Here is a quick roundup of a couple of recent interesting widget news and trends:

• Mobile Widget become a Reality
  Nokia continues its push into turning its mobile phones into a widget platform as more vendors add support for its Web Runtime widgets! At the same time, Motorola is offering a $25,000 prize as part of its own mobile widget MOTODEV Challenge!
• TV Widgets are Coming
  At CES, Intel and Yahoo announce that they are revving up for the move to bring Internet widgets to TV. You can probably expect Internet widgets to make an appearance on new gaming consoles as well!
• Facebook Connect Widgets
  Since the release of Facebook Connect, entrepreneurs are building a new breed of widgets that leverage the service. Examples include commenting apps like those from Disqus and JS-Kit.
• Widget Politics
  Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Governor, is taking to widgets and social media to get the state budget passed. His “Legislature’s Failure to Act” widget features how many days the state has gone without having a budget passed. The governor has also taken his message to Twitter, with updates on the budget crisis and promoting his widget!

Yes, hopefully in a very short while you’ll be able to access widgets on your TV thanks to Intel and Yahoo! According to CNET, new TV sets from such popular electronics manufacturers like Samsung and Toshiba that feature Intel’s Media Processor CE 3100 where showcased at this years CES and will be available as early as next month!

Developed by Yahoo!’s Connected TV group, these Internet-enabled “TV Widgets” will live at the bottom of your TV screen and will be turned on or off with one click of the button! Intial widgets will include the obvious news, weather, stocks, sports and photos (Flickr).

With the help of anthropologist Genevieve Bell, director of user experience for Intel, the company has learned that most consumers want the following types of widget functionality on their TV sets:

• Something that would provide relevant information in real time, such as the weather right before heading to a sporting event.
• Something that would connect them to other people they care about, a variation of social networking.
• Something that would let them participate more with what they’re watching, for example by figuring out where a show’s cast members already had acted, or finding, rating, and sorting content.