Sony’s new line of Bravia HDTVs have two features that put them in the information appliance category: first, they can connect to any DLNA-compatible device via USB to stream computer-based content, and they support on-screen, RSS-aware widgets to stream content from the web.
Though the DLNA support is interesting, the most appealing thing about the TVs to me is the AppliCast feature, which allows the TVs to pull RSS feeds from the web and display them in onscreen widgets over Ethernet. While the TVs come with a handful of widgets pre-installed (clock and, crucially, picture frame), all kinds of content can be delivered via RSS.
The new models – all tolled, 19 different units – are destined for Europe, but we should expect to see some of them, or some of the technology, in the U.S., too.
On InformationAppliance: New Sony Bravia TVs Connect to Web, DLNA | Digital Picture Frames wrote at March 30th, 2009 at 10:43 am
[...] Today on InformationAppliance.com: Nineteen new Sony Bravia HDTV models are also information appliances. They connect to DLNA-compatible devices via USB and sport onscreen widgets that allow users to watch TV while also streaming RSS feeds from the web to the living room … read more [...]