From...

January 7, 2000
Web posted at: 3:18 p.m. EST (2018 GMT)

by Paul Heltzel

LAS VEGAS (IDG) -- You can get e-mail from a cell phone and check stock quotes from a Palm. Why not receive Webcasts from a wireless device?

On demo at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Tranz-Send MediaMan is a handheld that lets you take Webcasts on the road.

According to Scott Redmond, chief executive officer of Tranz-Send, the 3-inch monitor displays 320 by 240 pixels and resembles the display on a camcorder. The device also connects to a TV for large-screen playback.

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"You'll watch live news feeds, video e-mail, trailers, sports highlights, music videos," Redmond says. "We expect people to watch no more than 15 minutes of video." The device can receive streaming video or store 12 minutes of video locally for watching later.

Redmond says the device will be produced by an undisclosed manufacturer (talks are currently under way to secure the vendor). Details on delivery are also vague, but Redmond says the device should be available by next Christmas.

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The MediaMan ($350) is a self-contained handheld that includes a wireless modem. Tranz-Send also will offer the MediaPocket ($250), which connects to the Internet by cell phone, and can receive data from radio and TV broadcast subcarrier frequencies. Both MediaPocket and MediaMan come with a small, clip-on camera for capturing still and motion video.

Broadcasts must be specially compressed and encoded to be broadcast. Viewers tune in by opening a Web address.

"It works like a browser," Redmond says. "In our world, TV channels are URLs. You just need to know how to program HTML and you're broadcasting."