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Yahoo and Samsung announce multi-year interactive TV partnership

Mark Hearn — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:33:00 -0500

We've had mixed feelings about Yahoo's Connected TV platform, but Samsung appears to think that its the next big thing. The two mega corporations announced a multi-year partnership on Monday that will bring the restructuring internet company's interactive television software to Samsung's 2012 lineup of smart TVs. Far from the traditional clunky Facebook and Twitter smart TV apps, Yahoo's setup brings interactive content to the programming that you're watching, such as trivia, program statistics and other types of playable games. You'll also have the option to use your smartphone or tablet as a surrogate remote control to view and share additional interactive content. As promising as this may sound, our biggest concern here is that this feature also recognizes commercials and may offer additional advertisements on top of the ones that you're already viewing. Programming partners currently include: Showtime and National Geographic, which makes us wonder what kind of ad suggestions will run during episodes of Dexter -- knives, duct tape and plastic wrap, anyone?

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Software, HD, Samsung

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Source: Yahoo, Yahoo Connected TV Blog

Yahoo shows off Beyond Gold Olympics app for its connected HDTVs

Richard Lawler — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 06:05:00 -0400

While NBC has already shown off its official Olympics apps for mobile devices, Yahoo is readying an onscreen companion app for connected TVs built on its widgets. While smart TV platforms and boxes are practically everywhere, Yahoo's is built into HDTVs from several manufacturers, and the app is available for TVs from Sony, Vizio, Samsung and Toshiba. It gives users access to Yahoo Sports coverage with video, news and analysis including daily updates on the games and a real-time medal count. If you have a TV with the Yahoo Connected TV store, it should be just a few clicks of the remote away, and content updates are scheduled to start coming in early next week. We're still waiting to see the second screen action we previewed at CES put to use, but maybe this event is just the reminder the world needed that this is on more TVs than Google's effort and actually exists unlike the often-rumored Apple HDTV.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Yahoo! Connected TV watches with you, delivers a more personal ad experience

Joseph Volpe — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 07:59:00 -0400

For a medium heavily ridiculed for its zombie-making capabilities, television is certainly taking on more of an active role courtesy of Yahoo! Connected TV. Coming later this year to select Sony and Toshiba models, the interactive software that's already in eight million homes gains two new features destined to either creep you out, or snag you a twofer on those wings -- broadcast interactivity, and device control. While the latter enhancement merely transforms your smartphone or tablet into an extended remote, it's the former that'll turn your TV choices into a game of peeping Tom, delivering ads custom-fit for you. But the old, yodeling tech giant's not stopping there -- the company also plans to trot out an app store by the years' end, which is currently in pilot testing with Ford and HSN (among others). If widget-based ads are your thing, you might want to hold off until the big manufacturer roll-out next year, or you could always consider that Google option. Brain-rot, please meet the tech loop.

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Yahoo buys TV companion app developer IntoNow and its database of sounds

Richard Lawler — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:09:00 -0400

Earlier this year IntoNow launched its iPhone app that could identify what TV show you were watching by the audio Shazam-style and then share it with others over Facebook or Twitter, pull in additional information, or add the DVD to your Netflix queue. Now, Yahoo has purchased the company and according to the press release (after the break) wants to integrate its SoundPrint tech with its existing services including the Connected TV platform. As NewTeeVee suggests, this could tie-in nicely with its existing plans to use audio watermarks to identify advertisements and display additional info on screen or work with a companion app, both of which it demonstrated at CES. That database of sounds reportedly stretches back over five years and is continually being updated, which could give a major lift to Yahoo over other smart TV platforms that goes far beyond just check-ins and badges.

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Yahoo Widgets app store delayed

Richard Lawler — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:33:00 -0400

Yahoo announced it would bring out a full app store for its Connected TV platform in March but IDG reports that it won't be available to consumers this month after all. According to a letter from a spokesperson, and updated version of the platform will be available to OEM partners by the end of this month, and after certification is completed it will be pushed out to existing TVs... at some point in the future. As far as the next step for the platform, it has scheduled a developer event for March 24th, and just dropped the latest edition of the developer's kit yesterday with a few new features. Of course, as ZatzNotFunny points out, platform reliability has occasionally been an issue, while we haven't many problems with our Vizio test unit, it is still waiting to get the new firmware update enabling Hulu Plus playback and USB access that was announced back at CES, so here's to smart TV platforms (hopefully) picking up the pace for the rest of 2011.

Filed under: HD

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Haier launches WiFi equipped Net Connect LED HDTVs, takes Yahoo Connected TV along for the ride

Michael Gorman — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:03:00 -0500

In an effort to obviate the best efforts of Boxee, Logitech, Roku, and Apple, the new line of HDTVs from Haier aims to bring internet content and streaming video to your living room without such excess hardware. Rather than having another black box fighting for space in your entertainment center, Haier's Net Connect LED displays have WiFi capabilities and Yahoo's Connected TV baked in to deliver content. In addition to Yahoo's apps, the TVs will also provide viewers with access to Hulu Plus, Blockbuster on Demand, Film Fresh, and Netflix. Unfortunately, we don't have specs, prices, or a release date for the sets, but we do know that they'll have remotes with a dedicated Netflix button, which is sure to please the impatient movie watcher in us all.

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Yahoo! Connected TV Widgets shows off live TV tie-ins, iPad remote and D-Link add-on (update: video!)

Richard Lawler — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:08:00 -0500

Just a couple of years after its initial debut, Yahoo's Connected TV platform is finally ready to escape the TV, among other things. One surprise shown off tonight during the pre-CES Digital Experience event is a new D-Link box that overlays the widgets on any video signal to any display by way of HDMI passthrough. Also on display are prototype remote apps for Android and iPad, both could act as a remote control, while the tablet app could also search or browse for additional programming and share videos straight to the TV Airplay-style.

On the paying bills end of things however, this year's big announcement is the ability to tie in with live TV broadcasts, while the company didn't reveal what information keyed the system, it figure out if a TV program or ad being watched is a compatible one and pop up prompts accordingly. While that could lead to even more annoying ads for consumers, there's at least a few interesting applications like the one we saw voting on potential winners of a boxing match as it starts on Showtime, one of the initial partners along with CBS, ABC, Showtime, HSN, Ford and Mattel. Check out the press release after the break, we should have a video of the demo up shortly.

Gallery: Yahoo! Connected TV interactivity

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Toshiba brings WX800 and VX700 HDTVs stateside, BDX3000 3D Blu-ray player this month

Darren Murph — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:54:00 -0400

Remember that slate of drop-dead gorgeous Toshiba HDTVs that emerged at IFA? They're back, and they're making a beeline for a living room near you. Provided that "you" are in "the US of A," that is. Just as we expected, Tosh has come clean with the US variants of its LED-based Cinema Series, with the flagship WX800 models (46- and 55-inches) getting 3D Resolution+ technology, 240Hz processor, inbuilt 802.11b/g/n WiFi, the company's own Enhanced NET TV service, Yahoo! widgets (score!) and a native 1080p panel. The lower end VX700 series (again, 46- and 55-inches) is meant for those content with 2D imagery, but they still retain the connected features along with two USB ports, an SD / SDHC card slot and DLNA support. Lastly, the BDX3000 3D Blu-ray player that we've been holding out for finally has a ship date, and it's soon. Within a fortnight, the aforesaid player will be out and about on US shelves for $249.99, representing a $50 premium over the 3D-less BDX2700. Check out the full list of details embedded after the break.

Gallery: Toshiba WX800 and VX700 HDTVs; BDX3000 3D Blu-ray player

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Switched On: Apple wanes in the widget wars

Ross Rubin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:09:00 -0400

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

One of the challenges for companies trying to build across the "three screens" of the television, PC and cell phone is adapting their distinctive technologies to those platforms. Apple showed strong early momentum on the Mac with its widget architecture, but is falling behind some rivals in bringing glanceable utility to other platforms.

Introduced with Mac OS X Tiger, Dashboard widgets (or "gadgets" as Google and Microsoft call them) are small, simple applets intended to convey quick bits of information or provide a quick change of settings. Veteran Mac users recognized them as the reincarnation of desk accessories, which provided functions such as an alarm clock and note pad when the Mac could run only one program at a time. Apple aggregates thousands of widgets on a special web page, and Leopard brought a new feature called Web Clips to provide an easy way for consumers to create their own widgets from part of a Web page in addition to the more traditional Dashcode development tool.

Dashboard earned its own button on the Mac keyboard. It drew some criticism due to its modal nature, but its ability to quickly display or hide a screenful of widgets without having to mess with window arrangements made it more convenient than the gadget implementation in Windows Vista and even Windows 7, which has freed gadgets from the Sidebar and now displays them on the desktop -- a throwback to the Active Desktop feature of Windows 95.

Filed under: Software

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