Intel in your TV? This is what your next desktop wallpaper could look like . . .

by William Maher | Thursday 21 August 2008

We’ve just seen the demo, and frankly, we’re blown away. High resolution beach-scapes, ultra-realistic water ripples, wind blowing through the tall grass. Wait, is that...?

Is this the highest resolution desktop we’ve ever seen? It looks a bit like Windows from a distance, until you get up close. High resolution beach-scapes, ultra-realistic water ripples - is this the highest resolution desktop we’ve ever seen?

Not quite. The menu system you see in our photo gallery (click the photos on the right) is on a TV, showing live TV, with desktop Internet apps (widgets) overlaid.

[Click the photo gallery on the right]

The chip runs desktop Internet widgets, on top of what you’re watching - things like eBay auctions, Flickr photos, stocks. It works using an Intel chip inside the TV, and an Ethernet Internet connection (more on this below).

What it looks like
Internet on TV is nothing new, but this is slicker than anything I’ve seen so far. For one thing, there wasn’t a browser in sight in the demo I saw today.

The are two major menus that appear, overlaid on top of whatever you’re already watching.

First is the “dock”, which is a taskbar-like menu across the bottom of the screen , reminding me more of Mac OS X than Windows. The dock displays whatever Widgets you have installed on your system, like Flickr, Twitter, eBay, the weather, or Internet TV.

The Widget Channel, showing the menu dock along the bottom of the screen

Click on a widget, and you get a vertical widget box which takes up roughly a third of the screen. In the demo I saw, this “sidebar” (similar in concept to the Vista sidebar), showed basic data feeds like weather in your current city, stocks you’re tracking, or friend’s messages.

Enter slideshow mode, and the dock at the bottom of the screen turns into thumbnail viewer, with the entire screen displaying the current photo. The system can pull photos and video off a DNLA certified home network, too.

Flickr feed displayed in the sidebar

Remember Konfabulator?
Maybe not. It’s the “widget engine” created by Yahoo. You download small widgets which sit on yur PC and keep you constantly updated on the weather and news. The new Intel/Yahoo “Widget channel” (the name for this new TV/PC hybrid) uses the same engine, so theoretically anyone building widgets for the PC can now also do so for your TV.
This could actually be useful

As cynical I am about efforts to combine the TV and the PC, this actually looks useful. For example, you could use an eBay “channel” to keep an eye on your current auctions, while you watch tv.

How do get it?The system uses a new Intel chip called CE 3100, which eventually Intel hopes to have embedded into TVs, set top boxes, PVRs and Blu-Ray players with Ethernet. Apparently there is a TV vendor working with Intel on this, but Intel won’t say who. For the moment, the demos I’ve seen here at IDF use set top boxes, which have the CE 3100 inside.

Please, let there be no “loading time” for TVs
One of my concerns about these type of PC-based menus on TVs, is the start-up load times. A senior Intel rep. downplayed this – for one, the system doesn’t run Vista or XP (it’ll run Linux too), and the data feeds will only kick in “on demand”, so you shouldn’t be waiting for anything to load when you first turn on your TV.

Can’t I already get the Internet on my TV?
Yes. You can setup a Shuttle mini-system and feed directly to your TV via HDMI. You can link your TV to your network/storage box via a set-top box, or get a TV with Ethernet built-in, like Samsung’s 6 Series.

The difference here, is that this is the first embedded Intel system-on-a-chip for the TV itself. This means that the TV will run Intel-compatible apps and instructions, so Flash and other Web content should work better.

In theory (all theoretical, mind you) this should mean a far less-clunky experience than you’ve been used to. Efforts by Sony to add their Xross Media Bar menu for browsing photo galleries and video/music are impressive, but this menu goes further, adding downloadable widgets for any conceivable data feed you can think of.

Insert obligitory Nintendo Wii reference
As well as doing HD video decoding, and 7.1channel surround sound, Intel’s chip also has 3D graphics. Not high end Far Cry graphics, but enough to have some potential. The demo we saw added some nice eye-candy to the TV’s usually staid menus, even creating a fancy cover-flow type carousel for choosing the TV channel, or for showing picture-in-picture.

A senior Intel rep also claimed the CE 3100 chip has roughly the graphics capability of a Nintendo Wii, and yes, those involved are looking at TV remotes with motion sensors built in.

The tricky keyboard problem
The hurdle for just about every Internet/TV product I’ve seen has been the keyboard – it’s big, clunky, and doesn’t fit into the lounge room environment very well. Intel did their on stage demo today using a remote control, which is all well and good, but you’re going to want a keyboard, for typing messages – even if it’s just for logging into eBay accounts.

Either way, this is exciting. The TV, after the PC and phone, is the new frontier for the Internet, and eventually this stuff will fall into place. As Intel pointed out, we spend far too much time already watching the idiot box – so we might as well make good use of that time.

Follow our Intel IDF 2008 coverage:
- IDF: Spot the Eee PC
- IDF: “Turbo mode” is back for PCs
- Intel claims 5-year life for SSD
- IDF: The "Intel iPhone" not such a crazy idea
- Intel IDF: Spotted, a Centrino 2 desktop
- Intel promises “screaming performance” for Core i7
- Live from Intel IDF - Atom, Centrino 2, Larrabee

See more about: intel | 3100 | yahoo | widget | tv

Comments: 10

bbjai 21 August 2008	Im not convinced, I wouldn't go checking my stocks and ebay Auctions on my TV whilst Im watching a movie or show, in fact I think this looks tacky and detracts from my whole TV experience. The Xcross Bar is a better solution as it is less intrusive./ Comment made about the PC Authority article: Intel in your TV? This is what your next desktop wallpaper could look like . . .? We’ve just seen the demo, and frankly, we’re blown away. High resolution beach-scapes, ultra-realistic water ripples, wind blowing through the tall grass. Wait, is that...? What do you think? Join the discussion.
Dinks-c 21 August 2008	The Killer app for me would be how it interacts with my computers, will it allow me to play all my DVD's that are stored on the Windows Home Server? Will it allow me to record TV content and then replay and SKIP the adverts at will like my media centre? If Intel/? lock the thing down so that the user can't do the things that they want then the early adopters amongst us will vote with our feet.
midbear 21 August 2008	This really could be a major innovation in the lounge room. I can think of half a dozen things of the top of my head... a pvr app, media streaming, games that you can play during an add break that automatically pause and minimize when your TV show starts again, iptv (essentially making your broadband another TV tuner), notes and calender for the family, and of course hackibility, it is after all a Intel chip running Linux - the possibilities could be endless. On the remote/keyboard issue why not add a mobile phone style keypad, it is the ubiquitous way to communicate on a candybar style device, as well as being space saving and very usable.
bbjai 21 August 2008	wow, I never thought about a notes and calender thing for a family. That seems like a viable option. The UI will be extremely important I think. Current Media centre pcs aren't very maintstream because the interfaces are fairly clunky. Using a remote like they have stated isn't exactly appealing either.
midbear 21 August 2008	bbjai wrote: wow, I never thought about a notes and calender thing for a family. That seems like a viable option. The UI will be extremely important I think. Current Media centre pcs aren't very maintstream because the interfaces are fairly clunky. Using a remote like they have stated isn't exactly appealing either. I agree the current UI's are very clunky, but if the UI is kept clean and easy to use, things like family notes and calenders could be killer app, especially in a very tight TV market. And adding a mobile phone style keypad would mean even a 12 year old could add notes and school events, I mean I've even seen kids as young as 7 and 8 sending sms'!!!
bbjai 21 August 2008	but that bears it all back to, do we really want to use the TV as a form of communication device? We might as well stop talking to each other and just talk through the TV. I think the Bravia system isn't a bad implementation in itself. I don't think the TV's need to be interactive so to speak. I mean the Logitech Air mouse isn't a bad crack at trying to be a UI device for the Home Media Center PC
midbear 22 August 2008	In principle I agree with you bbjai, but unfortunately I believe it will become a reality. As a society we are becoming more and more attatched to some sort of technology be it a tv or a mobile phone or our pc or what ever is next on the horizon. Some boffin will inevitably make an app for a tv like this that will push calender events and notes to your phone or pc or visa versa, after all there is a lot real estate on a large plasma or lcd tv that could be used for apps like this (particularly in in letterbox mode). It would certainly be more comfortable than what I do now i.e sitting on the couch with my laptop answering emails I didn't get too at work while while keeping one eye on the football or some mindless tv after the rest of the family has gone to bed. In fact have been wondering for a while how long it will take a company like Sony to start incorporating PlayStation technology directly into the TV in a similar fashion to what Intel is doing here. Give it a decent UI and you've got a netpc built right into the tv as well as a games machine, pvr and media centre as well as point of difference for the sales of there tv's.
bbjai 22 August 2008	I personally think that would be a step to the wrong direction. Everyone member of the family conceivably would need a TV. In fact now a days most family's could put up a decent argument that everyone needs a computer. I would love to be around dinner time when these family's start to interact and so forth. The idea of a PS3 built into a TV would work in principle but they would have to develop a OS/UI that is faultless. As it stands the PS3 OS works because of the controller. Give any parent or oldie a PS3 controller and you'll see a massive problem. The Wii Mote is good to use for a variety of things but I can't imagine anyone typing up notes on a calender for it for an extended period of time. They keyboard is still a large problem for everyone. I think voice recognition technology is what will drive TV interaction. You see it in the movies all the time and thats because its probably the most efficient and useful way of interacting with the TV. Without straining your hands and wrist.
totoaus 22 August 2008	I'd rather read about something interesting like a network of Wii's running as a small supercomputer cluster, or maybe the same with XBox 360's. Like so many "future concepts" in IT, it is vaporware. I need to do things TODAY, so where are they?
midbear 23 August 2008	LOL You have pointed out the great IT dilemma totoaus - its too slow for some and too quick for most! I agree with you bbjai - it probably isn't a step in the right direction. In my head I had a bizarre vision of a family communicating through various house hold appliances... johnny at the toaster txting jane at the hair dryer who is talking to the kid next door in the shower...it could become very ludicrous in fact it probably already is...me thinks I'm getting too old! LOL