Taking these Yahoo Widgets on my Samsung TV for a test drive...
Image by dpstyles™
So, I've got this fancy Samsung TV (UN46C6500) that has the Yahoo Internet widgets built in. You press the "Yahoo" button on the remote and this "Ticker" pops up (tho doesn't move). I love love love this idea (and I was messing around with this stuff before foursquare surprised us :) and if I wasn't doing foursquare, I'd be knee deep in fixing the "internet on TV / internet on big screens" problem). Anyway, as much as I love the concepts in these early widgets (and the stuff that Google TV is hinting at) the execution just isn't where it needs to be.
(What you're looking at here: Widget "Ticker" is launched over Live TV. The ticker doesn't move, instead you scroll thru the widgets. My ticker has 10 widgets in it now and you can see four on the screen at a time. Here: Yahoo Sports, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr).
#1. There are about 70 widgets in the gallery, but I only found 2 of them that actually stream data (Facebook and Twitter). By "streaming", I mean you can pull up this ticker and the widget actually updates in real time (like a ticker that scrolls up and down instead of left and right). The others you need to click on which then opens a window that you can navigate. But that's lame... the Fantasy Sports app should be pushing you alerts! The Flickr one should cycle thru pictures of my friends (instead of just being a static Flickr logo). The Y! Weather one should show me what the weather in NYC and the Y! Finance one should show me a real-time stock feed, but instead they are both just static images you gotta click to get data out of.
#2. Just like I can show and hide the ticker with the press of a button, there should be another "Pop Up Video" mode where new tweets, new Facebook updates, new Flickr photos, weather alerts, Fantasy Football scores as they happen, etc. just pop up. If i"m hell bent on watching CNN this may be a distraction but if I'm half-ass watching Spider Man 2 (like I am now) just pop em up on screen! I really really really want to build a foursquare widget for this thing that pops up with a friend checks in within say 10 blocks of my apt (tho I don't think these widgets support the pop up). At the very least, I should be able to stream those "within 10 blocks" checkins to the static ticker (I'm gonna dig into Developer KIt this wkd)
#3. Developer Kit. Looks like anyone can download the WDK (Widget Developer Kit), and I hear these things are run in Javascript, but not sure how much of a gateway there is to getting your apps out there (it can't be too bad since a lot of the apps in the store are from local TV stations - e.g. the "WNBC TV 5 in Chicago" widget). More on the dev kit here: connectedtv.yahoo.com/developer/
Anyway, looking fwd to playing with this stuff.
ps: I'm expecting the same from GoogleTV - after Google launches the App Store for Google TV. (remember: it's all build on Android). Still, Google TV apps right now take over the whole screen (or the Picture-in-Picture). There's no notion of a ticker or notification tray in Google TV right now (which would be KILLER). I'm hopeful (tho hopefully not *too* hopeful - I don't feel like waiting another 8 months to play around w/ this stuff)
ps #2: Does anyone know of any other setups that allow me to overlay internet widgets + live / cable TV? I know Boxee does it (but it's only internet TV, not cable) and I hear that Roku can work w/ USB tuners, but can't do the widget overlays. Anyway, would love to hear what other people are finding.
ps #3: While we're at here, here's my big-ticket wishlist for Google TV:
+ Social screensavers (watch this, about 0:50 in)
+ Social tickers (Twitter, Facebook)
+ USB video / Google chat w/ video support
+ USB over-the-air antenna support (#QuittingCable is one of my New Years Resolutions!)
+ App store!
Sunshine Melbourne Victoria Australia 2009:05:07 07:06:18
Image by s2art
'The Lie' [3 of 3]
See where this picture was taken. [?]
Dikniblars All-Star Wini Roastaz
Image by Ricky Robson
Looking for a different Lizardmen team to all the others out there, something that was made by me for me, something personal. All pictures are the final stages before a final tidy up of edges and lines.
Hope you like, please enjoy
