This means that TiVo HD and TiVO HD XL owners will be able to use i.TV as a full remote control, replacing those serviceable but ultimately kind of lame standalone apps that they'd been stuck with up until now. While the prospect of a true all-in-one remote app is pretty exciting—though it's firmly just a prospect, since i.TV is simply offering a framework, not developing remotes themselves—the app has a few other new features going for it, including push notifications to remind you when flagged programs are coming on, and iTunes integration, which lets you initiate iTunes purchases from within i.TV's schedule interface.

Prior versions were free, and this one should be too, as soon as Apple lets it through the gates, which is expected to happen within a few days, or, you know, not. For now, enjoy a teasey video: [i.TV via BGR]

Techcrunch says it's incredibly improved, as you can now just slide around on the phone to move around the screen and use the keyboard to do type searches. Grab it here for free. [iTunes via Tech Crunch]

Apple's IR Remote is fine, but it's easy to lose and needs line-of-sight. Apple's Remote app may still be the slickest iPhone application yet, but it only controls iTunes. Rowmote obviously solves all of these issues.

So there must be a catch, right, for a third party to one-up Apple at their own remote game? Well, there are actually two catches. First, Rowmote doesn't offer any sorting or UI beyond its Shuffle-like controls. (Apple's Remote app allows you to browse your whole iTunes library.) And you'll also have to load an intermediary program onto your Mac before Rowmote will work—it's not turnkey compatible like both Apple remotes are.

But still, especially as Rowmote is priced at just $1, it's at minimum a nice step up from the Apple IR-based Front Row remote (which seems to offer the exact same functionality). [iTunes]

Update:
Denny Breitenfeld, the CTO of NetBlender, told us that it's not a standalone application but a technology for professional Blu-Ray authoring tool combined with an SDK for iPhone developers:

It's a technology that is built into our professional Blu-Ray authoring tool that will allow studios, independent movie companies to enable BD Touch features.

These features send data in two directions from the Disc to the Iphone and vice versa. Video, Audio, text, and player commands can be sent.

So right now it seems everyone likes the "remote control" idea. However the player can control the IPhone as well. One idea is to automatically pull up IMBD of the movie you are watching right on your Iphone or send the movie information a movie database on your phone. The ideas are only limited to what people want and will use.

We are releasing an SDK for the 100k Iphone developers out there so they can take advantage of BD Touch features to build applications that easily work with all kinds of titles.

According to NetBlender:

• The iPhone application will be able to interact directly with movies, showing extra information in the iPhone.
• It will also be able to keep a database of your movie collection.
• BD Touch will also be able to get digital copies of the movies inside the Blu-ray disc, presumably already encoded for iPod touch and iPhone playback.

The only problem we see with BD Touch is the quote they gave to MacWorld UK:

The sophisticated user interface of the iPhone enables greater user interaction as well as the power to leverage the iPhone's existing network. Search, e-commerce and advertising possibilities related to movie content abound when one imagines real-time communication between the iPhone and the content currently being displayed on a Blu-ray player.

Possibility of buying/snatching a song while I'm listening to it in the movie soundtrack? Great. Advertising popping on my iPhone while I watch a movie? I was going to say "no thanks," but I just stopped at the "why?"

We will see how it exactly works when it gets announced this Thursday. [Netblender via MacWorld]