I won’t let the fact that I can’t read a lick of Japanese stop me from telling you about IO-DATA’s new Mac TV. This neat looking white square is a USB 2.0 TV tuner for your Mac. The news release doesn’t give out too many details (Google Translate conquerors all) but I can tell you that this tuner will enable your Mac to grab over the air digital channels and watch them from the comfort of your Mac (if you’re in Japan, that is—if not…have you considered moving?).
We can glean from the press release that you will be able to control your Mac TV using your Apple Remote, which is cool. Sadly, a clear screenshot of the UI isn’t on display, but judging from the tiny picture it looks pretty… transparent (which may or may not be a good thing).
There aren’t many details about the Mac TV yet, but I just love writing about cool new devices from Japan (don’t you love reading about them?).
[via krunker.com]
um, we have elgato for this already in the states. It's smaller and records as well.
Sounds very similar to EyeTV from Elgato. I love EyeTV, and you can read the instructions in English. :)
http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/home.en.html
They might want to consider a name change. Mac TV probably has Apple's lawyers seeing red.
Seriously, apart from the looks I can't see this offering me anything I can't get from my EyeTV; of course, it's possible that EyeTV doesn't work in Japan, but I can't believe that.
Digital TV in Japan uses a standard developed by the Japanese and used almost nowhere else. The rest of the world is divided into ATSC or DVB - for each of which EyeTV has offerings.