I found this snippet yesterday:
"TV makers look to Web
The big players in the flat-panel TV sector all highlighted different innovations at CES on Wednesday, but the common theme is the Internet.
Specifically, companies such as LG Electronics, Toshiba and Samsung are all working on new ways to allow consumers to access the Internet through their televisions. The companies have partnered with big online names such as Yahoo Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google Inc.'s YouTube in this effort.
As a press conference sponsored by Samsung, Yahoo Vice President Patrick Barry discussed the company's "Cinematic Internet" concept, which allows users to access the Web through a series of "widgets" using a regular TV remote. The Web portal, which has been looking for new ways to grow its business after suffering market-share loss to Google, also has partnered with LG for services on those TVs.
LG already earned some early buzz by signing a partnership with Netflix that lets users (at least those who are Netflix subscribers) to stream movies without the need for an additional set-top box.
Toshiba did not outline specific partnerships at its own press conference, though Chief Executive Akio Ozaka called the Internet "a growing channel for entertainment" and said his company's TVs would also be supporting Internet applications.
-Dan Gallagher"
The fear of web applications, like the up-and-coming web-based office applications Google is championing (and doing quite well with thusfar -- look up "Web 2.0" and "Google Docs" in your fav search engine, if you're interested), is the primary reason MS entered the game console market to begin with. Now it looks like even TV makers are going to threaten MS with browsing capability. This will have a fascinating effect on Microsoft's next console generation, I think.
