widgets

We've heard a bit now about the Widget Channel, the partnership between Intel and Yahoo designed to bring Web functions like photo sharing and stock prices to living room TV sets. Well, MySpace is one of the partners on board: the News Corp.-owned social network has created a "widget for TV" that lets its members access a variety of features from Widget Channel-compatible TVs.

Basically, this means that you can install a MySpace widget in the Widget Channel "dock," and expand it in order to access profiles, status updates, in-box messages, and other site … Read more

LG and Netflix have already announced that select TVs produced by the Korean electronics company will be the first to stream Netflix's Watch Now video service without the need for an additional set-top box. Today LG fleshed out details on specific models.

The company will put Netflix and a host of other broadband content options into one series of LCD TVs, the LH50 models detailed here, as well as the PS80 series of plasmas. The LH50 series will come in two sizes: the 47-inch 47LH50 and the 42-inch 42LH50. Pricing was not announced at the show, but the LCDs … Read more

LG and Netflix have already announced that select TVs produced by the Korean electronics company will be the first to stream Netflix's Watch Now video service without the need for an additional set-top box. Today LG fleshed out details on specific models, including two plasmas with THX display certification.

The company will put Netflix and a host of other broadband content options into a pair of plasma TVs, the PS80 models detailed here, as well as the LH50 series of LCDs. The two sizes in the PS80 series include the 50-inch 50PS80 and the 60-inch 60PS80. Both are available … Read more

Yahoo and Intel built their success upon widespread use of personal computers, but the two companies hope products to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in January will mark the beginning of their Internet-fueled expansion to the world of TV as well.

The two companies have attracted several significant manufacturing and content allies in the attempt to bring new smarts and interactivity to a part of the electronics world that has remained a more passive part of people's digital lives. Intel and Yahoo showed off Net-enabled TV prototypes in August, but the companies' technology will be presented in … Read more

At Monday's Le Web 3 conference in Paris, Netvibes announced the launch of its latest version which adds support for Google's OpenSocial and Facebook Connect, alongside several new ways to view widgetized content.

The OpenSocial element may be one of the most interesting aspects, as it's now paired with Netvibe's Universal Widget API, allowing developers to create widgets that can pull information from a user's social network. In the example demoed at the conference, Netvibes showed off a weather widget which displayed the user's weather, along with that of their friends. The user didn'… Read more

Google has put out an official Gmail gadget for its Google Desktop product, giving users the option to run multiple instances of different Gmail accounts as standalone gadgets. The tool includes several useful Gmail features like keyboard shortcuts, mail, and contact search, along with the option to star messages. Users can also compose messages in a little pop-out window, which keeps them from having to fire up their browser.

The app is currently Windows-only and requires Google Desktop version 5 or higher, leaving Mac and Linux users of Google Desktop out in the cold. Anyone looking to use Amnesty's Generator program … Read more

Now you can put a TV on your MySpace profile--sort of.

The News Corp.-owned social network has built a new widget for its developer platform called "Primetime," a video player that syndicates much of the professionally created content available on its MySpaceTV media hub. Included in that roster is video from Hulu (a joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal), Warner Bros., Sony, and other MySpace content partners as well as the social network's original video content.

It's also searchable, and provides another outlet for MySpace's video ads. Since it's a developer … Read more

Among the digerati, there's already a clear winner in the presidential election: little Web "widgets" that can be dropped onto sites to carry everything from election results to user-chosen news headlines to slideshows of VP candidate Sarah Palin's fashion choices.

In 2004, the buzz about digital media and the election was all about a nascent form of news publishing--blogs. In 2006 it was online video, particularly YouTube, after the video-sharing site hosted a widely circulated amateur video of George Allen, then a Virginia senator up for re-election, using an obscure racial slur at a campaign rally.… Read more

Oosah, a company that offers Web 2.0 hosting solutions, announced Thursday that it has launched a new widget design tool that will allow any user to easily create customizable and embeddable rich-media widgets with images, videos, and status updates from popular social-networking platforms, Twitter, YouTube, Craigslist, MySpace, and Flickr.

"Consumers are increasingly using the Internet as their platform of choice for viewing and sharing media with their families, friends, business associates, and customers," said Dan Khasis, Oosah co-founder and chief technical officer. "We felt that what was needed now was a way to make it simpler … Read more