Big news today for music fans. Apple today announced that in April 2009 the iTunes Music Store will begin offering music for 69¢, 99¢, and $1.29 per individual track (most albums will still sell for $9.99). However, the bigger news in my opinion is that Apple is expanding their DRM-free iTunes Plus library (encoded at 256-Kbps AAC) to 8 million songs from their store’s total 10 million tracks. The last 2 million songs are planned to be available by March 2009. What’s more, all iTunes users can update their entire library with one-click to the higher quality DRM-free tracks at 30¢ a piece (or 30% of the album price). On the iPhone front, owners will be happy to learn that they can purchase songs – at the same price and quality – over their cellular 3G network as they have via Wi-Fi. MORE »

LG is announcing the company is getting set to launch a new LCD and plasma “Broadband HDTV” line that will be capable of streaming Netflix video from a subscriber’s Watch Instantly queue via their broadband connection over Ethernet – similar to the company’s BD300 Network Blu-ray Player. According to the press release, users will also be able to to browse Netflix’s available library and make further selections right on the TV using the accompanying remote. In addition, people will also be able to read synopses, rate movies, and, of course, play / pause / rewind / fast-forward movie selections as they’re streaming. No word on pricing or availability other than: sometime in 2009. MORE »

Scoot over, Netflix. Roku and Amazon have announced a partnership to provide the Roku Digital Video Player (notice Roku finally changed their device’s name from “Netflix Player by Roku” to the Roku Digital Video Player — good move) users access to Amazon’s Video On Demand library in the early part of 2009. Soon users will be able to rent new movie titles (launched the same day as their DVD counterparts) and TV shows ranging in price from 99-cents to $3.99 with a 24 hour viewing window. Users will also be able to purchase videos to own, which will be stored in “your video library” at Amazon.com for convenient access from any PC, Mac, or TV. It’s also worth pointing out that Amazon VOD videos will be encoded in the advanced H.264 codec and will stream at the best quality possible (either 300, 600, 900 or 1200 kbps) automatically according to your detected bandwidth connection speed. Full press release below. MORE »

Looks like the guys at LG aren’t threatened by the likes of Samsung’s BD-P2500. LG is announcing that in the next few weeks owners of their BD300 Network Blu-ray Player will gain access to CinemaNow – including its HD library – and YouTube content directly from their player. These new enhancements are in addition to LG’s recently added Netflix HD streaming support. Now, if someone can pass the word along that us, connected home enthusiasts, would like to see UPnP functionality added so we can stream our stored media from network PCs and NAS servers, that would be very much appreciated. MORE »

In an effort to provide Niveus Media Server and Niveus Storage Server – Cargo Edition owners a higher end movie experience, Niveus Media has integrated the ability for people to download HD quality feature films from HDGIANTS’ movie collection directly through the company’s Niveus Movie Library application. The Niveus Movie Library, for those unfamiliar, is a proprietary movie management application that aggregates and displays stored — and now… available — movies along with high-res cover art and detailed metadata. According to the press release attached below, all movies downloaded from the service will be accessible from the system they were downloaded to as well as Media Center Extenders and other network PCs. Unfortunately, there’s no word on pricing for each HD title, but a preview of the selection can be viewed here.

CORRECTION: Just got an email from Niveus stating the following: “The movies are not downloaded via Niveus Movie Library (or any medium for that matter). The customer orders the movie package from the dealer and HDGIANTS sends the dealer a hard drive with the content. The dealer then loads the content onto the customer’s server and it is integrated into the Movie Library.” Sorry, folks. The press release gave me a different impression after reading it. However, now that we’re getting clarification on how the process works… too bad it’s not the case as previously thought (in regards to downloading HD movies directly through the Niveus Movie Library application).

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Forbes.com reporter, Lee Gomes, is shedding light on an interesting fact that many of VUDU’s customers are probably not aware of. The problem Gomes points out is that VUDU is not being totally transparent that their video on-demand boxes function as peer-to-peer nodes downloading and sharing bits of digital information with other users throughout the day in order to give everyone an “instant” viewing experience. He argues: “these protocols are notorious bandwidth hogs. They easily use up so much of the network that simple tasks like e-mail or browsing can slow to a crawl.” While I’m sure VUDU’s backend technology is not setup to leech off the network to that extent, passive background data exchange is a legitimate issue – especially in these days of bandwidth caps set by our providers (see: Comcast). In regards to disclosure, I agree with Gomes that the peer-to-peer aspect of the offering should be stated up front on the product page as well as on the packaging (not just in the Terms of Service or Support FAQ) so people aren’t under the impression that video is being provided directly and on-demand from VUDU’s company servers. MORE »

Look out! VUDU is taking their HD video on-demand box to a new level. The company is announcing the immediate availability of Internet content from sources like Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, as well as, a new “On Demand TV” feature with specialized material from more than 120 channels. But the best news, users will begin seeing a steady stream of new content channels becoming available due to the company’s RIA (Rich Internet Application) platform that any online content provider can leverage to deliver their services. Full press release details below. MORE »

I’m curious what non-Xbox 360/TiVo owners are most likely considering buying for streaming Netflix video to their HDTVs. On one hand you have the $99 Netflix Player by Roku and on the other you have the sub-$350 Blu-ray players from Samsung (BD-P2500) and LG (BD300) – all of which offer HDMI out, upgradeable firmware for new features (Samsung recently added Pandora support and rumor has it that Roku is going to open up the platform to third party developers), and don’t require additional subscription fees like the TiVo (TiVo service required) or Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Gold Pass required). If you’re on the fence about replacing your current DVD player, this may be a hard decision.

* I purposely excluded mention of Boxee’s new Netflix support for Windows since it requires a PC for viewing.

HackingBlockbuster.com has published a video of the 2Wire MediaPoint Digital Media Player designed for Blockbuster that showcases the system’s interface, content selection, and usability. So, if you’re curious on how well polished the system is, give it a look. ZNF also has a write-up with initial setup impressions – verdict: not ready for prime time. However, ZNF concedes most technical issues can be ironed out with a firmware upgrade. But the real question remains: Is the Blockbuster VOD service a compelling offering to consumers? (I already posted my thoughts on the topic earlier.)

Telecoms.com is reporting that France Telecom’s Orange is interested in setting up the foundation for a TV App Store that third-party developers can contribute to that will provide their services to consumers across handsets, PCs, and set-tops. From the write-up, it sounds like the set-top will be the “hub” for content gathering and distribution and then sister apps from there will be able to pull the available content for viewing and management. All in all, it’s not a bad idea – especially since it’s coming from one of Europe’s leaders in the telecom industry. What’s more, Orange’s Steve Glagow feels confident that his company (who already has a robust system in place that delivers mobile games, ringtones, VoD, and other content to handsets) can create a unified platform for developers so that they can write custom apps easily for each device type. Orange is hoping they can get developers on board in the next couple years and have a working system for consumers to use in three.