Apple is kinda late.

Which is basically bullcrap. It’s essentially creating one central app which runs various widgets on a display device. That’s been done a couple of times.

Call it what you want: “Media Center App”, “Middleware”, “Display Engine.”

It’s the same thing.

Maybe you should learn the industry before YOU comment.

AOL has already been awarded patents for these and other technologies. There were also synchronized games to play along with broadcast TV, and news and sports scores, and interactive tie-ins with TV commercials.

One may suggest that AOL will call Apple on these patents. There’s tons of prior art of the subject, plus the deceased products. One of AOL’s patent authors has an interesting post at http://www.broo...ne-appletv.html

Some may consider the idea of widgets on your tv crazy, but I would absolutely love this. Considering the way TV sizes are growing there’s no reason part of the TV couldn’t be widgets pulling from the internet. I know I’m often foun…

Did you guys even read the patent?

Apple isn’t trying to patent widgets.

Apple isn’t even trying to patent widgets on TV.

Apple is trying to patent a media center that uses a specific method to display widgets.

Learn to read before you comment.

What next Apple going to patent “transporters” because you saw them on Star Trek?

Why don’t they just get Joost into that thing. That would totally change my TV behavior.

http://www.jhat...lerHomePage.htm

They’re filing a patent on that? I worked for a company and actually wrote code for that (including the transparency wrinkle and embedding the trigger off the tv signal). Of course, we were a little ahead of the market, and the technology was pretty poor in support of it, so now the company is no longer around.

But I really doubt that their patent will be approved. Good luck with the “new technology.”

BTCT

Sharp, Panasonic, etc.

The push towards unity in the software on set top boxes (OCAP) will also make this more of a reality.

Apparently it isn’t “innovative” until you slap an Apple on it.

I did it after I saw this video http://www.yout...//techavid.com/

Hulu, fancast, joox.net and others look great on my 50 “

http://video.ge...aquos-lcd-line/

So more than how *Apple* thinks about things…I think this is yet another indication of how the whole industry is going.

It’s a cool notion though. As much as online video has been taking off, it’ll never really go mainstream. Not with 50+ inch HDTVs actually falling into the affordable range now.

For me, working on a computer ALL DAY, the LAST thing I want to do after I get home from the office is to sit down in yet another office chair, at a yet another computer to watch video on a screen that’s roughly half the size of my wall-mounted TV…

Great idea of Apple.

See this dude’s setup http://techavid.com – I need to copy that!

Avoid advertising on the face of your widget. Branding your widget is acceptable and important, but advertising takes away valuable space in your widget. Presence on a user’s Dashboard is a privilege. Use the back of the widget for information that isn’t vital to the widget’s purpose, such as branding, licensing information, and copyright notices. – Apple Developer Connection Reference Library: Designing Widgets

Andy Gongea, haven’t you seen the new iConceive? It is in beta.