Enjoy your Apple TV? Not so fond of your data picking up and vanishing whenever it darn well pleases? Then you'll probably want to force your Apple TV to update to 3.0.1... assuming you've already upgraded it to 3.0, of course. According to the engineers in Cupertino, this update prevents content "from temporarily disappearing until re-synced," and we're guessing that most of you would rather keep your content around if possible. Tap the read link for all the instructions, and whatever you do, don't make any sudden movements.

[Via TUAW]

You know who's missing from the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (or DECE) consortium? A group bent on redefining the way we buy, access, and play digital content with a membership roster that includes Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Fox, HP, Intel, Lions Gate, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Philips, Sony, Toshiba, VeriSign, and Warner Bros? Right, Apple and Disney, the latter landing a lengthy piece in the Wall Street Journal describing Disney's own distributed content ownership scheme that goes by the code-name, "Keychest;" a DRM solution that instantly provides access to content on any participating service (digital download store, mobile-phone provider, or on-demand cable for example) when a purchase is made. Keychest does this though a system of unique keys that are issued when a movie is purchased. The keys are then stored in a central repository (aka, chest) that participants would query. In this scenario, the movies would reside with each delivery company on their respective systems -- movies would not be downloaded. On the bright side, if a content provider went out of business you would still have access to your films elsewhere. The proposed solution would work with Blu-ray disc purchases too, since BD players are internet-enabled by design -- DVD keys would have to be manually typed in by the user. So in effect, you'd now be paying once for ownership rights to the film, not to the physical media. If it sounds similar to DECE it is, but Disney claims that its approach is more streamlined and you know, better.

Disney has been quietly courting other movie studios with Keychest and intends to go public with its technology next month. Of course, with Steve Jobs listed as Disney's largest stockholder and the rumored Apple tablet being a media-redefining device that will single-handedly save newspapers while ridding the world of hunger and ignorance, well, you can see where the speculation is headed.

[Thanks, Demopublican]

It's been well over two years since high-end audio outfit Bowers & Wilkins introduced the iPod-lovin' Zeppelin, and evidently it's time for a downsizing. Today, the good folks over at B&W slung out the Zeppelin Mini, which promises the same dirigible-inspired sound but in a form factor that fits in a wider assortment of areas. To be honest, this version seems toned down quite a bit on the design side, with the key differentiating features being an updated docking arm and the addition of USB connectivity. Said socket enables direct PC / Mac streaming if your iPod gets lost, and it also enables your 'Pod to sync with your computer whilst playing back tunes. As for specs, you'll find a pair of 3-inch full-range drivers, 36 total watts of power, a 3.5 millimeter auxiliary jack and a bundled remote. It's expected to hit next month for £299 ($495), but you can get acquainted right now by jumping past the break and mashing play.

[Via Macworld]

This week's Apple event didn't have anything new for HD snobs, but there was something for movie lovers. We're always talking about the remaining barriers to digital distribution and one of those walls started to crumble yesterday -- well almost. Until this week, when you bought a movie from iTunes you didn't get any extra features like you do when you buy the Blu-ray version, but the new iTunes Extra feature addresses just this problem. The devil is of course in the details and this time the big rip is that these Extras are only available in iTunes and not on the Apple TV. So once again the Apple TV gets forgotten, it's bad enough that the hardware hasn't been revised in over two years, but it is just wrong when computer users get new movie centric features like extras and the Apple TV faithful get nada.

It is only a matter of time before every single company in the world makes some kind of iPhone/iPod Touch app and if you make home theater gear that mean it is a remote. Remotescape for the Kaleidescape is the latest addition and from the looks of the Youtube video embedded after the break, it is a pretty slick mix of gestures and cover art goodness. The bad news of course is that the graphics in the interface are on par with the rest of Kaleidescape's products and the price tag is $69 -- but if you dropped the $50k on the Kaleidescape media server, then you probably think that is cheap for a iPhone app.

Sure, it is The Rock n' Roll event, but an HD snob can only hope there will be something for everyone in today's event. It isn't like there haven't been any rumors either. First up was the Blu-ray support in iTunes 9, then there was the updated Apple TV and the most recent is from a Harmon Kardon press release where we learned that the latest Bridge III iPod / iPhone dock and AVR 2600 and 3600 receivers can "play back HD video from iPod or iPhone products." You'd think at least one of these would have to be true -- especially with the Zune HD hitting the streets in less than a week. Personally we have our hopes up for Manage Copy support in iTunes, but we admit that we are just dreaming.

Yeah we know, it's only been a month, but just like Apple and Microsoft, Apple and Blu-ray are the magic words, so when a smidgin of Blu-ray support popped up in the latest Final Cut Pro, we had to revisit the topic. Is everything properly lined up for a Blu-ray equipped Macbook, Apple TV or Mac Mini HD, or will it all be for naught once again?

Apple might not be ready to add Blu-ray to its computers yet, but prosumers can finally burn their creations directly to the discs (with a 3rd party drive of course) from Final Cut Pro 7. Otherwise, there's also the alternative of burning that HD footage you couldn't bear to squish onto YouTube to a DVD in the AVCHD format, but Macworld notes that beyond a few templates with FCP itself, DVD Studio Pro doesn't support Blu-ray authoring, encoding or burning at all. Of course, video editors probably have one or two other features to concern themselves with so check out the full review, but we'll be busy divining the exact date that "bag of hurt" shows up packed into the next Macbook.

Although Apple still hasn't managed to achieve feature parity with any of its competitors by enabling Blu-ray playback in OS X, it looks like Universal's bringing the mountain to the Mac -- or at least the iPhone. At first, the upcoming special edition of Fast and Furious will feature integration with a special iPhone / iPod touch app that'll allow viewers to control 360-degree models of the cars in the "Virtual Car Garage," but later Universal releases will feature the ability to control movie playback, read annotations while watching your flick, and even download ancillary video content for later playback on the go. Sounds like pretty nifty stuff -- let's hope El Steve reconsiders his whole "bag of hurt" stance when he gets the demo.

[Via AppleInsider]

Around Engadget we're always looking for a better way to enjoy our HD home theater experience and a central part of that is the remote control. Now let us tell you, we've been through more programmable remotes then most people know exist and we still have yet to find one we're satisfied with. All that being said, we just can't believe that it's been well over a full year since capacitive touch screen devices have been readily available to consumers and no one other than Apple seems to understand the potential. As cool as touch screen interfaces look, for the most part they down right stink at controlling anything in a home theater. The root of the problem is that most require you to look at 'em, instead of the HDTV. This is such a bad idea on so many levels, but most of all, it doesn't work because just drawing a regular remote with buttons on a screen really defeats the entire point. Apple has shown it understands this in the past and with the latest update to its Apple TV/iTunes remote app it has stepped up its game a notch.

It's a new year and NetBlender has a new change of gear, pairing with BluFocus to bring last year's BD Touch software -- and its BD-Live enabled Blu-ray player to iPhone / iPod Touch connections -- up to version 2.0, featuring crossplatform capability with other WiFi enabled handhelds like Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre. While going iPhone exclusive hasn't hurt some apps, hopefully we'll see wider adoption of the technology, which can enable things from making the phone a remote control to using it as a keyboard, downloading files from the disc or playing games, now that it supports more than one platform. More info should be available once it hits the floor at NAB 2009 later this week.

Shockingly enough, people seem to be interested in the possibility of easily browsing TV schedules and programming their DirecTV DVR from the iPhone / iPod Touch, for free. Available for just one week so far, it's already ticked over 100,000 downloads so yeah, it's popular, our only question is what's next? You've probably checked it out by now, let us know what features need to be changed or added, or just tee off on the fact that your TV or cellphone provider hasn't unveiled a similar setup yet, we're listening.

We know your pain, Vuzix users. You hop on the subway just trying to enjoy a little in-your-face action before the workday begins, and within minutes the accusations and stereotypes start flying. "Look, it's Geordi La Forge!" "LeVar Burton, what's good?!" "Can I try my Zune on that?" Depressing, really. Unfortunately for you, Vuzix's latest cable will not make any of that any more sufferable, though it will enable you to use your existing eyewear with Apple's iPhone and enjoy the spoils of side-by-side, interlaced and anaglyph 3D content. Said cable will be bundled in with the company's iWear AV230XL, though existing customers will definitely want to snag the standalone version for $39.95. The full release is after the break.