Apple has postponed the release of the Apple TV software update by a week or two, saying it needed more time to finish the upgrade that would let people rent movies directly from their televisions.

In delaying the Apple TV upgrade, the company said the software wasn’t quite finished. “Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two,” the company said in a statement. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had said during his Macworld keynote that the software would be ready by the end of January.

Apple Delays Apple TV Software Update — Apple — InformationWeek

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Tags: DamnYouApple!, IWantMyATV, Apple, AppleTV

A new battery/case product to extend your iPhone’s battery life will be shipping in a few weeks.  The unit will set you back around $100.

The Juice Pack is a colorful soft-grip case for cushioning and improving the gripability of your iPhone. Inside, there’s a rechargeable lithium-ion battery capable of providing enough juice for an additional 250 hours of standby time, 24 hours of audio playback or seven hours of video. Upshot: Go ahead and take the iPhone with you on your next camping trip.

iPhone Case Includes Battery Extender | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

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OLPC off to a slow, but positive start.

At breakfast, they’re already powering up the combination library/videocam/audio recorder/music maker/drawing kits.

At night, they’re dozing off in front of them — if they’ve managed to keep older siblings from waylaying the coveted machines.

Peru made the single biggest order to date — more than 272,000 machines — in its quest to turn around a primary education system that the World Economic Forum recently ranked last among 131 countries surveyed. Uruguay was the No. 2 buyers of the laptops, inking a contract for 100,000.

FYI, the give one, get one promotion is still going on until December 31, 2007.

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Tags: OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, Education

Got your Wii yet?

If you answered no, head to the nearest GameStop ASAP because today only, you can purchase a Wii raincheck, which will guarantee you a Wii before Jan. 25, 2007. For the full price of $250, you get a nice DVD case with a special message that assures the recipient that his or her Wii is on the way.

Today’s the day for Wii rainchecks - Video Games - Man Zero - MLive.com

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Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs’s annual Macworld surprise may be a slimmed-down laptop and a higher-capacity model of the iPhone.

Jobs traditionally uses the Macworld Expo in January to showcase new products. Last time, it was the iPhone and Apple TV; the year before, faster Macs with Intel Corp. chips.

Jobs, 52, also may introduce a larger-screen handheld device for playing music and video and surfing the Web, said Andy Neff, an analyst at Bear Stearns & Co. in New York. Apple may also unveil a new version of Apple TV, a $299 device that connects to TVs and lets people watch movies and shows stored on their PCs.

Apple’s Jobs May Surprise With Slim Mac, New IPhone

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 Lost in the news of iTunes updates and DRM-free music, comes the updated AppleTV.  I knew this was coming sooner or later.  The next version of AppleTV sports a 160 GB drive, 4 times the current drive size.  Also upgraded, the price.  The next version is $399, up from the original $299 price tag.

 Apple also announced that AppleTV users will be able to browse YouTube, as well as login to their YouTube account via their AppleTV.  Initially only the most popular videos will be available, until later this year when it expands to the entire YouTube library.

 The new 160GB version if AppleTV is reportedly to be available this Thursday.

Microsoft has unveiled it’s table-top computing environment called Surface.  Currently Surface is not targeted at home users.  At $5,000-10,000 a pop, Microsoft instead plans to sell them to restaurants and retail locations.

All I want to know is, when can one of these be my coffee table?

 A Thanksgiving day promotion resulted in an outage for Amazon.com.  The entire site, not just the promotion page, buckled under the pressure after offering 1,000 Xbox 360s for just $100.00.

Amazon ran a special promotion this week but under-estimated the demand for the product from users with fast connections. At exactly 2pm EST, the offer was open (an Xbox core system at less than half-price). Unfortunately for Amazon, so many people were waiting for the promotion that the entire Amazon website - not just the promotion page - sank without a trace from just before 2pm, to at least 2:12pm. The home page, the product pages, everything, were unavailable.

If you managed to get a Nintendo Wii this holiday season, make sure you warm up before playing it.  Wii gamers are reporting a more physical workout than they expected to get with the new console.  With some describing it as more vigorous than basketball.  But then that wouldn’t take much.

 …as players spend more time with the Wii, some are noticing that hours waving the game’s controller around can add up to fairly intense exertion — resulting in aches and pains common in more familiar forms of exercise. They’re reporting aching backs, sore shoulders — even something some have dubbed “Wii elbow.”

Nintendo says players who get aches and pains from playing the Wii may need to get more exercise.

 Doctors advice: Stretch out and be sure to take care of any injuries afterwards. “It’s just like athletic play,” says Lana Kang, an orthopedic hand surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

 In the midst of an expected announcement from Apple, the iTunes store is current unavailable with just the curious phrase, “It’s Showtime.”

 It is expected that Apple will be announcing the addition of full-length movies for purchase from iTunes.

 In other video iPod news, 4Flix.net has announced non-DRM movies and TV shows, via a monthly subscription fee.  But most of them seem to be the out of copyright films already available for free at Archive.org.  The movies will be viewable on the video iPod.

 UPDATE:

iTunes is updated with movies and games.  Enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean, Life Aquatic, or play a game of Pac-Man.  All with your iPod.  Sadly the movies are way more expensive than if you just bought the DVD, ranging from 9.99 to 14.99.  The games aren’t cheap either at 4.99.