The highlight of CES 2009 for me back in January was the unveiling of Yahoo’s Internet TV widget platform. Given so many partner announcements (Intel, Samsung, Vizio, Sony, LG) and demos, I was hopeful we’d see a glut of Yahoo Connected TV products, including HDTVs and set-top boxes, by mid-year. Yet Yahoo’s Linux-based SDK hasn’t even hit v1.0 with fewer than three months left in the year. And the widgets that have been deployed are fairly basic. Internet-sourced info is a good start, but where’s the high definition Netflix and Showtime streaming video? The concept is sound, and inevitable at this point, but can we speed things up a bit? I’m looking at you Vizio, with that QWERTY remote. (See DirecTV and Verizon’s FiOS TV for different variations on widgetized television experience.)
I really want that Vizio. Hopefully they’ll be out in time for Christmas.
In addition to the hardware and platform, I hope they turn on side-loading capabilities. I know Todd wants us to build a ZNF widget of some sort. :)
Correct – But what should the ZNF Yahoo TV Widget do?
Just show tweets with #ZNF hashtag?
Show what we are all watching, recording?
TiVo style, real time, thumbs up, thumbs down?
Demo is here:
http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/services/tv-widgets
Would love to hear everyone sound off, make suggestions.
I own a 2008 Samsung LNA 46″ A650 with ethernet. There is nothing available for streaming. Articles evidently neglect to say it is only for 2009 models. What a joke.