Texas Instruments Hopes to Bring Hi-Def to Cell Phones

Texas Instruments is reportedly on track with its release of the third-generation OMAP processor; OMAP 3, as it’s also known, will allow cell phones running the chip to display high-definition video and take photos at 12 megapixel resolution (or four 3-megapixel shots in burst mode!). That means high-definition video — that’s 720 by 1,368-pixel resolution at the high end — is on the way for U.S. cell phone consumers.

OMAP 3 phones should be hitting the market in 2008, according to Texas Instruments spokesperson Avner Goren.

OMAP 3 chips will further blur the distinction between cell phone and laptop computer because super-high speeds will allow users to easily zoom and rotate files, manipulate graphic content, transfer large files at USB2.0 speeds, and perform other calculation-heavy functions that we currently save for our computers.

(TI has also been reported to be working on a projector for a cell phone capable of displaying high-definition movies onto a flat surface, so you can share hi-def video with friends over a tub of popcorn. So long as it’s never any pirated movies from the Internet, of course.)