CE 3100-powered Gigabyte / Yahoo! widgets box eyes-on

A lot has changed in the TV widget world since we first caught wind of Intel's CE 3100 processor and Gigabyte's connected box that took advantage of it. Mainly, a metric ton of new players have emerged, and many companies are simply shoving the widget functionality within the HDTV and bypassing the extra set-top-box altogether. Nevertheless, Gigabyte had its Yahoo! Widgets box (the MD300) on hand this year at CeBIT, so we sashayed over to snap a few shots. At this point, it's tough to say just how viable this thing is. On one hand, it'll be nice to give existing HDTV owners the option of adding access to widgets; on the other, Gigabyte has to know that the appeal is limited now that almost every HDTV hitting the market has this functionality baked right in. Have a peek below, won't you?

CE 3100-powered Gigabyte / Yahoo! widgets box eyes-on

[Quikboy Posted Mar 6th 2009 5:26PM]

How does Yahoo! Widgets compare to Windows Gadgets and iGoogle Gadgets?

[erwos Posted Mar 6th 2009 5:31PM]

This is kinda weird... is it going to sit between your HDMI input and the TV and do an overlay, or is it just going to be its own device? Because, if it's the latter, there doesn't seem to be a point. Widgets, by design, are not the reason you're doing whatever you're doing.

[Snowman Posted Mar 6th 2009 5:52PM]

At first glance I thought I was looking at a Wii knock off. lol

[Sly C Posted Mar 6th 2009 6:31PM]

they have a good email service though.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 7th 2009 2:50AM]

I saw this running this past weekend at a tech/film maker forum. I guess the point is that it sits between your stb, and you tv, and provides, weather, social networking (twitter), and video rental (cinema now). It wasn't clear that it was doing this, since the focus was more about bringing the bid rentals to the tv. I wasn't all that impressed myself, running boxee and using netflix already. The SN aspect was also kind of weak. I have an iPhone, that is on me 100% of the time, if I need to tweet what I am watching, I'll just do it on my phone.

Last thing, the interface was sluggish at best, and he didn't show any of the actual services, aside from cinema now listing, didn't even stream video.

I thought it was lame, and pointless. Give me boxee or give me death.

P.a. With all this controversy with hulu, this box didn't include Hulu either.

[coretron Posted Mar 7th 2009 6:46AM]

I know nothing about professional photography but just a side note on the images in the gallery... All I wanted to see was a clear picture of the backside, instead you have 3 images where a different part is in focus. I know it looks more artistic of something but couldn't you just get 1 clear shot?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 18th 2009 9:11AM]

Idea price of this box ?