CTIA 2007: Vista TV with Windows Mobile Remote Control

Wednesday March 28, 2007

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Cell Phones & Services, HDTV & Home Theater Systems

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Welcome to Bill Gates' dream world: a Windows Vista TV with a Windows Mobile 6 remote control. That's i-Mate's vision here at CTIA, where they're showing off their XStream, a line of 37", 46" and 60" LCD TVs with full-fledged Windows Vista PCs built into them. The idea behind these $2500+ devices is to streamline the living-room PC by eliminating cable connections to TVs, and the associated loss of quality. They're working on CableLabs certification so they can get a CableCard in there; they're also looking at integrating an HD-DVD player and bringing the existing 720p resolution sets up to 1080p for the ultimate (Vista Ultimate?) media experience. Mad BitTorrenters should probably be thrilled by this: now you can download your HD XVID files and immediately play them on your living-room "TV." The XStream is destined to come out by the end of the year, i-Mate says.

Along with the XStream, i-Mate was showing Windows Vista SideShow running on several of their Windows Mobile PDA/phones, including both the upcoming Ultimate line and the existing JAQ4 and PDA-L. If you're within Wi-Fi or Bluetooth range of your Vista PC, you'll be able to use your PDA/phone to browse or stream content from your PC, view documents and manipulate the PC's media player. I'm surprised I haven't seen more SideShow action from other vendors, because it's a neat trick that gives your PDA/phone another thing to do when it's at home. The SideShow software will come this summer as an upgrade for the JAQ4 and PDA-L, i-Mate said.

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Posted By: Sascha Segan

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