Yahoo Widgets Make Net TV Fun

Internet TV has been tried many times with little success, but the Yahoo Widget Engine just might change all that, writes Katherine Boehret in the Wall Street Journal. The system, shipping with the $3,000 Samsung LED TV 7000 introduced this week, allows you to neatly distract yourself with all kinds of small internet applications—think Flickr, Twitter, Sudoku—while your TV channel hums on alongside them.

Want to stay updated on GM’s latest stock price or the weather forecast? You can set up a strip of shortcuts along the bottom of the screen. The dedicated, color-coded buttons on the remote make the system a snap to use, though for now you’ll have to muddle along with a “painfully slow virtual keyboard,” rather than a physical one. Boehret’s verdict? “I found it to be a lot of fun.” (More Samsung stories.)