Softbank Mobile announced the mid-December release of a TV streamer for the iPhone. Unfortunately this is only available in Japan. The device is interesting in the way in works. The tuner receives TV signals then streams the signals to the iPhone over Wifi. In addition, it also doubles as an external battery when connected via the dock connecter. With one full battery charged it can receive and transmit video continuously for 3 hours.

The tuner has a suggested price of $100.

The $149 ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USb offers two TV tuners allowing users to watch and record off-the-air Digital TV/HDTV, unencrypted Digital TV (ClearQAM) cable programming, analog TV, and listen to FM broadcasts.

“No other company offers this exceptional choice of connectivity and configuration in TV tuner PC products,” said Matt Skynner, vice president of marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “Our graphics pedigree is built on long-standing leadership in TV and video on the PC. The ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB and ATI TV Wonder 600 PCI/PCI Express, offered through VisionTek, take the best of our company’s digital TV experience and enable amazing HDTV on PCs today.”

For those who live in areas where the TV air signals are poor or non-existent, the ATI TV Wonderâ„¢ Digital Cable Tuner is the solution to enjoy premium digital cable shows , such as HBO and Showtime, on the PC.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) announced its PlayTV, a combined TV tuner and Personal Video Recorder for PS3. PlayTV will be available in UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain early in 2008, with other PAL territories to follow.

Equipped with two 1080p tuners (for Europe only now), a program guide, it will allow you to store recorded broadcasts on your PS3 drive, and also transcode and transfer the saved files to your PSP.

No word as to when this might be available on this side of the Big Pond.

As a heavy user of my own PVR, I’ve been hankering to convert to a system with CableCARD support. It’s just plain silly to pay the $6.00/month for a cable receiver, and then futz around with the IR blaster (which inevitably gets out of synch right when I’m ready to start recording). No, I’d rather just plug in that CableCARD and let my PVR software do its stuff. So, Dell, your XPS 410 might have just jumped to the top of the list for my upcoming upgrade. The premium’s not even all that much, at $236 per tuner. Most good tuners for for around the same price, anyway.

I just love power, especially when packaged in mobile forms.That goes for cars, motorcycles, and, of course, notebooks. The XtremeNotebook Xtreme 917V (wihch is a bit to type) provides some serious power for a low, low starting price of $2,399. The specs:

• 17-inch display
• Core 2 Quad processor
• dual nVidia Geforce Go 7950 GTX graphics processors
• Up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM
• Multicard reader
• Dual-layer DVD writer (no HD?)
• Up to three 250GB hard drives (four spindles? wow!)
• Optional TV tuner
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Wi-Fi
• Standard ports
• 12-cell batter that still manages only about 60 minutes

Sounds like a monster. Go get one, oh rich ones.