Apple has finally posted three new iPhone 3G commercials on their website. In these ads, Apple seems to be pushing (quite literally) the features of the new iPhone 3G/2.0 firmware. Push, half the price, twice as fast, and other Jobsian quotes are in these new ads.

Just in case you were wondering, the song playing in the background of the new commercials is You, Me and the Bourgeoisie by the Submarines (iTunes link). You can watch Everyone, Unslow, and Work Friendly on the iPhone ads website.


Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

I'm pretty sure that the SDK license agreement explicitly forbids super-villainous activities, but no silly piece of paper (or PDF) is going to stop Dr. Horrible. The would-be world ruler who can't catch a break (either from his laundromat crush or from arch-nemesis Captain Hammer) is seen using his iPhone to remote-control a van in the debut episode of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the three-part Internet mini musical from Buffy & Firefly creator Joss Whedon. Clearly, the grand cinematic iPhone tradition of Journeyman lives on.

Close examination of Doc H's UI indicates that he's actually using Mobile Safari to steer his van, so perhaps that's how he's remaining on the right side of the EULA -- although that radioactive icon on the left is quite ominous. If you want to see it in action for yourself, check the gallery below, watch Act I for free on drhorrible.com (which is getting Captain Hammered itself right now, so you may have to wait a while) or pick up the episode on iTunes.

Thanks Eric

For more than 25 years, one name has stood for quality television entertainment; one name has represented the finest in Hollywood production values and narrative standards. One name... and that name is Norman Lear. Since he's not available, it's my duty to report that the guilty pleasure of classic TV -- Stephen J. Cannell -- has now placed a big chunk of his delightfully down-n-dirty oevure on the iTunes store for your downloading and viewing enjoyment.

Cannell's shows, which we all are ashamed to admit we loved, included such classics as Wiseguy, Hunter (did you know that DeeDee McCall's nickname was "The Brass Cupcake?"), The Greatest American Hero (my personal weakness -- Connie Selleca, you haunted my dreams), Silk Stalkings and the teen cop drama-slash-launching pad for the future Sweeney Todd & Captain Jack 21 Jump Street. Those five are showing up in the store now, and a couple are yet to arrive (The Commish and Renegade). I'm not sure if I can handle the cognitive challenge of watching the young Johnny Depp bust dealers on my iPod touch, but I'm going to try it and see how it goes.

As Brett posted earlier, guess what's neu over at the Deutschland iTMS? TV Sendungen! Finally, TV has macht its way over the channel from England and für nur €1,99-€2,49 an eppy, you can get your TV on with South Park and Desperate Housewives. As far as the new hinzugefügte goes, I had a bit of trouble getting it all working this morning. You might have to wait until the store gets fully sorted. Here's a direct link to the new TV section, which features TV so wie Tramitz and Friends, Kaya Yanar, und Sechser Pack. Bitte forgiven Sie mein Deutsch. Despite having taken Erste Jahr Deutsch dreimal, not a lot of it stuck with mich. Kostenlossen/Gratis heute gibts jetzt in TV:

Deutschland: Ladyland, Staffel 1
Ihre Frauenfiguren in "Ladyland" geben ihr die Möglichkeit, in die verschiedensten Rollen und Charaktere zu schlüpfen. Dabei stammen die Geschichten direkt aus dem Leben: überraschend, spannend, zum Schmunzeln, haarsträubend, verrückt und manchmal auch tragikomisch. Eben (fast) so, wie sie jeden Tag irgendwo auf der Welt passieren könnten. Anke Engelke schlüpft in jeder Folge in ganz unterschiedliche Rollen: Mal ist sie eine arrogante Immobilienmaklerin, die sich plötzlich in einem Kuhstall wiederfindet, dann die kleine kaufmännische Angestellte, bei der sich ein Scharfschütze auf dem Balkon einquartiert, mal eine angehende Ministerpräsidentin mit Alkohol-Problem, dann eine Hotelrezeptionistin mit künstlerischen Ambitionen oder ein einfältiges Blondchen, das tatsächlich eine SMS von Gott erhält.

Deutschland: Pastewka, Staffel 3
In der 3. Staffel von "Pastewka" zeigt sich, dass das Leben eines Promis nicht nur extrem aufregend ist, sondern vor allem auch unglaublich kompliziert sein kann: Bastians Bruder Hagen ist immer noch mit der launischen Nachbarin Svenja Bruck liiert und führt diese - trotz Bastians massivem Widerstand - auch noch offiziell in die Familie ein. Vater Pastewka und Nichte Kim sorgen ebenfalls für Zuwachs: Kim hat endlich ihren ersten Freund und Vater Pastewka eine neue Putzfrau, die sich ganz offensichtlich nicht nur um seine schmutzige Wäsche kümmert. In der Beziehung zwischen Bastian und Anne kriselt es, und Annes dauerfröhlicher Ex-Freund Jo provoziert bei Bastian Eifersuchtsausbrüche. In all dem familiären Chaos dürfen natürlich auch in der 3. Staffel die lieben Kollegen nicht fehlen. So gibt es Gastauftritte u.a. von Michael Kessler, Maddin Schneider, Bully Herbig, Til Schweiger und Barbara Salesch.

Deutschland: Switch, Staffel 1
Ob Daily-Soap, Talkshow, Nachrichten, Werbung oder Erotikmagazin - nichts ist vor "Switch" sicher und alles wird persifliert. "Switch" stellt mit hintergründigem Humor die Besonderheiten von Inhalten, Formaten und Darbietungen aus der gesamten Fernsehlandschaft heraus.

German iTunes users just got a payload of TV Sendungen (transmission programs) to enhance their multimedia shopping experience. The 35 available shows are mostly of German origin, including series from the German Channels ProSieben, Sat.1, ZDF Enterprises and Brainpool, as well as German versions of U.S. shows from ABC Studios and MTV Networks.

The shows are priced from 1,99 Euro to 2,49 Euro. Shows from Germany include "Stromberg," "GSG9" and "Tramitz and Friends," along with the German versions of "Grey's Anatomy," Season 3 of "Lost," Season 6 of "South Park" (as noted by several tipsters) and the oft-overlooked "Hannah Montana," which all of our German tipsters left off the list. Oh, come on, Hannah Montana makes the wait worthwhile, doesn't she?

We're glad to see another jump in the content iTunes provides in countries outside of the U.S. and hope for more to come!

Thanks Matteo, Danny, Robert and everyone else who sent this in!

While we wait for Apple to cram a TV tuner or cable card into the Apple TV (don't hold your breath-- seriously), El Gato continues to pump out some nice hardware/software tools for watching the tube on your Mac. One thing that caught my eye: you can start distributing recorded live video around your house 30 seconds or so after the EyeTV starts recording a show. I remember when we had to rig some VLC nonsense together to get livestreaming on a remote machine with the old EyeTV. Oh, and they've apparently added something very similar to the Season Pass feature on Tivo, which is quite cool.

Check out a nice demo after the jump.

Equinux, makers of iSale, CoverScout and an interesting collection of other apps, was at Macworld demoing TubeStick, their TV receiver. Like El Gato's EyeTV, the TubeStick is a hardware doohickey with the TV parts inside (logically) and some software that lets you watch TV on your Mac. Unlike El Gato, however, there is a social aspect to TubeStick. Example: you can chat with friends who are watching the same thing. The CEO took us on a quick tour, which you can view after the break.

(Note: Equinux also gave us some show swag which we'll be giving away next week)

Macworld (the magazine, not the party that many of us are missing out on this week) has an interesting note up about how the writer's strike is going to be bad news for iTunes subscribers, and it's not what you think. Sure, the whole strike is supposedly about television writers getting paid for their work from online sales (which means that if the writers win, networks will likely claim they have to charge more for sales on iTunes and other digital outlets), but there's another negative: no writers means shorter seasons, which means iTunes subscriptions aren't worth as much. Desperate Housewives and Prison Break had both of their seasons cut short, and that means that anyone who bought either of those seasons isn't getting as much as they expected for their money.

As MW says, the closest thing they've heard to an answer from Apple on this is an example of The Daily Show and Colbert Report subscriptions-- subscribers of those shows were told that their subscriptions would resume when the shows did, so people who have subscribed to Desperate Housewives may just expect to have part of the next season paid for already as well (or may get refunds of iTunes credit for other shows that are available).

And it'll be interesting to see what effect this has on the keynote at Macworld tomorrow-- will Apple promote television shows that are headed off the air for a while? Or maybe the rumored movie rentals will draw attention away from iTunes TV subscriptions anyway.

Back in early November, PC World magazine gave a wet, sloppy kiss to the MacBook Pro, noting that "[t]he fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac." Apparently this rousing endorsement of a laptop so freakishly powerful, so undeniably force-of-nature fast that it flat-out screams while running an OS that it happens to support only in 'bridesmaid mode'... well, that is the sort of thing that causes marketing executives to cock their heads and listen like extras in an E.F. Hutton ad.

Apple's new "Misprint" ad, appearing online and on TV now, features an irate PC calling the editorial offices of PC World to complain about this obvious benchmarking error. It's a funny ad, but along with the recent Podium and PR Lady ads, this new spot provokes some fascinating cognitive dissonance. We're told that Vista is undesirable, that users are 'upgrading' back to XP -- but hey, if you're gonna run it, you could run it awful quick on a Mac. Is it just me, or is that somewhat weird?

Thanks Alex

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.

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.

Turns out that iPhone will play a major role in the upcoming NBC show Journeyman. When the show debuts on September 24, keep your eyes open to spot the iPhone as it repeatedly appears on-screen performing such vital acts as losing network connectivity through time travel and having visual voicemail work as an indicator of missing time. The iPhone reportedly follows the method and insisted on not bathing and gaining 20 lbs before its scenes were shot.

TUAW mourns the early passing of Adam Finley

Update: Reader Mike passed along this amusing screen shot showing a Journeyman hand actor holding the iPhone upside down with a screen mockup added in postproduction. Mike notes that the iPhone is encased with the Griffin Clear Case.

This is rather disappointing. According to iLounge, Apple has re-designed the TV out functionality of the new iPod classics and nanos so that they no longer work with older third-party TV out cables and docks. Apparently, the new classics and nanos require an Apple authentication chip in the dock/cable to unlock the TV out setting and these chips are only available to official third-party suppliers. At this point only official Apple products and a few select third-party offerings will unlock the TV out setting. The AV cables for the new iPods will reportedly sell for $49 when released.

If you're a fan of Bravo's Top Chef and you haven't watched last night's episode yet, I won't spoil it by telling you who won the challenge and who got eliminated. I will tell you, however, that the elimination winner received a MacBook Pro 17" as the award for the best performance in the challenge. Not too shabby.

Considering the consistently high level of product placement on Bravo's shows, it's not all that surprising to see a Mac in the mix -- style maven Tim Gunn even sports a MacBook Pro on the host desk for his new show. What I wasn't expecting was the high level of enthusiasm the winner showed for the prize -- jumping up and down with glee, and the other chefs writhing in disappointment. Very nice.

Thanks, Heidi.

We've covered the Elgato EyeTV 205 before, but now the Mac video peripherals company has pushed out a substantial revision, the EyeTV 250 Plus, which adds over-the-air HDTV capability. The Plus model is in many ways like the EyeTV Hybrid, and requires a beefy Dual G5 or Intel machine to decode the HDTV stream, but like the older 250 also includes a hardware encoder for digitizing analog sources (e.g. video tapes, etc.). In addition to the included EyeTV PVR software the the 250 Plus ships with Roxio Toast 8 Basic to allow you to burn recordings to disk.

The EyeTV 250 Plus is $199.95 and is available now.

[via MacMerc]