the TV stream to the iPhone 3G.

The Softbank One-Seg TV tuner was recently released to the TV-consumer public. That is, as long as you’re a Softbank subscriber. We’re not going to see this particular iPhone 3G accessory make the jump to

Thankfully, the lucky folks over at DVICE were good enough to post hands-on pictures and first impressions of the 1-Seg TV tuner. The device is sleekly styled (like the iPhone 3G itself), lightweight, and streams crystal clear TV to the iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, there’s the issue of power drain. Even with the integrated battery pack, you’re only going to get about an hour’s worth of TV viewing before your iPhone 3G starts complaining about low battery charge.

If you’re planning on moving to Japan anytime soon, the 1-Seg TV tuner might be a worthy investment. otherwise, you can just keep dreaming about getting terrestrial TV on your iPhone 3G.

Check out the rest of the pictures over at DVICE.

[Via: DVICE]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...