Hectic TV
Sony is arguably the world's leading consumer electronics company, but its efforts to embrace the Internet era have been far from an unqualified success. One area in which it seems to be really taking the initiative, however, is in Internet-enabled TVs and the content they permit.
Today, Yahoo announced the availability of its Widget Engine on Internet-connected Sony BRAVIA TVs has been dramatically expanded, such that you can now buy Widget-enabled BRAVIAs in more than 100 countries.
As implied, the Yahoo Widget Engine enables the development of apps that are accessed via the TV, which provide Internet-based content. Right now this includes social networking, media and video, e-tail and gaming, with the SDK available to potentially anyone.
"Our expanded partnership with Sony increases the number of countries where Yahoo TV Widgets are available by nearly seven-fold, enabling us to connect millions of additional consumers to compelling Internet content and services right on their TV," said Jeff Kinder, SVP of Media Products and Solutions at Yahoo. "Yahoo is delivering the right content on the right platforms -- across mobile, PC, TV, and tablets -- ensuring the best experiences for our users, publishers, and developers."
Meanwhile Google has issued a video that attempts to explain what the hell Google TV actually is. Just to remind you, Sony is one of the key partners of Google TV - which seeks to super-impose the Internet (and, of course, Google search) on your TV screen. So it looks like some Sony TVs will have Google TV and Google Widgets co-existing on the same screen as your TV programme. Sounds a bit hectic to us.
