Japan: USB stick to watch TV on iPhone!

MobileCrunch has picked up an interesting story from AV Watch – who themselves have spotted a USB tuner that plugs in to your TV, and then streams out 1-Seg (that’s a Japanese TV standard) formatted TV that your iPhone/iPod Touch can pick up via an App running over WiFi. Nice.

The iPhone has been at somewhat of a disadvantage for a time, because unlike a lot of other phones in Japan, it can’t natively pick up a TV signal – Japan is one of the places where Mobile TV has worked (but there are a number of specific reasons for that….), so this little bit of kit solves an issue for people who need their TV fix.

The USB device is called the SEG Clip, and is sold by I-O data (check it here, image from that source also BTW) – it follows a previous device that was more of a standalone unit from Softbank (OTCPK: SFTBF) Mobile – that one was it’s own receiver, transmitted the data by WiFi, but also double as an extra battery if you plugged it in to an iPhone.

Personally I think the addition of the portable battery function is an extremely valid – in fact, I’d even considering buying one to keep my iPhone juiced when I’m out and about! If I had to add TV to that, I wouldn’t be complaining

[Via: MobileCrunch via: AV Watch]