MacMegasite

CUPERTINO, California–May 1, 2008–Apple today announced that new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios are available for purchase on the iTunes Store ([URL]www.itunes.com[/URL]) on the same day as their DVD release. New releases and catalog titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios. Movies purchased from iTunes can be viewed on an iPod with video, iPhone, Mac or PC or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV, with new releases priced at $14.99 and most catalog titles at $9.99.

“We’re thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date with the DVD release,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think movie fans will love being able to buy their favorites from major and independent studios.”

New releases available for purchase on the iTunes Store this week, concurrent with their DVD release, include “American Gangster” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Other popular titles now available for purchase include “Juno,” “Cloverfield,” “I Am Legend,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”

The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over six million songs, 600 TV shows and over 1,500 films including 200 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as new iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

[B]Pricing & Availability[/B]

Movie purchases and rentals from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows require iTunes 7.6.2, available as a free download immediately from [URL]www.itunes.com[/URL]. iTunes movie purchases and rentals require a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. iTunes Movies are available in the US only and are $9.99 (US) for library title purchases and $14.99 (US) for new release purchases and $2.99 (US) for library title rentals and $3.99 (US) for new release rentals, and high definition rental versions are priced just one dollar more with library title rentals at $3.99 (US) and new release rentals at $4.99 (US). Short films are available to rent for 99 cents (US). Movies can be previewed, purchased and watched on iPod classic, iPod nano with video, iPod touch, iPhone and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

Apple quietly issued a new update to the Apple TV tonight. The 2.0.1 update is the first update since the Take 2 update that Apple announced at Macworld this year.

‘Take 2′ introduced Movie rentals, and revamped the entire Apple TV interface.

With such a small version increase, it may simply represent a bug fix release, but we will post a list of changes as we find them. Current Apple TV owners can download the update through their Apple TV “Settings” menu.

New Features:

- “Genres” option under “My Movies”

[via MacRumors]

Apple has added a Movies Coming Soon section to the iThe iTunes store, where you can pre-order movies, which will be automatically downloaded as soon as they are available. In addition to the newest releases, classic movies will also be available to pre-order.

Caldwell, New Jersey – HungryFlix, the Internet’s first distributor of premium, independent video content specifically formatted for portable devices, is continuing to drive innovation in the movie download space by announcing that content providers can now upload movies of up to 1GB in size. This increased storage capacity will allow for high quality movies to be delivered to Macs, PCs and especially, Apple TV.

HungryFlix was the pioneer in providing indie films for portable media players such as the Apple iPod, iPhone and Sony PSP. The web startup is also offering support for the new class of home media servers such as Apple TV and slingmedia’s slingbox. In order to support growing demands for high definition video, HungryFlix has deployed Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), a component of Amazon Web Services.

Amazon S3 provides a web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web. S3 provides the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. This infrastructure will provide HungryFlix with greater capacity while reducing costs.

“We are seeing more and more independent productions adopting HD,” says HungryFlix.com CEO Brian Andrews. “In the portable device space, HD hasn’t been a concern due to the obvious issues of small lower resolutions screens and limited storage space. But, when we look at continuing to expand to Apple TV users, where we see great growth is in the ability to deliver HD or near HD quality video. The demand is coming from both the producers and consumers.”

HungryFlix content is delivered as MPEG4 files that look and sound great on PCs, handhelds and now large screen TVs. All files are DRM-free so that users can also view movies on their computer, iPod or any other compatible device, provided that the film was encoded to support each device.

The web startup is drawing video content providers from across a wide range of genres. The site accepts feature films, short films, documentaries, animation, how-to videos, sports video, music video and more. The goal of HungryFlix is to become another means of distribution for the vast amount of incredible indie content being produced today.

“One of our main goals is to help independent filmmakers and video producers get their content out to the world,” continued Andrews.

“When you look at the movie watching experience, especially for feature length films, many people still want to watch movies in the family room. By supporting Apple TV, we can push video from the web down to the home computer and then the last 100 feet to the family room. When we reach the family room we want be able to provide a higher quality experience. Increasing our file sizes will enable providers to deliver much higher quality video than was previously possible.”

From the movie fan’s perspective, HungryFlix’s goal is to give the people what they want – the widest array of compatible video content free from restrictions so that consumers can watch when and where they wish. The site offers paid movie downloads which means users will own the rights to view movies as often as they would like, on as many devices as possible. Membership is free and downloads start at just $0.99.

HungryFlix: [URL]http://www.hungryflix.com[/URL]
The Prisoner – Short Film for $0.99: [URL]http://www.hungryflix.com/view_media_movie.php?mid=550[/URL]
How HungryFlix Works: [URL]http://www.hungryflix.com/hungryFlix_works.php[/URL]

HungryFlix.com was the pioneer in providing independent movie downloads for iPod, iPhone, PSP, Apple TV or computer. We are a distributor of premium independent media including feature films, short films, how-to video, music videos, sports, documentary, TV Shows and music. We view the internet as the ideal distribution mechanism for content providers and consumers. Our goal is to provide an effective way to market and distribute independent content to audiences worldwide. We welcome you to HungryFlix.com and to the Distribution Revolution.

MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO–January 15, 2008–Apple today unveiled all new software for Apple TV that allows movie fans to rent movies on the iTunes Store directly from their widescreen TV, and lowered the price of Apple TV to just $229. With iTunes Movie Rentals and Apple TV, users can just click a button on their remote to effortlessly rent movies from a catalog of over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, with no computer required. DVD-quality iTunes Movie Rentals are $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are just one dollar more with library titles at $3.99 and new releases at $4.99. Apple will provide the new Apple TV software free of charge to existing Apple TV owners when it releases the new Apple TV priced at $229 in about two weeks.

“With the new Apple TV and iTunes Movie Rentals, movie lovers can rent DVD-quality or stunning HD movies from their couch with just a click of a button,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “No more driving to the video store or waiting for DVDs to arrive in the mail.”

iTunes Movie Rentals feature iTunes’ legendary ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movie rentals as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes. Once a movie is rented, it starts downloading from the iTunes Store directly to Apple TV, and users with a fast Internet connection can start viewing the movie in seconds. Customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 24 hours to finish it–or watch it multiple times.

With Apple TV, users can also view photos from their computers, Flickr and .Mac Web Galleries on their widescreen TV as slideshows or screen savers, and anytime photos are updated on Flickr or .Mac, they are automatically updated on Apple TV. Apple TV users can now browse and enjoy the iTunes Store podcast directory of over 125,000 video and audio podcasts, view over 50 million originally created videos from YouTube or choose from a selection of six million songs, over 600 TV shows and 10,000 music videos to purchase directly from their Apple TV. Purchases downloaded to Apple TV are automatically synced back to iTunes on the user’s computer for enjoyment on their computer, all current generation iPods* or iPhone.

Apple TV easily connects to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed AirPort 802.11 wireless networking, Apple TV now automatically plays all of your iTunes content without setup or management.

Pricing & Availability

The new Apple TV software will be available as a free automatic download to all Apple TV customers later this month. Apple TV, which includes the Apple Remote, is available from the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $229 (US) for the 40GB model and $329 (US) for the 160GB model (US and Canada). Apple TV requires an 802.11g/n wireless network or 10/100 Base-T Ethernet networking, a broadband Internet connection and a high definition widescreen TV. iPod games will not play on Apple TV. iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only.

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA — August 28, 2007 — Lava Software is now shipping Kenbushi Pro v7.1, a powerful media entertainment center with built-in file sharing and data backup. New features in this version include an enhanced full-screen media control system (like Apple TV), vidcast support, automatic hourly addition of new media files to the media library, improved automatic categorization of media, automatic daily news updates, and various bug fixes. Versions are available for Windows 2000/XP and MacOS X. A Linux version is coming soon.

The full-screen media control system in Kenbushi Pro puts your library of movies, TV shows, vidcasts, music and other media at your fingertips for easy browsing, fast searching and instant playback on your existing TV or home theater system. Detailed DVD and CD media information can be downloaded automatically from Amazon.com, allowing you to browse your movie and music collection by gorgeous cover artwork. This media information also allows you to find any movie on your media entertainment center within seconds by name, actor, genre, play time, MPAA rating, etc.

New media (iTunes podcasts and vidcasts, completed BitTorrent downloads, media transferred from other computers) can now be added automatically every hour to your Kenbushi media library, ready for playback. For example, subscribe to the free ‘ABC World News’ vidcast with iTunes, and Kenbushi Pro will add it shortly after it becomes available to subscribers, so you can watch it using the full-screen media control system at your leisure. This effectively converts any PC or Mac with a broadband connection into a fully featured media entertainment center with stored TV programming (similar to a PVR) at low cost. Any computer with a 1GHz+ processor may be suitable.

Kenbushi Pro is now free for personal users, schools and charity organizations, and can be downloaded immediately from http://www.lavasoftware.com. Prices for Kenbushi Pro (for companies, government, etc.) start at USD24.95 per computer, with discounts for larger pack sizes. Integration of Kenbushi Pro is available to Internet storage service providers, ISPs and ISVs. VARs and affiliates welcomed.

About the Company

Lava Software Pty. Ltd., a company incorporated in the State of South Australia in 1997, offers software products across a range of key application areas for all popular computer platforms. More information is available from http://www.lavasoftware.com.

Trademarks

Kenbushi is a registered trademark of Lava Software Pty. Ltd.

INGLEWOOD, CA- SageTV announced today the release of SageTV Media Center 6.2 for Macintosh, an enhancement of its popular personal video recording (PVR) and media center software package for Apple’s Mac computers.

With over 5 years of development in the Windows market, SageTV Media Center delivers many industry leading features for the TV screen. It includes an easy-to-use integrated program guide plus the ability to pause and rewind live TV, record a whole season of shows, search for favorite shows by name, actor or subject, and record multiple shows at the same time with multiple tuner support. It also offers parental control features, built-in networking permitting live and/or recorded TV and music to stream to any computer on the home network. SageTV Media Center Version 6.2 for Mac brings online video to your TV with a press of a remote control. Available for download at www.sagetv.com, the product adds beta support for watching, browsing, and searching YouTube videos. Using the remote control included in the package, YouTube and Google video can now be browsed, searched and viewed on the TV. SageTV also makes it easy to transfer TV recordings to iTunes for enjoying on iPod and Apple TV.

Version 6.2 for Mac also extends the capabilities and convenience of SageTV’s Media Center:
[list]
[*] Anytime, Anywhere TV/PVR, Music and Photos: with the optional SageTV Placeshifter client software, users can access their live or recorded TV, Music, Photos or video from the home SageTV Media Center anytime, anywhere on any Mac, Windows or Linux computer-at the office, on the road, in a hotel room or in another room at home.

[*] With the optional SageTV Media Extender connected to the TV and a wired or wireless home network any TV in the home can access the full PVR, Online Video, Music and Photo capabilities of SageTV Media Center with the included remote control. SageTV Media Extender makes it easy to enjoy DVD libraries with full menus as well as watch, pause and rewind live TV on any TV in your home. All TV recordings, online video, music, photos and DVD library are the same on every TV, so there is no need to transfer recordings or media around the home.
[/list]

SageTV’s mature technology is known for its ease, power, and expandability that lets you add as many tuners, Placeshifters and Media Extenders as you need to get TV/PVR, Online Video, Music and Photos on any TV, Mac or Windows screen in the home or even away from home. The new Sage TV Media Center 6.2 for Mac has enhanced its user interface, maximizing ease of setup and operation. After downloading and installing the file from SageTV’s website, a wizard simplifies set up and configuration and within minutes you can be watching or recording TV. Version 6.2 is also extremely versatile. For example, Mac users can convert TV recordings to iPod (video), AppleTV and RAZR format with a few button presses. In addition, it is also possible to play iTunes Plus content (non-Digital Rights Management) without restrictions.

The product provides subscription-free EPG service (U.S. & Canadian Listings Only), providing up to a 14-day Integrated Programming Guide, One-touch Recording, access to YouTube and Google Video, Favorites Manager, Search, Music, Photos, DVD Playback and much more.

Sage TV Media Center Version 6.2 for Mac supports Mac OS 10.4 or later and Mac computers with PowerPC G4 (500Mhz or faster), G5 or Intel processors. Minimum system requirements are 256MB RAM (512MB Recommended) and an internet connection is required to receive electronic program guide updates More information and specifications are available at [URL]www.sagetv.com[/URL].

Version 6.2 of SageTV Media Center software for Mac sells for $79.95 or can be purchased with the optional SageTV Placeshifter $99.95. SageTV Media Center with a USB TV Tuner bundle can be purchased for $199.95. The SageTV Media Extender is available for $109.95 (wired) or $169.95 (wireless). The SageTV Placeshifter option is available separately for $29.95 at [URL]www.sagetv.com[/URL].

[B]About SageTV[/B]

SageTV, LLC is a pioneer in personal video recording and home media center technologies that combine television, music and related media into a complete, easy-to-use home media experience controlled from an existing PC. SageTV Media Center, the company’s flagship product, is the first PVR solution that operates on both PCs and TVs, can be deployed on either Windows or Linux, and supports multiple tuners, networking and intelligent recording. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Inglewood, CA. For more information, visit [URL]www.sagetv.com[/URL].

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA — May 28, 2007 — Lava Software is now shipping Kenbushi v7.0, a powerful media entertainment centre with built-in file sharing and data backup. Simply connect a PC or Mac to your TV and sound system, and Kenbushi will provide a gorgeous, fast and powerful way to browse, search and play all your movies, music, TV shows and other media. Versions are available for Windows 2000/XP and MacOS X (PPC and Intel). A Linux version is coming soon.

New features in this version include full-screen media control with simple and powerful media search and play, easy browsing of movies and albums by DVD and CD cover artwork, automated download of DVD and CD media information from Amazon.com, extraction of extensive TV show meta-information from download file names, a key press during TV show playback captures cover artwork for an episode, fully integrated support for Quicktime and the VLC media player, fast database-driven searching of local and remote media libraries, easy local and remote playlist creation and management, local control of media playback via wireless (or wired) keyboard or PDA, remote control of media playback over LAN or Internet, playback of virtually all movie and music formats including avi, divx, mpeg4, flash, mov, mp3, mp4 and music purchased from the iTunes store, and an On-Screen-Display (OSD) when controlling full-screen media playback.

The new full-screen media control system provides a gorgeous, fast and powerful way to browse and search your media library for movies, music, TV shows, music videos, audio books and podcasts. For example, you can find any movie within seconds by name, actor, genre, play time, MPAA rating, etc., or simply browse your movie collection using the DVD cover artwork browsing system. When you find a movie or other media to play, press a key to instantly create a playlist and start playback. Stop play at any time and then continue playing at a later time from the last play position (up to 50 separate playlists are supported). Playing media from your media library has never been so easy, fast and intuitive.

The free Lite Edition of Kenbushi can be downloaded now from http://www.lavasoftware.com. The Lite Edition can play music and full-length full-screen movies without restriction, but has limits on file transfer size, data backup, and some media functions after 30 days. Prices for the Standard and Professional Editions start at USD14.95 per computer, with discounts for larger pack sizes. Integration of Kenbushi is available to Internet storage service providers, ISPs and ISVs. VARs and affiliates welcomed.

About the Company

Lava Software Pty. Ltd., a company incorporated in the State of South Australia in 1997, offers software products across a range of key application areas for all popular computer platforms. More information is available from http://www.lavasoftware.com.

Elgato has released EyeTV 2.4, an update to its DVR (digital video recording) application that introduces Apple TV support. The latest release of EyeTV allows users to send clips to the device in a single click, much like sending clips to an iPod.

EyeTV 2.4 is a free upgrade to owners of EyeTV 2.0 or later. You can download it here.

[B]What’s new in EyeTV 2.4?[/B]

• [B]Apple TV Support[/B]

  EyeTV 2.4 supports exporting recordings to Apple TV. Simply select the recording and click the new Apple TV button in the EyeTV toolbar.

• [B]Spotlight Importer[/B]

  EyeTV 2.4 now includes support for Apple’s Spotlight search. You can find EyeTV recordings by typing any portion of the recording’s name or description into the Spotlight search field.

• [B]More Detailed tvtv Program Descriptions[/B]

  EyeTV now supports a newer data feed from the tvtv programming service that can deliver up to 4000 characters per program description. This feed also provides more frequent picture previews in prime time television programs.

• [B]Support for Set Top Boxes (USA only)[/B]

  Set Top Box support is limited to the USA, and all satellite or cable providers for which information is available from TitanTV. The satellite or cable programming guide is now displayed within EyeTV.

  Although EyeTV is now able to schedule recordings from your set top box, it alone cannot change channels on your set top box. For this, additional infrared (also referred to as “blaster”) hardware and compatible software is required. EyeTV indicates its intention to change channels by posting a notification on your computer, which the application that controls the infrared hardware listens to.

• [B]Infrared Blaster Support (USA only)[/B]

  EyeTV now supports Set Top Box channel changing using 3rd party hardware and software packages. Currently, two different packages provide solutions that are compatible with EyeTV 2.4: ZephIR from studioZee, or IRTrans and iRed.

• [B]Programming Guide User Interface Improvements[/B]

  EyeTV 2.4’s EPG display shows the time periods that contain scheduled recordings with pink highlights. EyeTV 2.4 displays the next scheduled EPG update in the Guide section of the Preferences dialog. Because the amount of EPG data downloaded for set top boxes is much larger and EPG downloads can take a lot longer, EyeTV displays a new progress indicator at the bottom of the EPG display window.

• [B]EyeTV Menu[/B]

  EyeTV can be controlled completely through the EyeTV Menu running in a window and no longer requires playing back content at full screen. To enter the EyeTV Menu in windowed mode, select Enter Menu from the View menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Command-Esc. To enter the EyeTV Menu directly in Full Screen mode, use the EyeTV infrared remote control or the Apple Remote.

  To navigate the on screen Menu, use the mouse and/or the keyboard. If your Mac came with an Apple Remote infrared remote control, you can use it for navigation as well.

  To leave the EyeTV Menu, move the mouse to the top of the window and select Exit Menu. To transition the EyeTV Menu from windowed mode to Full Screen, move the mouse to the top of the window and select Full Screen, or use the Cmd-0 (zero) keyboard shortcut.

• [B]Full Screen Preferences[/B]

  For users with multiple monitors, EyeTV 2.4 contains a Full Screen preference pane that supports designating a specific monitor to run the Full Screen menu, and has a preference to black out the other screens.

• [B]Infrared Remote[/B]

  Several changes were made to EyeTV’s support for infrared remote controls. After EyeTV’s sound output volume has been increased to the maximum, continual presses of the volume up key will cause the System sound volume to be further increased (if not already at the maximum). The infrared remote can now send the Macintosh to sleep. While EyeTV is running, press and hold the EyeTV Remote control’s Power button (excluding EyeTV 300/310/410/500/610/EZ models); for the Apple Remote, press and hold Pause to make the Mac sleep.

• [B]Miscellaneous[/B]

  Taking screen captures is now a menu item: select “Snapshot” from the Edit menu to take a snapshot of the currently playing television window.

  The keyboard shortcut Command-G now leads to the built-in EPG. Command-Shift-G now leads to the selected web EPG for remote scheduling.

  The EyeTV Dock icon now contains a red dot while EyeTV is recording.

  The keyboard shortcut Command-R now works for stopping recordings as well as starting them.

• [B]Hardware Support[/B]

  EyeTV 2.4 now supports the Hauppauge WinTV Nova-TD, a dual-tuner DVB-T stick with antenna diversity available in Europe and Australia.

• [B]Various Bug Fixes[/B]

For more information, visit Elgato.com.