Intel(R) and Yahoo!(R) to Bring the Internet to Television

Intel Corporation and Yahoo! Inc. today previewed plans for the Widget Channel, a television (TV) application framework optimized for TV and related consumer electronics (CE) devices that use the Intel Architecture. The Widget Channel will allow consumers to enjoy rich Internet applications designed for the TV while watching their favorite TV programs. The Widget Channel will be powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, a fifth-generation applications platform that will enable TV watchers to interact with and enjoy a rich set of “TV Widgets,” or small Internet applications designed to complement and enhance the traditional TV watching experience and bring content, information and community features available on the Internet within easy reach of the remote control. The Widget Channel will also allow developers to use JAVASCRIPT^®, XML¹, HTML¹ and Adobe Flash® technology to write TV applications for the platform, extending the power and compatibility of PC application developer programs to TV and related CE devices. In addition to supporting the Yahoo! Widget Engine, Yahoo! will also provide consumers Yahoo!-branded TV Widgets that are customized based on its category-leading Internet services.

TV Widgets will enable consumers to engage in a variety of experiences, such as watching videos, tracking their favorite stocks or sports teams, interacting with friends, or staying current on news and information. Viewers will be able to use TV Widgets to deepen their enjoyment of the programming they are watching, discover new content and services, or share their favorites with friends and family. TV Widgets can be personalized because they will be based upon popular Internet services such as Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, Blockbuster^® and eBay^® that viewers have customized for use in their daily lives.

“TV will fundamentally change how we talk about, imagine and experience the Internet,” said Eric Kim, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Digital Home Group. “No longer just a passive experience unless the viewer wants it that way, Intel and Yahoo! are proposing a way where the TV and Internet are as interactive, and seamless, as possible. Our close work has produced an exciting application framework upon which the industry can collaborate, innovate and differentiate. This effort is one of what we believe will be many exciting new ways to bring the Internet to the TV, and it really shows the potential of what consumers can look forward to.”

“On the PC and mobile devices, Yahoo! is a leading starting point for millions of consumers around the world,” said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo! Inc. “Yahoo! aims to extend this leadership to the emerging world of Internet-connected TV, which we call the Cinematic Internet™. By partnering with leaders like Intel, we plan to combine the Internet benefits of open user choice, community, and personalization with the performance and scale embodied in the Intel Architecture to transform traditional TV into something bigger, better and more exciting than ever before. By using the popular Yahoo! Widget Engine to power the Widget Channel, we intend to provide an opportunity for all developers and publishers to create new experiences that can reach millions of TV viewers globally. Yahoo! plans to enable the Cinematic Internet^™ ecosystem, which will benefit consumers, device makers, advertisers and publishers.”

Widget Channel Framework and TV Widget Developers

Underlying the Widget Channel will be a powerful set of platform technologies, including the Yahoo! Widget Engine and core libraries that expose the powerful functions enabled by the Intel Architecture. The Widget Channel framework will use established Internet technologies to dramatically lower the barrier of entry for developing applications optimized for TV. To help create new TV Widgets for the Widget Channel, Intel and Yahoo! plan to make a development kit available to developers, including TV and other CE device makers, advertisers and publishers. The Widget Channel will also include a Widget Gallery, to which developers can publish their TV Widgets across multiple TV and related CE devices and through which consumers can view and select the TV Widgets they would like to use.

Intel and Yahoo! are working with a range of industry-leading companies that are planning on developing and deploying TV Widgets, including Blockbuster¹, CBS Interactive¹, CinemaNow¹, Cinequest¹, Comcast¹, Disney-ABC Television Group¹, eBay¹, GE¹, Group M¹, Joost¹, MTV¹, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.¹, Schematic¹, Showtime¹, Toshiba¹ and Twitter¹. These and other companies and individuals will be able to innovate, differentiate and deploy TV Widgets across multiple TV and related CE devices using the Widget Channel framework. Additional information on the Widget Channel framework and the Yahoo! Widget Engine can be found at www.intel.com/go/celink and http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/newsroom.

Intel Architecture

Intel Architecture (IA) is at the heart of millions of PC-, MID- and server-based Internet clients, which has helped enable the proliferation of Internet-based content and services while providing users with an uncompromised Internet experience. Accelerating the delivery of the Internet to the TV, Intel today extended performance, headroom and connectivity of IA into a new family of “purpose built” system-on-chip (SoC) media processors for Internet-connected CE devices, including optical media players, U.S. cable set-top-boxes, digital TVs and other connected audio visual products.

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 decode and viewing, home-theater-quality audio, 3-D graphics, and the fusion of the Internet and TV experiences. The Widget Channel software framework is designed to work with a new generation of Internet-connected CE devices based on Intel’s purpose built SoC. The hardware and software compatibility of IA also provides support for broadcast and Internet content.

Intel also plans to release the Intel Media Processor CE 3100-based hardware development system called the “Innovation Platform” which will provide the initial development and validation environment for developers of TV Widgets on the Widget Channel.

An Open Framework

Finally, Intel and Yahoo! are working with industry members to promote the development of open and consistent standards necessary to grow the TV Widget ecosystem. As part of their efforts, the companies are sharing an early version of a development kit for the Widget Channel with selected TV Widget developers now.

Source here

Samsung teams up with Yahoo to bring TV internet service to your sofa

It may not seem like much, a matter of a few feet, negotiating a corridor and a couple of doorways, but it has become one of the technology industry's greatest challenges - dragging the internet away from the family PC and out of the home office and putting it on the television set in the lounge. After years of watching others fail to achieve it, Samsung Electronics believes that it is about to succeed.

This week the world's largest consumer electronics company will tell the IFA industry fair in Germany that it is partnering Yahoo! to provide content for a new integrated internet access service in its televisions. The InfoLive service will provide news, finance and weather information from Yahoo!, directed from the remote control. Samsung plans to provide the service on Series 7, 8 and 9 televisions in Canada, Australia, and Singapore and in selected countries in Europe by the end of this year.

As ever with such advances, timing is everything. Previous attempts have failed not because the technology was lacking but because the audience was not ready to give up the big screen to anything other than a television programme or a film. Interactivity came a poor second to sitting and watching.

But tastes are changing. Consumers are much more used to interactivity across all media, from radio phone-ins and X Factor-style votes to internet blogs and comments, and they are embracing the combination of net and television. One survey, for example, found that 43 per cent of viewers of the Super Bowl in February surfed the web on their laptops or mobile phones while watching the game on TV.

Samsung believes that it has surmounted the problem of navigation by not swamping the big screen but by adding bite-sized interactive choices. Users will be able to watch a programme while a tickertape of news items, share prices or weather forecasts runs in tandem with it. The content is accessible via an integrated Ethernet port or via Samsung's wireless LAN adapter, which connects to the viewer's broadband service.

Moreover, Samsung is seeking interactive success on several fronts. Separately, it is a partner for a venture between Yahoo! and Intel, the chip-maker, to develop what is being called the Widget Channel of interactive content. In due course, viewers may be able to check their eBay auction, view a friend's photos and instant message friends, all using the remote control from the comfort of their armchairs.

Jungwoo Park surveys these prospects from his office in the Samsung tower south of Seoul. The head of the digital media division at Samsung Electronics sees them as part of the battle to make Samsung's televisions the centre of entertainment in every living room. According to Dr Park, televisions will be the company's big driver of growth for the next five years.

“We want televisions to be centre of the home network,” he said. And the key to that is a change in Samsung's strategy. Until now, it has kept out of the game of providing content, concentrating on developing its market-leading range of high-definition sets. Now, according to Dr Park, the solutions are not just about hardware but about the software that televisions carry.

Samsung Electronics, with significant market shares in mobile phones, LED screens, white goods and other items, powered its way to a $105 billion worldwide turnover in 2007. Amid this year's global economic woes, Dr Park argues that he should provide premium products with added value to keep the customers spending.

He foresees a time - perhaps only five years away - when TV sets will been connected wirelessly to a range of devices that will “talk” to each other automatically, downloading pictures, streaming video, music and games. “No stress,” Dr Park said, with a smile.

Source here

Panasonic replaces Sony as Japan’s coolest electronics brand

Although much has been made of Sony’s recent resurgence under Sir Howard Stringer, the Tokyo monster may be surprised to learn that it has been toppled as the public’s favourite producer of quality electronics.

The finding comes from a survey of 600 people carried out in May by Japanese business newspaper, the Nikkei [subscription link].

Results showed that, “consumers who value qualities like refinement and excellent design tend to choose products made by Panasonic when they buy audiovisual devices like TVs and DVD recorders.”

The complex survey looked at products people already own and those they plan to buy next, with Panasonic rating highest in both cases for both TV sets and video recorders.

Sony, which has long been seen as the quality brand among Japanese electronics suppliers, came out amongst the rank and file that includes Sharp, Toshiba, JVC and Mitsubishi.

The Panasonic brand has traditionally been seen as solid but unoriginal, however a series of successful product launches, such as Viera TVs, since 2002 has culminated in a new sense of trust.

Nevertheless, the news isn’t all bad for Sony, as responses on video recorders and PCs showed there were more people interested in buying Sony gear in the near future than who currently use Sony products.

This suggests there may be some substance to the recent uptick in Sony’s perceived health.

Source here