While we’re waiting for that AppleTV update . . .

Apple is teasing us with a patent filing that hints at a rosy future for the AppleTV. It includes everything from widgets appearing on the screen, to a new widget-enhanced remote control, to iChat instant messaging, to — get this — broadcast television.

Yep. The AppleTV could become an actual set-top box capable of receiving broadcast television signals and recording to a hard drive like digital video recorders (DVRs).

Wow.

The Archos TV+ set-top box, first seen at this year’s CES convention, launched in the U.K. today. It’s available in two flavors, £180 for the 80GB model, £250 for the 250GB.

The Archos TV+ is a slick set-top box and a rival to the Apple TV. Archos’ first DVR combines a Wi-Fi media player with a hard drive that allows you to stream or store the usual digital content — movies, music, Web video, podcasts, and photos. (See last100 coverage.)

To use certain TV+ features, an additional £20 is required for a video podcast plug-in that allows for video and audio playback in formats such as H.264 and ACC. The plug-in and DVR can be purchased from the Archos online store.

ESPN will offer some live broadband programming to anybody on college campuses or at military bases here in the U.S. Web users in the .edu and .mil domains will be able to access the content at ESPN360 without charge.

The move allows ESPN, the leading channel for sports programming in the U.S., to grow its current viewing for ESPN360, which has delivered some 500,000 hours of video in the last five months — a fairly small number compared to what ESPN could be serving.

The move also gives ESPN another way to reach a coveted demographic group — young males — although it’s hard to believe that ESPN doesn’t already own this group.

This is a bit of a switch from ESPN’s stance of treating its broadband site, ESPN360, like another one of its cable channels. Until now, “free” access was available to those whose Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have distribution agreements with ESPN, like Charter, AT&T, or Verizon.

The big game is this weekend in the States. New England vs. New York. But there’s another game being played at the same time that, to some, is more interesting than football.

It’s the commercials shown during the game. And, just in case you forget to set your digital video recorder, or you want to go back and watch the best and worst spots immediately after the game, you can do so using Hulu.

The Internet video site will show all the Super Bowl XLII commercials on its blog immediately after the game. Though Hulu is still in private beta, you won’t need an account to watch the commercials at the blog.

Bummer, dude.

Apple announced today that the expected AppleTV software upgrade, which allows users to rent movies from their televisions, is not ready for prime time (no pun intended). The update, due yesterday, will turn original AppleTVs into the AppleTV Take 2 announced earlier this month at Macworld.

Apple says it will make the free software download available to existing AppleTV owners in another week or two . . . or three.

The delay is not catastrophic, just disappointing, as original AppleTV owners have waited since the day they bought the set-top box to see what this device really can do. With all the major studios making content available on iTunes, it’s going to be a tantalizing wait for those of us who’ve waited long enough.

When Apple announced the launch of iTunes movie rentals and an updated AppleTV, most of the talk was about how it would compete with incumbents such as Netflix. But one company, Vudu, has more to fear than most.

It’s set-top movie box offering (see our full review) is very similar to the AppleTV/iTunes combination, minus additional features such as YouTube/Flickr integration and media extender functionality, but costs considerably more.

Until today that is.