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Thursday, August 21, 2008
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Intel to Bring Yahoo Widgets Through New TV Chips
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Yahoo said on Wednesday it is working with Intel to create Web computer channels that run alongside TV shows.
The Web company and world's largest chipmaker are working
on what they call the "Widget Channel," which will enable
TV viewers to interact with and watch a dynamic set of TV
widgets -- small Web-based applications that complement TV
shows.
Widgets will appear in the corner of a TV screen and work
something like a picture-in-picture window of advanced TV
sets. These small windows let viewers chat with or e-mail
friends, watch videos, track stocks or sports teams or keep
up with news headlines or weather by using a TV remote
control.
Widget TV services are being designed to run on a new class
of Intel chips for consumer electronics that enables
high-definition viewing, home-theater-quality audio, 3-D
graphics, and the fusion of Internet and TV features.
Devices based on Intel's CE3100 chip are due in the first
half of 2009, Intel said. U.S. cable TV operator Comcast said in a separate statement with Intel
that it planned to offer TV Widgets next year that work on
televisions, set-top boxes and other TV-connected devices.
Intel's first CE IA-based SoC, the Intel Media Processor
CE 3100 (formerly "Canmore"), is a highly integrated chip
which includes a high-performance IA core and other
functional I/O blocks to enable high definition video ( MPEG-2, H.264 or VC-1) decode and viewing, home-theater-quality audio, 3-D
graphics. The hardware and software compatibility of IA
also provides support for broadcast and Internet content.
"TV will fundamentally change how we talk about, imagine
and experience the Internet," Eric Kim, Intel senior vice
president and general manager of its Digital Home Group,
said in a joint statement with Yahoo.
Intel previewed the new software framework designed for TVs
and TV-enabled devices using its chips at its annual
developer conference in San Francisco this week.
TV Widgets can be personalized and display information from
popular Web services to which viewers belong, including
Yahoo Finance or Sports or eBay auctions. Viewers can
choose from a what promises to be hundreds or thousands of
such widgets.
Among the featured services will be Twitter, a service that
lets users keep friends or public spectators updated on
daily activities via messages sent from a range of devices.
Major brands set to offer TV Widgets range from electronics
makers Samsung Electronics and Toshiba Corp MTV and
Showtime.
The Widget Channel runs on top of the fifth generation of
Yahoo Widget Engine, a software platform that allows
developers to deliver snippets of the Web such as video,
news, or e-mail. Programmers can build widgets using
popular software including Javascript, XML, HTML and Adobe
Systems Inc's Flash.
Yahoo announced ambitious plans to expand beyond computers
onto mobile phones and TVs more than two-and-a-half years
ago.
Earlier this year, Yahoo announced
plans to feature Yahoo widgets on Sony Bravia Web-linked
TVs and Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing service on Apple TV
software. |
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