Posts Tagged ‘tv widgets’

V the T.V. series

September 25th, 2009

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V is for The Visitors

Way, way back in 1983 a T.V. miniseries simply titled “V” was released. The series depicted aliens coming to earth and becoming friends with humans. It was later discovered that they were carnivorous reptiles that were planning on eating humans. The series was watched by millions of people and spawned a sequel titled “V The Final Battle”. There was also a short lived T.V. series titled “V The Series”

Flash Forward to 2009

“V” is being remade into a new T.V. series that is, so far, getting rave reviews.

E! Online rated the pilot episode “on a scale of 1 to 10, we give it an 11. V is the best pilot we’ve seen in, well, forever.”
The website Seat42F rated the pilot episode A+, applauding its cast and effects and naming it one of the best pilots in years.
USA Today’s Robert Bianco named V on his list of the top ten new shows, stating that the remake is well-made and “quickly establishes its own identity.”

Current premise: (as found on Wikipedia)

Giant spaceships appear over all major cities of the world, the alien “Visitors” claiming to come in peace. As some humans begin to doubt the sincerity of the Visitors, Homeland Security agent Erica Evans discovers that the aliens have spent decades infiltrating human governments and businesses and are now in the final stages of their plan to take over the planet. Erica joins the resistance movement, which includes Ryan, a Visitor sleeper agent who wants to save humanity. However, the aliens have won favor among the people of Earth by curing a variety of diseases, and have recruited Earth’s youth, including Erica’s son, to serve unknowingly as spies.

Here is an embeddable “V” series trailer from ABC and Clearspring.com

Vizio Will Have It’s Own Widget Platform

August 10th, 2009

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Serving as a extra from what it was known about Vizio new connected HDTV’s that will have Yahoo Widget Engine and OnDemand Video Services is that Vizio decided to not depend on Whatever Stream Widgets come via Yahoo TV Widgets or being forced to collaborate with Yahoo to get new widgets, like Verizon FIOS’s does (so far) with the Widget Bazaar. Vizio will have its own Widget Platform and will provide a SDK for developers interested in the new “Stream Widgets” space that comes with Widgets made for TV’s. This is thanks to the fact that the HDTV’s supports Adobe Flash. So it is only about Vizio showing developers the guidelines and toolkit to developers so widgets can be developed in the style Vizio wants them to be done. This way they will be swiftly included for use in the Vizio Connected HDTV’s.

CNET got a nice First Look video that touches on that and show the Two vizio models for release starting next month.

From the very same CNET, Erica Ogg makes her case on how Vizio offering is going to stand out with these Connected HDTV’s and it makes for good read too:

How Vizio will stand out among the sea of Web TVs

Verizon FIOS’s Widget Bazaar Guide

July 27th, 2009

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By now, most of Verizon FIOS’s got the option of the Widget Bazaar. But just in case you haven’t bothered to look at it or have taken the time to use them. I feel obliged to point you out a post by Sarah Perez over at ReadWriteWeb wrote a step by step guide of the experience she had while setting it up. This  may be a deciding factor for those still to get the option or still not convinced to use it to try them out.

Facebook and Twitter on TV: Hands-On with Verizon FiOS’s New Widgets

Verizon FIOS’s Widget Bazaar Now Out

July 15th, 2009

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Verizon gets into everything, don’t they?. The last being their own TV Widgets offering called Widget Bazaar. This is a supplemental service for Verizon FIOS users and you will start with 40 widgets that include the obvious social ones  like Twitter and Facebook or even online media content from blip.tv, veoh and dailymotion.

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There are several limitations:

1.-Only one user profile can be used (multi-profile support to come)

2.-No Widget Platform planned at the moment, Verizon will provide whatever widgets they think you should get. no schedule specified for updates.

3.-No YouTube and No Hulu of course

The other limitation is that unlike Vizio, the widgets are read only since you don’t have a proper remote to interact with the widgets in a full way. this could or could not change in the future based on the success of the Widget Bazaar. but expect having to pay a fee to change of Remote if the option is added.

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A good supplemental service for those already lucky you to be able to have FIOS’s (unlike me, that my triple play service sucks compared to that)  and that you can ask or active now.

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via Gizmodo

Vizio To Release Connected HDTV With Yahoo TV Widgets And On Demand Services

July 3rd, 2009

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No doubt about it. Yahoo TV Widgets will be THE novelty in this fall HDTV offerings. The latest to join the party is Vizio that will offer a step up over the other HDTV’s with Yahoo TV Widgets as it will also offer On Demand Services like Pandora, Raphsody, Vudu, Netflix and Blockbuster OnDemand.

Yahoo TV Widgets being based off The Yahoo Widget Engine means you being able to get  Flickr, Twitter, Pandora, Last.FM, Facebook, MySpace, etc. All in Widget form.

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The Other interesting bit is that it comes with a Remote Control/ Slide QWERTY Keyboard as the input/pointing device to enjoy the Vizio HDTV.

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Quite a incredible offering  since it is like it having a service like Microsoft Mediaroom built into the TV by default without the need of a Top Box or it being a Media Center Extender. the only question now is if it will truly deliver. My concern is that it needs to be thoroughly tested in order for it to deliver a smooth and quick experience. The last thing you want is having a HDTV with slow loading Widgets ruining the experience.

Vizio releasing Twitter-, Flickr-, Netflix-enabled TV via CrunchGear

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