Yahoo! Smart TV

Yahoo! Connected TV

Developer	Yahoo!
Manufacturer	Yahoo!, Samsung, Sony, Vizio, Toshiba
Type	Digital media receiver
Release date	March 30, 2009 (2009-03-30)
Operating system	Linux
CPU	Intel Atom based CE3100 consumer electronics system-on-chip, MIPS
Online services	Flickr, Twitter, Amazon Video On Demand, Blockbuster, YouTube, etc
Website	connectedtv.yahoo.com

“’Yahoo! Connected TV”, is a Smart TV platform developed Yahoo! based upon the Yahoo! Desktop Widgets platform. Originally announced on August 20, 2008 at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco as the Widget Channel, it integrates the Yahoo! Widgets Engine with a new television oriented user interface to enable internet connected applications to run and display on a 10-foot user interface

Development

Yahoo began porting the Konfabulator Widget Engine to an embedded Linux platform in 2007 as part of a joint venture with Intel corporation that resulted in an announcement of the Widget Channel in August 2008.

On January 4, 2009 Yahoo! And Samsung announced that select models of Samsung’s new flat panel HDTVs would support the new TV Widget service.

On January 7, 2009 Yahoo! Followed up with a broader announcement of distribution partnerships with major television manufacturers Samsung, Sony, LG Electronics, and Vizio, with only a peripheral reference to Intel.

The following year, January 6, 2010, additional partnerships with Hisense, ViewSonic, MIPS Technologies, and Sigma Designs were announced at CES 2011 bringing the Yahoo! Widget Engine to more televisions and consumer electronics platforms.

In September 2010 Yahoo! And the Vestel Group announced a partnership to deliver the platform that was now renamed to Yahoo Connected TV, to Europe. Also later in September Toshiba announced Yahoo! Connected TV support on several models of their televisions.

On January 9, 2012 Yahoo! and Sony announced broadcast interactivity technology available in 2012 Sony BRAVIA televisions. The feature leverages the patented SoundPrint technology developed by IntoNow from Yahoo!, which identifies the show being watched. The integration of SoundPrint directly on the TV allows detection of live, recorded, cable, broadcast, or satellite-based video content to deliver relevant, interactive TV experiences.

WDK

Development of TV widgets is enabled via the Yahoo! Widget Development Kit or WDK, available for download from the Yahoo! Connected TV website. The Widget Development kit requires Ubuntu Linux as the default operating system, Windows developers must run the Ubuntu operating system on a virtual machine. Only Ubuntu 10.10 is supported although it runs on other derivatives and versions of Ubuntu successfully.

Widget Distribution

TV Widgets are distributed post sale of the television, via the Yahoo! Connected TV Store, scheduled for launch in Fall 2011. The store claims to reach 135 countries, and enables widget distribution to millions of TVs from Samsung, Sony, Vizio, and Toshiba. All Transactions are processed by Yahoo!, and widget prices range from 99 cents to 99 dollars, with developers getting 70% of the revenue after taxes and currency exchange.

Technology

TV Widgets are developed using a combination of HTML, XML and Javascript. The code is then executed on the Yahoo TV Widget engine running on Ubuntu.

See also

• Smart TV
• Interactive television
• Internet television
• TV Genius
• WebTV
• Home theater PC
• Tivoization
• Apple TV
• Boxee
• Roku
• XBMC Media Center
• Hillcrest Labs
• Kylo (web browser)
• Google TV

External links

• Yahoo ConnectedTV [1]
• Intel Consumer Electronics [2]
• Yahoo! Connected TV Developer Site [3]