Pocket Watch New Cellphone TV Services Test How Small We're Willing to Go
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Sometimes I wonder whether the guys who dream up new gadgets and techie services have it in for us. Take the cellphone, for example. It's a wonderful tool. A few years back, if someone had told us we would be able to pack a phone, an address book, a half-decent camera, access to email and the Internet, a music player and a video camera into a device the size of a Snickers bar, we would have been excited and skeptical in equal measure.
But a television? How could someone who wants only good things for us think we might want to destroy what is left of our eyesight by squinting at a tiny screen at jerky, barely discernible images and crackly audio on a screen no bigger than a candy wrapper?
Still, that's what they want us to do, so we'd better get ready for it. Indeed, if you live in Japan or South Korea you've already been able to watch the country's main channels on your cellphone for up to a year, and it seems you quite like it. But the rest of the world is a little behind the curve: The first commercial rollout in Europe was in Italy in June, while trials have been launched elsewhere in Asia in places such as Vietnam and Indonesia in recent months.
So what's the appeal? Using a Nokia N92, which folds open like a tiny laptop (or more like a makeup compact, perhaps), I roamed a small spread of central Jakarta where the mobile-phone maker has helped set up a trial network of four local channels. The picture was small but clear, as was the sound, and while you're not going to see very much in direct sunlight, my skepticism melted somewhat. It was a much slicker experience than a bunch of alternatives I tried, including a phone that offered analog TV as well as streaming video on demand. I found myself listening more than watching, with the visuals as a backdrop. The trick perhaps, is to think of mobile TV as halfway between two media: a radio with a face on it, so to speak.
But don't just think cellphones. I tested a cigarette lighter-size widget, one end plugged into my laptop and the other attached to a little antenna, which allowed me to watch digital television -- local channels and international ones like CNN -- on my laptop during recent trips to Singapore and the United Kingdom.
While there are technical and regulatory bumps that have to be overcome, I think something like it will definitely catch on. The success of YouTube, where users upload short video clips for others to watch, and podcasting, where anyone can produce a show of audio or video for anyone to download, indicates we have an appetite for video.
Once we get used to having TV wherever we are, on a screen that fits in our pocket, other similar video services won't be far behind, such as TV programs tailored to the small screen. And, as Junko Yoshida, a news editor for the electronics weekly newspaper EE Times, points out, the mobile-phone industry was surprised to find in one trial that it might not just be about portability, but privacy. "A lot of people loved the 'personal' aspect of mobile TV," she says, "so that they not only watched it in their commute but they even took a mobile TV to their bed to watch."
手机电视挑战传统视听习惯
有时我怀疑发明新装置和新服务的人是否真地在替我们着想。比如手机，它的确是一个相当好的工具。退回几年，如果有人告诉我们，能够将电话、通讯录、差强人意的照相机、能够发送电子邮件和上网、音乐播放器和视频摄像等功能融合到一块巧克力糖大小的装置里，我们一定会既惊奇，又难以置信。
但电视呢？希望为我们提供好装置的人怎么会认为我们愿意在一个同糖纸差不多大小的屏幕上收看模糊不清的图像，收听音质很差的声响呢？
不过，他们就是想让我们如此，所以我们最好对此有所准备。的确，如果你生活在日本或韩国，一年前你就可以在手机上观看国内的主要电视频道，而且可能还非常喜欢这样。但世界其它地区在这方面有些落后：在欧洲，意大利在今年6月份推出了商业性的手机电视服务，而在越南和印度尼西亚等亚洲地区，最近几个月刚开始进行试运行。
它主要的吸引力在哪里呢？使用诺基亚(Nokia)的N92手机（大小像一个微型笔记本电脑，也许更象一个化妆盒），我在雅加达市中心附近的地区尝试了一下，诺基亚在这个地区设了一个能收看4个当地频道的试验网络。图像不大，但很清楚，音质也不错，尽管在阳光直射的情况下看得不是很清楚，但我的怀疑打消了一些。它比我尝试过的提供模拟电视或视频点播的手机等其它方式都更花哨。我发现我自己听的时间比看的时间要多，视频成了摆设。也许应该把手机电视视为介于两种媒体之间的形式：比如，带屏幕的收音机。
但不仅仅是手机。我还测试了一种烟盒大小的装置，一端接到我的笔记本电脑上，另一端连接一个小天线，使我在最近到新加坡和英国旅行时能通过笔记本电脑观看数字电视，包括本地频道和CNN等国际台。
尽管存在技术和监管方面的障碍需要克服，但我认为此类产品流行是迟早的事情。视频共享网站YouTube以及播客（任何人都能制作音频和视频供其他人下载）的成功就说明了我们对视频的喜好。
一旦我们习惯了随时随地通过能装进我们口袋的小屏幕收看电视，其它类似的视频服务也会紧跟潮流，如适合小屏幕的电视节目。正如电子产品周报EE Times的新闻编辑Junko Yoshida所指出的，手机企业在一次试验中惊奇地发现，吸引人的不仅仅是便携性，还有私密性。她说，许多人喜欢手机电视“私人化”的一面，因此他们不仅在上下班途中看，还会躺在床上欣赏。
Jeremy Wagstaff
