I remember at the start of the year saying that there would be many more “appliance like” electronics that would roll together many functions into one coming this year, and it seems that it is coming to pass. Either through the appliance (Samsung‘s TVs) or in the case of Verizon, through the network itself. Some people get flashbacks to WebTV, or surfing on their consoles when they hear about the ‘net on TV, but I think these widgets have the right idea. The ‘net isn’t about a spcific package anymore, it’s about mashups and has been for a while. These widgets bring you just the information you want in a format that is native or at least in-line with the display. If you want the weather, you don’t need the entire site, you only need the numbers. If you want to update your SNS, you only need an input area and a place to see what others are up to and it doesn’t have to take up the whole screen.
HD has certainly helped this out quite a bit as there is now much more real estate to work with pixel wise, but this is only the begining. I have a hunch that these widgets are going to get much more integral in short order.
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