Intel, Yahoo work to build 'TV Widgets' by Eric AuchardAug 21, 2008 Source : Ottawa CitizenChips under development would enable web channels to run alongside television showsReutersSAN FRANCISCO - After years of false starts aimed at bringing the web to TV sets, Yahoo Inc. said yesterday it is working with Intel Corp. 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-theatre-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. Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable TV operator, said in a separate statement with Intel that it plans to offer TV Widgets next year that work on televisions, set-top boxes and other TV-connected devices. "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 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 and Toshiba to video services Blockbuster, CinemaNow, Cinequest, Comcast and Joost and TV programmers CBS Interactive, NBC, Disney-ABC Television, Viacom's MTV and Showtime. "This is the beginning of a number of distribution announcements that will go beyond content producers to OEMs," Yahoo spokeswoman May Petry. 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' Flash. Yahoo announced ambitious plans to expand beyond computers to cellphones and TVs more than two-and-a-half years ago. Yahoo's Connected Life division has struck dozens of deals with carriers and phonemakers to put Yahoo services on cellphones that could eventually reach hundreds of millions of phone users. However, Yahoo's push into the TV arena has gone significantly slower. © Ottawa Citizen
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