Oregan Networks announced the Oregan Media Browser 4.0, which they've dubbed Onyx. It's aimed at the DTV and set-top box markets and provides "simplified accessibility to multiple sources of trusted Internet and personal content on TVs through a single resident TV application that requires minimal set up and can be easily 'called up' in the form of a widget and dismissed without leaving regular broadcast channels or switching TV inputs."

Interesting times in which we live. I talked to Steve Tomlin, Chumby's CEO, this afternoon. He gave me an update on the widget development that they're doing, which includes work and demonstrations with major silicon vendors such as Broadcom, Freescale, Marvell, and Samsung.

I also touched base with Panasonic and got the update on the VIERA Cast applications that they are bringing to both DTVs and to Blu-ray players. The addition of Amazon.com Video On Demand content is a significant value to that particular solution.

On Tuesday, I caught up with Mike Harris at AnySource Media, a company that has developed a platform to bring in Web content to a connected TV. It's very different from other approaches, in that the "normalization" of content is done in the cloud and not on the TV itself, giving TV manufacturers greater ability to create rich content libraries and not subject users to just a few offerings. There is also an ad component to what AnySource is doing, and I think this story is going to play out in a significant way as the connected CE platforms develop. For CE manufacturers to differentiate and potentially get access to growing ad revenues, they're going to need to be able to use assets like navigational pages and on-screen guides for ad real estate. I think that's also the beauty behind the Macrovision Neon CE guide. Obviously, the main goal of the guides will be to help consumers discover and organize all kinds of digital media assets, but it will be interesting to see how the ad revenues work in this realm.