TI and RealNetworks Work on Mobile Internet Media

Why are wireless phone PDA apps more popular in Japan and other countries than they are in the States? Primarily, it's because we U.S. residents have to pay for our access time by the minute, which makes us reluctant to use those precious minutes even to download new ringtones, let alone play games via wireless or use our cell phones to download music at 14.4 speeds. That doesn't keep the rest of the world from marching on to work on better and more amusing wireless apps and Texas Instruments, along with RealNetworks just let us know that RealPlayer Mobile will be optimized for TI's OMAP platform for mobile handsets and made available to wireless service operators and mobile telephone handset manufacturers. In January, RealNetworks and TI announced the integration of RealAudio and RealVideo codecs for TI's DA250 processor and the OMAP platform. Now, the companies have expanded their relationship to now include RealNetworks' RealPlayer Mobile with TI's OMAP710 and OMAP1510 processors. TI and RealNetworks say that the collaboration will let wireless service operators and handset manufacturers let customers watch breaking news, entertainment, and sports highlights, listen to music and watch movie trailers through RealPlayer Mobile. Yeah, right. I'll use up my 300 anytime minutes a month downloading video. Those of you who have access to other types of wireless payment systems, fee free to gloat.