Intel partnered with Yahoo! to deliver Internet-connected widgets, advertising, and content to potential partners with a software stack branded The Widget Channel. Yahoo! spent about two years customizing Yahoo! Widget Engine for high-definition televisions and hardware-accelerated graphics displays.
You still use xml to make a widget, javascript to run it, and it's got WebKit to boot. Only now it's showing up on your TV running under Linux. Neato, Konfabulator is kind of all growns up now.
I wonder if Arlo Rose is still working on it? All of the UI is certainly in his style. Update: Daniel Wilson let me know that Arlo left over a year ago.