Glad to see Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) still has some activity going on in its Connected Life unit: Intel (NSDQ: INTC), on its developer day, has previewed plans for the Widget Channel, a TV application framework to bring online apps/widgets onto TV…it has tied up with Yahoo for it, which will supply its “Yahoo Widget Engine”. These will bring content, information and community features available online onto the TV and manageable through the remote control. It will allow integration of services such as Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) and eBay (NSDQ: EBAY). To help create new Widgets for this, Intel and Yahoo plan to make a development kit available to developers, including TV and other CE device makers, advertisers and publishers. No specific timeline of launch has been released.

The two have tied up with content/services companies such as Blockbuster, CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS), CinemaNow, Cinequest, Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA), Disney-ABC Television Group, eBay, GE, Group M, Joost, MTV, Samsung Electronics, Schematic, Showtime, Toshiba and Twitter, among others.

The effort also is partly based around a new “system on a chip” for TV set-top boxes, which Intel also announced plans for today..

Lot more details in the release and framework and demo here.

Update: Comcast is also involved in this effort..it will start testing the widget engine in first half of next year on its interactive program guide..more details here.