Vizio’s WiFi Internet Ready HDTV
Monday, August 17th, 2009
Vizio is much more than a maker of cheap television sets. Vizio is based out of Irvine, CA. They are the No. 1 High Definition Television company in the United States. Vizio is looking to make the Television the next big internet device and guess what? They’re going to pull it off. While in the midst of creating this vision, they are also creating a wealth of opportunities for developers and a whole new world for consumers.
So what is Vizio’s grand scheme you may be asking yourself? Vizio has a wealth of new technology packed into their top of the line XVT televisions. The latest incarnation of Vizio’s TVs come out in the 4th quarter of 2009, and they employ a new feature which the company dubs smart dimming. The new feature turns off sections of the back light to boost the blacks and achieve and higher contrast ratio. Its very striking and makes some amazing images.
The greatest part of the new line of XVT televisions is what they are going to be doing for internet connectivity. Vizio is hell bent on making the TV an accessible internet platform just and the PC and mobile phone have become. They might be on the right track.
Vizio isn’t just shoving Ethernet cords in the back of LCD screens. In many of the XVT series TV sets, Vizio has installed Wi-Fi 802.11n modems. The great thing about the wireless modems is that not everyone has their router close to their TV. With Vizios forward thinking it doesn’t matter whether they do or do not because they can connect wirelessly.
Vizio is going above and beyond to insure the success of not only Yahoos widget channel, but they as supporting Adobe Flash apps. Develops and companies alike can build apps in either environment that are playable on the TV sets. A number of big name companies have signed on to develop the do dads that will be hosted on the Yahoo widget channel although Vizio has been the only company that supports Yahoo and Adobe.
Vizio will have a program within the TV which allows users to use Adobe or Yahoo apps on the same interface. Aside from streamlining content for increased ease of use, Vizio hopes to blend all apps this way to aid ease of development. Vizio wants to get an many TVs connected to the internet as possible to benefit the widest number of developers.
Some of the companies which have signed on to produce apps for the TVs include but are not limited to Facebook, Twitter, EBay, Showtime, Netflix, and Rhapsody who have an exclusive contract with Vizio. When Vizio gets sets to launch their state of the art Televisions, there will be around 20 apps available for use. By the end of 2010 there will be over 1000 having been developed by a multitude of companies. Vizio isn’t trying to reinvent the internet browser. Instead they are hoping to turn the TV into a major internet platform akin to the PC or the mobile phone. Vizio wants to be to television what the Iphone is to mobiles.
Vizio’s new TV is almost a bit of a cyborg as far as televisions go. Not only does it have a Wi-Fi modem, it also sports 2GB of flash memory as well as Bluetooth capabilities. If that wasn’t enough, every television will come with a remote control that has a qwerty keyboard similar to an Blackberry. The keyboard not only will allow users to search and Tweet on Twitter but it also has basic game controls so that people can play Flash games on their TV effortlessly and easily.
