The screens are becoming one, slowly but surely. The announcement yesterday of The Widget Channel from Intel and Yahoo may not signal the turning point, but it's a significant evolution.
Intel and Yahoo will introduce technology to redesign the HDTV --- combining a processor with a platform --- to deliver widgets of updated content (sports, auction, business) at the bottom of the screen, somewhat like the original multifaceted Bloomberg TV screen model that now occupies many cable offerings.
The announcement has some powerful endorsements from Comcast, Disney, Sony and a wave of letters of support from the likes of CBS, Motorola, and Samsung.
Now there are several hurdles to this channel: The TV technology is costly and still not widely available, among them. But when large entities begin to collaborate like this, it's only a matter of time before the major applications emerge.