Watch streaming TV on your iPhone or iPod Touch, anywhere in the world

[ben schmidt]

This is very cool -- or so the folks to whom I've demo'd it, have told me.

I have an Elgato eyetv tuner attached to a mac mini media center. This tuner, the size of a thumb-drive, is readily available from a number of suppliers, including Apple VAR, and Mugoo Technical Adviser, LeRoy Lees, from whom I bought mine. It can be attached to a standard cable tv coaxial cable.



Last week Elgato released a $5 iPhone app, EyeTV iPhone. It allows you, from an iPhone or iPod Touch, to have your computer switch channels on your EyeTV tuner and send the streaming TV stream over the Internet to you. I believe, to be sold on the App Store, Elgato had to disable streaming TV over cell phone carriers' data networks. But as long as your iPhone or iPod touch is on a wireless LAN, you can watch TV. Viewing the streaming TV signal is not limited to your home LAN.  You can watch the streaming TV signal at friend's places, at work places, or at public places -- anywhere where you have access to a wireless LAN. The picture is very sharp, with no stuttering.