--Is Considering Making Widgets More Easily Accessible via a "Favorites" List
In a posting on a Verizon blog, Wednesday, the company's SVP of media relations, Eric Rabe, announced the launch of a new interactive TV widget, dubbed the Weatherbug, in its FiOS TV service's Widget Bazaar marketplace.
According to Rabe, the free widget allows subscribers to customize weather reports by ZIP code and to pull up hourly or seven-day forecasts. In addition, he wrote, FiOS TV subscribers who also subscribe to Verizon's FiOS Internet service can access on-screen radar images, which are displayed on the right side of the screen, or can be launched in full-screen mode. Among other things, the widget provides the high and low temperatures for the day, and information on the chance of precipitation and the level of humidity for the day or the week. It also provides subscribers with a "favorites" list, where they can enter up to 10 ZIP codes for additional weather information from anywhere around the US. When launched, the app appears on one side of the screen, allowing subscribers to continue to watch regular programming.
In addition, in response to a comment by a FiOS TV subscriber, Rabe revealed that Verizon is considering making its TV widgets easier to access: "It is definitely something we're looking at," he wrote. "You'd pick from all the Widgets available sort of like you can do now with channels to create a list of 'Favorites.' As you can imagine, with dozens or someday hundreds of Widgets, a way to pull out the ones you use and like best becomes even more important."
