Intel to build Yahoo widgets into TV chips
- Added:
- Aug 27, 2008
Yahoo is working with microchip maker Intel to create Web computer channels that run alongside TV shows.
The deal will see new TVs incorporating a ‘Widget Channel’, which gives viewers on-screen internet 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. Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable TV operator, 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.
"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 personalised and can display information from the viewers’ chosen websites, such as Yahoo, Twitter or eBay.
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.
"This is the beginning of a number of distribution announcements that will go beyond content producers to OEMs,"
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.