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Yahoo! Widgets opens developer kit to the public, expects a bigger 2010 even with new competition
In the follow up to its surprising 2009 debut, the Yahoo! Widget Engine is making a decidedly more low key 2010 CES appearance, highlighting its penetration across an even wider range of devices and the now publicly available TV Widget Developer Kit. With the rollout of VIZIO Internet Apps HDTVs throughout 2010, plus other manufacturers including them more widely on their line, it expects to reach all new heights in the increasingly crowded television application space. Going beyond just TVs, agreements with chipmakers MIPS Technologies and Sigma Designs are expected to increase its reach into other devices such as disc players and set-top boxes, which could provide that smoother experience we were looking for.
MIPS Technologies showing off Android with an HD facelift August 27
Sure, Google may see ChromeOS as its operating system of the future on PCs, but we just can't help ourselves every time Android makes a special appearance in an off-the-cellphone production, with its next performance scheduled for August 27 when MIPS Technologies will demo a version made for high definition displays. EE Times sees Sigma Designs as a hardware partner, mentioning it has already shown a Blu-ray player prototype running the OS. Of course, there's already options like the BLOBbox (in Europe) if an open software platform set-top is your desire -- and according to our poll results, it just might be -- but we'll see if an upgraded mobile OS has the chops to go in the living room later this month.[Via Android Community]
Alpha 400: the crappiest netbook you'll ever hate
Looking for the ultimate in nerve-shatteringly cheap cheapo netbooks? Don't want to break the $200 price point? Introduce yourself to the Alpha 400 -- a tiny "computer" with about as much processing power as your last TI scientific calculator. The miniature laptop sports a 400MHz (megahertz!) MIPS CPU, 128MB (megabytes!) of RAM, a mind-blowing 1GB (gigabyte!) of flash storage, 802.11b (b!), a 7-inch "display," and support for SD cards up to 32GB (gigabytes!). Seriously, this thing is essentially a glorified pocket dictionary, but who are we to question its awesome $189.95 price tag? Oh wait, we're Engadget. Yeah, we don't recommend this.[Via jkOnTheRun]
