Toshiba prepping 'web enabled' Network Player
Widgets on your TV, straight from Tosh's magic box
At its annual product preview event last week, Toshiba announced a whole host of new products out this year, and previewed a few that were still in development.
One of those still 'in development' is the Toshiba Network Player.
Instead of adding web widgets straight to its TVs, like Panasonic with its Viera Cast, Toshiba is currently producing a 'DVD player' style box that hooks up to any TV to 'skin' your set with web content.
Intel CE3100 chip
Although TechRadar was privy to a demo of the new technology, there was an absolute ban on photos, proving that Toshiba is very serious about its up-and-coming system.
It did divulge some information on the Network Player though, including that it will be powered by a Intel CE3100 chip.
This makes sense as, according to Intel, "The CE 3100 has been developed for internet-connected consumer electronics (CE) products such as optical media players, connected CE devices, advanced cable set-top boxes and digital TVs."
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Wi-Fi enabled
The network player will also stream content from your PC via Wi-Fi from Window Media server and will have USB 2.0 connectivity and an SD card slot in the front.
The machine also doubles as an upscaling DVD player.
The exact widgets that will be available are unconfirmed, though the demo we saw included widgets for Flickr, Yahoo! and weather reports.
Toshiba is hoping to launch the new device at IFA in October and has said that the price will be a very reasonable sub-£200.
Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.