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From "Alfred Hitchcock" to the "A-Team", where to find classic TV on the Web

alfred hitchcockToday you can surf the Web to find, and watch, shows you’ve recently missed on television. You can also surf, find, and watch shows you didn’t know you miss.

Shows from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Shows like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “Emergency!”, “The A-Team”, “MacGyver”, “The Twilight Zone”, “Hawaii Five-O”, “Good Times”, “Munsters”, “F Troop”, “I Spy”, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, “My Favorite Martian”, and so many, many more.

Classic TV has made the jump from cable and satellite TV to the Web, where you can find full episodes and entire seasons of shows you’ve probably forgotten about — but watched when you were a kid. These programs are free and play in the same ad-supported media players the networks use for their current offerings.

The Classic TV trend really became apparent in February when two leading networks, NBC and CBS, put some of their old shows on the Web, joining other retro programs we didn’t know were even there.

nbc way back wednesdaysWe haven’t paid much attention to classic TV on the Web because these programs are already available on TV, somewhere in the dead-of-night cable-sphere, or on DVD re-issue boxed sets. Even so, NBC and CBS are creating branded retro channels — NBC’s is “Way Back Wednesdays” — and putting considerable resources into their efforts, giving new life to Mr. T and Danno.

last100 took a look at what classics are available — there’s a bunch — and what the networks are doing with their old content on the Web.

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iPhone's future coming into focus: SDK = iPhone 1.5, 3G networks = iPhone 2.0

iphoneThe future of the iPhone is coming into focus, even if it is a bit abstract at the moment.

Reports are beginning to surface that Infineon, a German chipmaker, will provide Apple with a new chip set for the next-generation iPhone — let’s call it iPhone 2.0.

According to analysts from the investment bank UBS, iPhone 2.0 is set to launch mid-year, which means we may actually see it sometime in late summer or early Fall. The new chip set is expected to bring faster 3G network capabilities to the iPhone, a much-anticipated upgrade.

In the meantime, Apple announced the other day it will release “the iPhone software roadmap” on March 6. Many around the Web believe this will be the much-anticipated software developer kit (SDK), although there is speculation that it might be just a roadmap and that the actual SDK won’t be released until later in the Spring.

No matter when it’s released, the SDK is important because it will allow third-party developers to write specific applications for the phone, essentially giving it a “new” feeling — let’s call this one iPhone 1.5.

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Hulu expected to add content from Warner Bros., new "networks" continue to emerge

hulu wbThe Silicon Alley Insider reported late today — in the headline “Confirmed! Warner Bros. TV in on Hulu.com — that, well, the Warner Bros. Television Group will be providing content for the NBC-Fox joint venture Hulu.

But then SAI, and others, soft-pedaled the details. “It looks like … “

It doesn’t really matter now. This deal has been rumored for months (Valleywag), and Warner Bros. TV President Bruce Rosenblum last week said the Hulu deal was “imminent,” according to Communications Daily. Also, Warner Bros., half owner of The CW with CBS, already makes its vast TV library available to AOL’s In2TV.

So the imminent deal means that there will be Warner content — like the CW show “Pussycat Dolls” and Warner-produced “ER” — coming to Hulu, making the online video service an even better place to catch up on TV shows from a variety of networks.

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DivX to shut down online video service Stage6; "wild ride" is over

stage6 logoTom, aka Spinner, ends his explanation of why DivX is shutting down its online video service Stage6 by saying, “It’s been a wild ride.”

Yes, it has, for all online video services.

DivX, a digital media company, announced today it is closing Stage6 by Thursday to focus its resources on the company’s core DivX technology/licensing business. Stage6 members cannot upload any more video to the site and only will be able to access content for three more days.

The reason given for shutting down Stage6 is obvious, something faced by all online video sites. “The continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide,” wrote Tom, an employee of DivX, at the Stage6 blog.

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Apple promotes movie rental business with 99-cent "Weekend Movie Picks"

the hours itunes movie downloadIn an effort to spur its movie rental business, Apple is now offering “Weekend Movie Picks” on iTunes. For now, Apple will offer one film per week at a discounted price of 99 cents, $3 off the normal rental fee.

A new movie will become available at the special price every Thursday, good until the following Monday. Once rented, you will have the standard 30 days to watch it in a 24-hour time period.

This week’s film: “The Hours”, starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, and a bunch of other A-list actors.

While “The Hours” is a major studio release, it’s no power draw like “Michael Clayton”, “Superbad”, or “3:10 to Yuma.” It will be interesting to see how Apple develops “Weekend Movie Picks.” Will it offer the best new releases, movies like “Live Free or Die Hard” that have been out for a while, or ones from the vault like “Dances With Wolves”?

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Apple patent hints at a future of podcasting mash-ups

itunes podcastsA new patent filed recently by Apple may give podcasting a significant and much needed boost.

The patent, known by the incredibly dull title of “Creation, Management, and Delivery of Personalized Media Items”, hints at the future of podcasting and provides insight into how Apple thinks podcasting can be improved.

You may recall only a few years ago podcasting was a grass-roots new media movement practiced and enjoyed by techies and early adopters. But when Apple decided in mid-2005 to include podcasts, both audio and video, in an iTunes directory, it skyrocketed in popularity, although many would argue that it falls short of mainstream acceptance.

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Microsoft opens up Xbox 360 to casual gaming even more with new online service

game developers conferenceMicrosoft’s announcement today that it is starting a new online service for the Xbox 360 to showcase games made by independent developers was met with three cheers for the developers, ho-hum for everybody else.

I’m not so sure about that.

The so-called experts believe that Microsoft opening up the Xbox 360 to more casual gaming will have a greater impact on game development and distribution than to mass-market consumers, who are not inclined to buy expensive, powerful consoles like the Xbox 360 or Sony’s PlayStation 3 just to play Taxi Gone Wild, Dress Shop Hop, and Speed Racer.

“This would appeal to the more independent developers, people who want to break into the market, and get them started on the Xbox,” Colin Sebastian, an analyst for Lazard Capital Markets, told the Associated Press. “It makes the development and distribution of video games more accessible.”

Sebastian doesn’t think the Xbox download service, announced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, will appeal to mass-market consumers.

Why is that?

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DoubleTwist liberates your media, makes it easier to share iTunes content

doubletwist logoDVD Jon and his company, doubleTwist, released beta software today that’s designed to allow users to share digital media files — music, video, pictures — across devices regardless of type or copy protection.

In other words, if you have a copy-protected song in your iTunes library and want to play it on a PlayStation Portable or Nokia phone instead of an iPod — or you want to send it to friends to play on the devices they own — you can do it with the doubleTwist desktop application.

The software automatically plays song files, regardless of copy protection, in the background. doubleTwist re-records the songs as MP3 files, which can then be sync’d to any device attached to a Windows computer using the doubleTwist application. (It’s not available for Apple computers yet, although a Mac version is in the works.)

doubleTwist is essentially doing the same process as when a user “rips” a CD onto a computer. doubleTwist allows only music already purchased and authorized (like iTunes) to be processed. It says 100 songs can be converted in about half an hour, with about a 5 percent degradation in sound quality.

Says doubleTwist’s Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon, “We’ve built a format agnostic solution that handles the complexity of file and device compatibility so consumers don’t have to.” (Reuters.)

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BBC Worldwide to offer programs through iTunes, but only in UK for now

bbc on itunesUnfortunately, the juiciest detail to us in the U.S. is not known.

The Register reports that BBC Worldwide will soon offer its content on iTunes, presumably through the iTunes UK store only.

The Register’s “TV industry” source says that BBC Worldwide digital media director Simon Danker has contacted the BBC’s third-party production partners to inform them of the new distribution channel.

However, The Register provided no additional details.

Rats.

At the same time, Ashley Highfield, the director of BBC Future Media and Technology, indicated on the BBC Internet Blog that the iPlayer may become available via the AppleTV set-top box. The iPlayer is the BBC’s on-demand television service that allows UK residents to watch programs broadcast in the last seven days online for free.

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iPhone steals the show at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

iphone on saleShame on you Nokia.

Shame on you Samsung.

Shame on you Motorola.

Shame on you Sony Ericsson.

Shame on all you mobile handset manufacturers.

You let Apple, a computer turned consumer electronics company, steal your show at the Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona. Except for the curiosity factor of Google’s open-source mobile operating system Android, does anybody but mobile techies and the media (Macworld roundup) even remember what new models, services, or strategies were introduced by the world’s leading handset makers?

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