It seems that Hollywood is beginning to miss Steve Jobs almost as much as we are. This is especially true for two of NBC's hit comedy shows; "30 Rock" and "Chuck." Both were new this week and overflowing with appreciation for Stevie J.

For most Apple fans it is easy to spot when many TV shows and movies feature Apple gear. The most recent episodes of "30 Rock" and "Chuck," however, go above and beyond featuring a shameless homage to the man himself, Steve Jobs -- in 30 Rock's case, doing a great take on a worldchanging Apple announcement from the not-too-distant past. I won't get into the details of the episodes themselves but I have posted the clips after the break. In case you missed it, both episodes online over at Hulu.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

[via Gizmodo and Crunchgear]

Any fan of NBC's geek-centric espionage comedy Chuck knows that there's a healthy helping of Apple tech all over the show, going back to the very first episode. Despite the heavy product placement volume, relatively few Apple fanboy lines make it into the scripts; after all, these folks work at Best BuyMore, which probably sells a lot of HP and Dell gear.

This week, however, a not-so-subtle dig at Microsoft's music player found its way into the episode's closing scenes. Chuck's sidekick Morgan -- not the coolest cat in the junkyard -- jokes that he has a Zune, and then goes off to get his iPod to help Chuck save the world. Nice work if you can get it. The segment is viewable to US residents via this Hulu link.

If you notice other ficitional characters praising Apple and dissing the competition, be sure to let us know via our tips page or Twitter replies. You can also grab screenshots of your favorite Apple gear product placement moments and tag them for our appleontv Flickr pool.

Thanks Mike

[hat tip to When Will Apple for multiple versions of the video clip]

If you downloaded the freebie episode of the week from iTunes, then chances are you saw some vintage Apple hardware. That's because episode 1 of Chuck's second season features one of the original Macs in it. It's kinda funny that they're supposed to be building a new system to take over Chuck's job, but they use some really old hardware (at least it's a Mac). Still, this is consistent with last year's premiere, which featured a Mac Plus at the core of the CIA system.

We won't spoil the episode ending, but it involves the Mac blowing up (just sayin'). This is, however, an awesome start to another season of Chuck.

It is ironic that most of the computers in the show are Macs ... despite the fact that it airs on NBC. Get this free episode while you still can! It's definitely worth a watch.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Here's the final humiliation for NBC in the whole contest between it and Apple -- while one of NBC's execs claimed that Apple made some concessions to the network to get Peacock content back in the iTunes store (after it was unceremoniously pulled last year over pricing arguments), Apple just plain says that's not true -- there were no concessions, and NBC crawled back on its own.

Sure, it's a little high school of Apple to call NBC out like that, but it's not like NBC has been gracefully handling the whole thing either -- execs have whined and moaned the whole time that they don't like the iTunes model, and even threatened to go to Amazon for good. But in the end, making Apple's money won out over making no money at all. Even though NBC brass are still convinced that Apple is giving them ground on pricing (and on the pricing of DVD movies), Apple says that's not the case -- the pricing structure has been the same all along.

At any rate, it's the consumer that wins -- no matter what Apple's prices are, at least NBC content is back in the iTunes store for those willing to pay for it.

[via Daring Fireball]

Released today, iTunes 8 is the most recent and advanced iteration of Apple's media management and playback software. iTunes 8 includes a new Genius recommendation engine, new visualizers, a new grid view, and new terms and conditions.

The Genius engine recommends other songs you might enjoy, based on a song you've selected in iTunes. If you have a diverse range of music, iTunes does a pretty good job of finding the "mood" of your selected song, and generating a playlist of songs that fit with that mood. Plus, it kicks off the playlist with the song you selected.

When you first use the Genius system, you must agree to its terms and conditions, and then it gathers information about the songs in your iTunes library. This took about three minutes on my 2.8GHz Intel iMac and my 2,100-song library. It then sends that information to Apple and builds a profile based on your likes and dislikes. You can then use the Genius Sidebar, which appears to the right of your playlist.

Steve Jobs just announced at the "Let's Rock" event in San Francisco that not only was NBC content returning to the iTunes store, but that Apple would start selling HD content on the store, playable both through the new iTunes 8, as well as AppleTV. Shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Office will be available in HD to watch anywhere you'd like.

HD shows will cost $2.99 each, while SD television shows will keep their price of $1.99. Stay tuned to TUAW for more from the event, and you can see news up-to-date in our ongoing liveblog.

I don't think anybody likes DRM. Customers certainly don't like it: they want to listen to music and watch video where and when they please. I don't think it's that popular with the content providers, either, because it's not a perfect solution. It might cut down on some piracy, but by no means eliminates it entirely.

DRM has come up recently in a few places, and companies have set up camps at two ends of the spectrum. Amazon.com is doing a booming business selling DRM-free music, sometimes for better prices than at the iTunes Store. On the other hand, we have NBC, who may or may not be partnering with Microsoft to create device software that (somehow) determines if a particular music or video file has been stolen.

As much as I'm sure that both Zune users would appreciate having access to NBC's video library, the problem remains of how exactly Microsoft would do that, aside from splashing giant watermarks across everything. My money's on unicorn tears.

How much more investment will there be in DRM before content providers realize it's an inefficient, ineffective way of deterring piracy? Sound off in comments.

We heard it from a guy (thanks, Jeff K!) who heard it from another guy who basically speculated from comments made by two other guys that, surprise surprise, NBC and iTunes are on the road to reconciliation. Ok, so it isn't really a surprise-- the odds are really good that as long as there is NBC and iTunes, they'll eventually end up together. There's been some posturing in their past, but really, both have way more to gain together than apart.

Not to mention that the NBC Direct service never quite panned out correctly. Of course, neither NBC nor iTunes is clearly hurting for one another. But there's so much benefit for both to make a deal that it's not hard to expect them back together by the time new Office episodes get back on the air.

A report issued by Forrester Research suggests that contrary to conventional wisdom (or at least the comments here at TUAW), Apple is the loser in their feud with NBC-Universal. The on-going fight, which reached fruition last week, as all all NBC-Universal content was removed from iTunes, hurts Apple more than it hurts NBC. James McQuivey, an analyst for Forrest Research, urges Apple to make-up with NBC, otherwise they risk losing their spot as a major source in the distribution of online broadcast content. Why? Because although iTunes dominates the world of digital music sales, the same cannot be said for iTunes video downloads.

According to the report, which was quoted by CNET, Apple relies on NBC to deliver 30% of their video download sales. This is in line with the 40% figure claimed by NBC in October (I say we split the difference at 35 or call it a third). Furthermore, a Forrester study revealed that only 19% of users buy video content (either TV shows or full length movies) from iTunes and of that 19%, the average amount spent on videos is $30. Meanwhile, competing pay services like Amazon Unbox and the free offerings provided by the networks own websites and through services like the Fox and NBC collaboration Hulu.com make paying for an iTunes download, just so you can watch it on an iPod or Apple TV, less inviting or appealing to users.

Now that December has arrived and NBC's contract has expired, all of their content has been removed from the iTunes Store, as promised. That means no more Bravo, mun2, NBC, NBC News, CNBC, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo or USA Network (Go ahead and look. We'll wait).

It looks like the two companies were unable to patch things up, not surprising considering their ugly, public fighting. Good luck to NBC with hulu and that wonderful NBC Direct service, which sounds great.

It requires Internet Explorer, the NBC Direct Player (Windows only) and the latest .Net framework. Videos are available for only 7 days after they initially air, and disappear from your computer 48 hours after you begin watching them (unless you remember to renew your license before then). Also, videos will only play on the computer used for the initial download.

Mac users cannot use the service, though NBC says a Mac version is "...planned for 2008." Finally, downloads cannot be transferred to portable devices.

Awesome.

[Via MacDailyNews]

As several readers have pointed out, the latest episodes of Scrubs (which started its final *sniff* season last week) are available on iTunes. But how can that be, Scrubs airs on NBC? Yes, yes - but thanks to the magic of large media conglomerates, Scrubs is not actually an NBC show.

Scrubs is owned/produced by Disney (which owns ABC), via their Touchstone Television division ABC Television division, meaning they are not part of the NBC Universal contract with iTunes. This is why it took so long for Scrubs to appear on iTunes in the first place (fellow Scrubs fans will remember how mad we were at iTunes/ABC over this issue). Now, in this final seventh season, things become a bit more complicated; NBC now shares profits with Scrubs (before they didn't get anything from syndication or DVD sales), as a condition for renewal, and you can watch full episodes on NBC's website (which you could not do before), but this is still an ABC show in terms of iTunes arrangements. It is my understanding that iTunes contracts are with the studios that produce the shows, not the networks that air the shows - which is not always the same thing.

For example, NBC Universal owns/produces the show House, which airs on FOX. Thus, the current season of House in unavailable on iTunes. Conversely, FOX owns/produces My Name is Earl, for NBC, and like Scrubs, current episodes are available on iTunes. Weirdly enough, Ugly Betty, which is now also fully owned by NBC (because the chairman and head of programming for NBC is the owner of Reveille, which produces Ugly Betty and The Office, among others) does have its new episodes on iTunes - only because I assume they signed an agreement with Apple before NBC bought the company.

Of course, if the WGA does indeed strike, not much of this will matter anyway, because none of our new shows will be on TV or iTunes for us to watch. This concludes today's lesson in Television Business in the Digital Age.

Update: As our commenters have pointed out, the two premieres now appearing in the iTunes store -- although broadcast by NBC in the US -- are actually produced by other studios such as Fox and Warner Brothers. Since the online distribution rights are separate from the broadcast rights, it would seem that the content owners are more than happy to have their shows sold in iTunes. Unfortunately for fans of Heroes, Law & Order, The Office and 30 Rock, all those shows are produced by NBC/Universal and they are, as expected, not updating with the current season's content.

Original post: When NBC announced their intention to pull their content from the US iTunes Store by December, Apple promised to make that happen much sooner:

"Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September."

A few hours later, NBC stated that their new shows will be available in the US iTunes Store. Today, I found Journeyman [iTunes link] and Chuck [iTunes link], two brand new shows, ready to go. I bet other hits like My Name is Earl and The Office, which premiere on Thursday night, will also be posted.

Why? I imagine a boardroom conversation that sounded something like this:

• NBC Exec. A: Heh. We showed them. We'll make a bundle on the new stuff and then, bam! We slam the door in December. Cha-ching!
• NBC Exec. B: Um, sir? They're going to pull all of our stuff immediately. No new shows.
• NBC Exec. A: *Wilhelm scream* B-But, they can't do that.
• NBC Exec. B: It's done, sir.
• NBC Exec. A: Damn. Get Jobs on the phone.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

I'm not sure what happened to the memo from top NBC brass, after the iTunes negotiations broke down, saying that Apple was firma non grata... but it clearly didn't make it to the Warner Bros. production offices of Chuck in time to excise all the Mac gear from the geek-themed spy comedy's pilot episode. The corporate rage may have found some outlet, however, in the sheer destructive energy expended on the show's poor, defenseless Macs. Even the presence of a nasty Windows virus (the kind that causes laptops to emit smoke and sparks!) as a plot point doesn't make up for the carnage.

There's the protagonist's doomed home machine, a G5 tower with a convenient sticker over the side logo -- which a) must be a lot lighter than a production model, seeing how it got tossed about; and b) suffers a grim fate as a gravity-test victim/close-combat weapon -- and earlier, there's another Mac that makes a key appearance in the opening sequence before getting blown to smithereens. (OK, seriously now, the CIA and NSA keep all their classified information -- all of it -- on one lonely Mac Plus? I sincerely doubt it.)

You can review the carnage at NBC's full-episode playback page; the Mac Plus detonation is in the first four minutes, and the G5 breakdown is at about 16 minutes in. Too bad you can't watch it on your iPhone, unless of course you EyeTV'ed it last night. Also spotted during this week's premieres: Emmy-nominee Doogie Neil Patrick Harris sporting an iPhone on How I Met Your Mother, an iPhone in the time-traveling toolkit of Journeyman star Kevin McKidd (more on this later), and another iPhone gag on the Simpsons season premiere. It's looking like a good year for Apple on TV; send us your spotter reports in the comments, or add your sightings to our "appleontv" Flickr pool.

Our best posts of the week, all organized in one post for your perusal. Erica's passed the baton off to me for this edition yet again, and here we go.

Apple looks out for my best interests
And by that, Erica means they don't.

The state of the iTouch jailbreak
Is not good, unfortunately.

Metaliveblogging's Apple's "Mum is no longer the word" event
Is it wrong of me to wish every post from Nik started with the words, "Good morning, TUAW readers. London calling"?

Run widgets (kinda) on your iPhone
Erica's (kinda) hackaround lets you have a portable Dashboard.

Coming in iPhone 1.1.1, probably
A short look at what might be in the next iPhone update.

TUAW + iPhone turns your loved ones into pirates
Yaaar maties, Talk Like a Pirate... and look like one, too. Smelling like a pirate is up to you.

iTunes: Free Thursday
Including the Prison Break season premiere. I haven't seen it in a while-- is he still following that tattoo map or are they past that?

iTunes: Free Friday
More freebies, including a few frepeats (TM).

Radiohead ditches iTunes to keep album complete
Fighting for the consumer is great-- except when you're fighting against the artist?

Orange gets French iPhone in November
And our French readers say oui.

Mac 101: Three Dock tips
Get to know your Dock. All over again.

NBC to offer content, DRM via NBC Direct
NBC plans their own player, and no one cares.

Ask TUAW: Automounting a network drive, iPhone flash memory, XMP photo metadata and more
You ask, we answer. Coming soon: TUAW Direct, where you'll only be able to read our answers, and no one else's. Plus, special this week Ask TUAW, Round II.

iPod touch dark screen problems
Quality control problem messing up iPod touch screens? Lame.

The latest news in the NBC/Apple battle? NBC is going to make their own iTunes. With blackjack! And women! In fact, forget the blackjack and the women-- they're calling it "NBC Direct," and a brand new player (not available on Mac for a little while, go figure) will be used to download and play television shows just as soon as they finish airing on television.

Sounds cool, right? What's the catch? The player is NBC only, and heavy DRM in there keeps it from playing anything else at all, including that scary "stolen copyrighted material." If you're going to use their player, you'll have to watch their shows, or else. I'd make a prediction that someone will hack it to play other stuff, but frankly, who cares. If NBC wants to go play in their own (non-Mac pool) let 'em, I say.

They also say that, in the future, they may even offer download-to-own, rental, and subscription business models. If only there was a well-designed, very established and compatible, widespread piece of software out there that let them easily do that right now. Oh well. Good luck, NBC. Say hi to Tina Fey for me, and tell her I'll see her on bittorrent.

[via MacRumors]