All good things to those who wait, right? Apple announced today that they AppleTV update will be delayed. The update will bring high-definition movie rental to the AppleTV without the use of iTunes. The free software releases is not quite finished. One could only anticipate the QA apple goes through for a release such as this, and the flack they would catch if it was buggy and crashed frequently.

AppleTV owners should expect the update in another week or two.

The Jim Henson Company has joined iTunes with the first seasons of >Farscape and of Fraggle Rock
. I'm sure most of the sci-fi geeks are more excited about Farscape, but i have already found myself downloading a few random Fragile Rock episodes to reclaim some of my youth before its all gone.

Nicole Goldman, VP of Marketing and Publicity, says the Jim Henson Company "continue to be honored and thrilled by our fans’ ongoing desire to support their favorite shows and view them using all formats of media,... We know our fans have been asking for these titles on iTunes and through our partnership with New Video, we hope to serve our loyal supporters and also introduce these beloved shows to new audiences.”

Individual episodes are of course $1.99, and the season are $40.00 for Farscape and $35 for Fraggle Rock. In the next few months expect to see more seasons and shows by the Jim Henson Company appearing in iTunes.

Amazon has committed to selling MP3 music files through its international sites in 2008. This move would help them compete with other international online music services such as iTunes. Amazon currently run online stores in the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, Canada, and China. Despite the desire to launch internationally, not much has been found in the way of a game plan. As with selling digital media internationally, there are many legal hoops to jump through.

Amazon began selling DRM-Free MP3 music last September, and has quickly become one of the favorite Mp3 providers on the internet. Their flexible price points and strong relationships with record labels have allowed them to be flexible with their online catalog of music.

During MacWorld this year, Equinux announced the release of their TubeStick hybrid. The small USB stick will allow you to watch digital and standard cable television on your mac. The TubeStick Hybrid unlike its predecessor was designed to work specifically in the United States. Prior to this only Euripeans and Australians were able to take advantage of the device.

The TubeStick hybrid includes the poplular, The Tube software, which boasts features such as timeshift, scheduled recordings, and pause and rewind live tv. The software all has some social network qualities with TubeTalk, allowing users to discuss the programs they are watching, and surf their buddies channels. They are also introduciing TubeToGo, an automated web upload service so you can view your recording anywhere with an internet connection. Not to shabby.

More information regarding the TubeStick hybrid is available at Equinux. Its currently not available for purchase, but is anticipated in February. If interested you an complete the interest form and get the latest on when its available.

The rumor floating around the internet tubes, is that NBC and Apple are working to resolve their differences and bring NBC content back to iTunes. A healthy NBC/Apple relationship benefits both parties, so despite their tiff last year, most anticipated discussions once the air cleared. The most encouraging worlds came from NBC's Zucker last monday, stating: 'We've said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple... ...We're great fans of Steve Jobs.'"

We are curious what is sparking these conversations. Perhaps NBC has realized that launching their own video download service is not as easy as it looks. We assume that NBC did not retain their local customers when switching to Hulu or Amazon, and thus lost money pulling their shows from iTunes.

NBC was one of Apple's first studios to provide downloadable content for $1.99 per episode. Episodes of NBC's The Office, Law and Order, Heros, House, and My Name is Earl, were consistently some of the more popular titles on iTunes at the time. NBC wanted to make more money and suggested raising the price per episode for a test run. Apple stuck with their fixed price point model and rejected the suggestion. Apple and NBC would but heads for the next few months, resulting in NBC not renewing their iTunes contract, and pulling all NBC Studio content from the iTunes Store, where we are today.

iTunes 'Shorts' collection no longer just includes Pixar flicks. Two collection of short Wallace and Gromit films have been added to the iTunes UK Store this morning. A total of 5 24-30 min. shorts have been added, grouped into two separate collections:

• 3 Cracking Adventures: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave.
  
• Cracking Contraptions: 2 Parts
  
• Coming Soon:Five Tales

Each collection includes multiple films at £4.99, however you may also purchase them individually for £1.89 each. I hope we are able to get these collections on this side of the pond.

With iTunes Movie rentals soon to be a reality on your AppleTv, it would make sense for BBC to add TV Show and Program rentals through the same interface. BBC has been utilizing their iPlayer to permit viewers to download and watch BBC programming for a limited time. BBC programming is free but also includes a limited playback window similar to AppleTV's movie rentals.

Ashley Highfield from the BBC said that "The announcement from Macworld about the effective relaunch of the AppleTV... is encouraging." This statement alone leads us to believe that the BBC has eyed AppleTV as a potential solution to their Macintosh player problem. Currently their player is flash based, and not a stand alone applicaiton like the Windows component.

Once again a rumor through the grapevine becomes reality. At today's Macworld Keynote, Steve introduced us to iTunes Movie Rentals, with all major movie studios already signed on. This includes 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate, and New Line Cinema. iTunes users will now be able to rent movies as low as $2.99 and view them on their computers, iPods, iPhones and AppleTVs.

The iTunes Movie Rental launch will have over 1,000 titles immediately available for rent. Over 100 of these titles will be available in 720p high definition and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound for $1.00 more. Existing titles will utilize the $2.99 standard definition and $3.99 high definition price points, and new releases will be available at $4.99.

Once rented, the movie is downloaded to your AppleTV or iTunes Library, over your high-speed internet connection, and can be viewed almost immediately. Customers have up to 30 days to view the movie, or 24 hours to watch it multiple times. After the 24 hr period or 30 days, the movie is removed from the library and deleted to save hard drive space.

When Apple and 20th Century Fox inked their movie rental deal in December, they also signed a deal to include a Free iTunes Digital copies of films on their DVD's. Similar to purchasing a movie from the iTunes Store, the digital copy can been transfered to iTunes, iPhones, iPods or AppleTV.

Days before MacWorld copies of "Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest" that were pre-ordered appeared with the first Digital Copies. When customers attempted to open these copies in iTunes, it would error stating it required iTunes 7.6 to play. This of course wasn't released until after the MacWorld Keynote.

Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos says that DVD buyers have been asking for a method to play their media on their media devices. With iTunes Digital Copy this is now possible. The process requires entering a unique number associated with the digital copy, which will imports the movie into iTunes. Its also important to not the movie will transfer only to one iTunes Library.

Following the MacWorld Keynote today, Apple has released several software updates. We assume the majority of the updates have to do with iTunes Movie Rentals and HD Content. Here are the details that are provided by Apple.:

iTunes 7.6 (44.7MB)

Rent and download your favorite movies with iTunes on your computer or directly to your living room on Apple TV. Enjoy rented movies in sizes up to 720p HD with surround sound on your Apple TV and sizes up to DVD-quality on your computer. Transfer your rented movies from iTunes to your iPod or iPhone and enjoy them on the go.

Also, purchase and download your favorite TV shows, music, and more directly on your Apple TV. Effortlessly transfer purchases made on Apple TV back to your computer with iTunes.

QuickTime 7.4 (57.9)

QuickTime 7.4 addresses security issues and delivers:
- Numerous bug fixes
- Support for iTunes

This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.

For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798.

iMovie 7.1.1 (16.9)

This update addresses issues when publishing movies to a .Mac Web Gallery, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

FrontRow 2.1.2 (17.4MB)

This Front Row update provides for bug fixes and improved iTunes compatibility.

EntertainMac has been waiting for some developers to start developing some FrontRow 2 Plug-Ins. Sapphire was the first one, and with it recently being released as an OpenSource project, another developer, Garion911, has created a basic "Hello World" plug in and a MythTV Launcher. Both of the Plugin's are written completely in Python

Hello World
Start off by downloading the Hello World Application from garion.tzo.com.

To Install:
Uncompress the file.
Open a terminal
go into the directory you uncompressed the file to
type “python setup.py py2app”
Bunch of stuff flies across the screen
cd dist
cp FrontPython.frappliance /System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns
Restart Frontrow. You should now see the FrontPython plugin entry. Selecting it shows a helloworld message.

MythFrontEnd
This application will launch your MythFrontend Application, assuming it lives in your Applications Directory. When launched, MythFrontend is launched, and when you exit, it returns back to FrontRow. This application has already been updated and version 0.2 can be downloaded here.

This latest application can really be modified to launch whatever app you would like, including EyeTV. For developers out there looking to learn more, a Google Code Project has been established for the project.

Apple continues to court movie studios for its future iTunes Rentals program. In late December reports came in about Apple and Fox Studios inking a deal to bring Fox's library of movies to a new iTunes Rental program. BusinessWekk is now reporting Apple is close to finalizing agreements with other studios in time for next week's MacWorld. These agreements include new studios such as Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, and Lions Gate. These deals would bring favorite movies such as Napoleon Dynamite, Transformers, Shrek, Mission Impossible, 300, Oceans 11, and Batman Begins.

The iTunes Rental feature is needed to help save the struggling AppleTV project. Without fresh content AppleTV, remains to be a stale device sitting under your TV. Rentals may not save the device which is already on life support, but providing downloadable content to the AppleTV is a step in the right direction.

Sapphire, our favorite and only plug in for the new FrontRow 2 / AppleTV has opted to open up their project finally and allow for others to start tinkering with it. When the Sapphire project was first started Graham and Parick had decided that they would open the project up under GNU Public License, once the foundation was estabilished and solid. This occurred last month with the latest release.

Opening the code on a project such as this will hopefully inspire additional tweaks and changes to Sapphire, improving its interface, adding more options, or debugging. The code could also inspire the release of additional media browser like plug-ins for AppleTV or FrontRow. Or perhaps an EyeTV based Plug-In?

With the latest release of Sapphire, it was open-sourced. You can now browse the code on the Sapphire Trac or use the Subversion Repository to checkout a copy. Distribution and use is restricted to the terms of the GNU Public License (v3).