The Opus 4, which previously maxed out at 1TB of storage in a $1799 incarnation, now lugs along 2TB of ripped music, preferably, according to them, in lossless format. The software touch interface has gotten a hefty overhaul, promising greater responsiveness, search and custom internet radio streaming via the device's Wi-Fi. The core functionality, however, remains unchanged: this is a music device, and that's it. The Melody extender gets the same software upgrades, but must draw on an Opus box or PC media server for content, and retails for substantially less, at $599.

Olive's strategy with the Opus and Melody is possibly more interesting than the products themselves, at least to most folks: they advertise their highest price options over their lowest ones (the Opus actually starts at $1500), and are completely upfront about the fact that their technology is deliberately simplified, to the point that obvious potential functionality—through the Opus' Linux-based OS, for example—is left unrealized. The thing is, if these issues bother you, you're not the target audience. Who are they? Old people with money, basically. Related: Hello, old people with money! [Olive]

We need to specify one thing before we start: This is not a rumor. There is absolutely no information to back up this idea, there have been no leaks on the subject, and there's no reason to believe Apple is working on anything of the sort. It's an idea based purely on speculation. That being said, we think it's a smart idea, totally within the realm of possibility, and something we'd really like to see.

Given Apple's massive success with the iPhone and iPod touch App Store, it makes sense that maybe Apple would try to implement something similar for the underdog in their lineup, the Apple TV. While Windows Media Center has developed quickly into one of the best pieces of software Microsoft's ever created, and Boxee and XBMC have pushed the limits of user-created media centers, the Apple TV has languished with behind-the-times software and features, seemingly ignored by Apple themselves. With Boxee, it's a great device, but how many people really know Boxee exists, let alone how to install it? The Apple TV has a ton of mainstream potential, and an app store might be just the way to achieve it.

An app store could deliver loads of new features to the Apple TV, from games to news to other digital video services (like Hulu), and could really exploit the under-used combination of Apple TV and iPhone. It'd be the best of both worlds, with the flexibility of Boxee and the security of the iPhone. Think about it: You could use the acceleromter in the iPhone to control a racing game displayed on your TV through the Apple TV, stream media across the world, or even just use your home theater system for truly epic fart apps.

And this could make media streamers (or home theater PCs, whatever) the mainstream devices they really should be: Despite Windows Media Center's slick interface and ease of use, mainstream users barely even know it exists. XBMC, with its Linux base, requires users to hunt for apps, just like cell phones pre-App Store. Apple could really capitalize on the possibilities and relative lack of use of HTPCs and media streamers, and they'd barely have to do anything themselves!

Especially given Microsoft's big push toward what they call the "three screen" strategy (computer, mobile device, television) with the Zune HD and new Xbox 360 features, it really seems like the time for Apple to jump into the ring too.

Remember, there's no reason to think an Apple TV app store is in the works. But on the other hand, we really hope it is. [via All Things D]

Besides HP killing their Smart TVs and Connect Media receivers, Linksys's DMA2100 and DMA2100 are listed as "discontinued" at B&H, Niveus Media's Media Center Extender is delisted points out Engadget, along with Samsung's MediaLive Digital Media Adapter. Only Netgear's Digital Entertainer Elite appears to be holding strong.

Any company who proclaimed to be in the home entertainment or networking biz had one, and now they're all silently shrouding them in death ShamWows. To quote the Joker, "What happened?" Well, to start, they mostly sucked, really, really hard. HP's most recent box required a PC running in order to rent movies so it could authenticate your CinemaNow account. And just try scrolling through your catalog of 13,000 songs, on any of these things. We'll see you in 2020.

Even when they are decent, they perform almost the exact same function as an Xbox 360 or PS3—which are also actual gaming systems for the same, or even less money. Not to mention Boxee on Apple TV or super-powered Blu-ray players packed with Netflix that also slurp up audio and video. What doesn't stream audio and video? Dedicated streaming boxes are one-legged men in a ruthless cyborg world: Destined for slaughter.

Difficult, expensive and redundant, they lived on borrowed time. And now they're dead.

The Skinny: If you don't already have some device hooked up to your TV that can access these sites, or you want to watch European news whenever you feel like it, you might want check this thing out. In addition to the video clip search and 90+ live feeds (200-300 planned for the future), the ITV 2000 can connect to cinema now, vu now, or photo services. You can also plug in a USB drive and watch or listen to your own media via USB.

The device connects over wi-fi or ethernet, and has composite, component and HDMI connections. The Netgear ITV2000 Internet TV Player will be available this summer for $200.

Internet TV Player (ITV2000)

NETGEAR’s Internet TV Player (ITV2000) is a compact, easy-to-use, “plug in and go” Internet set-top
device with a simple remote control that enables viewers to catch up on the world of Internet videos
including YouTube™, live Internet TV, popular Internet video websites, premium video-on-demand and
online video searches retrieving billions of Internet videos from a place it was previously unavailable —
the TV in their living rooms. Rather than watching videos on PC screens in separate rooms, families can
watch video from a variety of Internet sources on the TV together, in the comfort of their den or family
room.

The Internet TV Player unlocks the value of new HDTVs as well as old analog TVs. It is ideal for the
Internet families who enjoy online video, and for those who are geographically displaced from their
preferred television content, such as international sporting events and Bollywood productions. It streams
content from popular sites such as BBC.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com, EuroSport.com, NBC.com,
PGATour and TMZ.com, as well as video powerhouses YouTube, Google Videos™, Yahoo Videos™ and
MetaCafe™. NETGEAR’s Internet TV Player supports streaming of live TV broadcasts from Internet sites
around the world, and premium, paid movies on demand such as CinemaNow.com, in addition to
downloaded videos from sites such as BitTorrent®. Its superior VTap ™ video search capabilities enable
the intelligent search of Internet videos, including targeting video sites by country, topic of interest,
person or popular website. Consumers are also able to play video, music, and photos from a local USB
flash drive as well as from the NETGEAR ReadyNAS® family of storage solutions.

Slightly larger than a deck of cards, the compact Internet TV Player connects to the home network and the
Internet via Ethernet or wireless USB adapter. It does not require a PC to play Internet video, nor does it
require installing any PC software or setting up file sharing or firewall settings.

The NETGEAR Internet TV Player (ITV2000) is expected to be available in early Summer 2009 through
leading retailers, e-commerce sites, and value-added resellers, at an MSRP in the U.S. of $199. More
information can be found at
(http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/itv2000.aspx).

Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150)

An ideal solution for serious media enthusiasts, NETGEAR’s Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150) is the
most powerful and flexible digital media player available, incorporating the latest video, audio and
wireless technologies to deliver an unparalleled living room experience. Its integrated 500GB hard drive,
easily user-upgradeable to larger capacity disks, makes the Digital Entertainer Elite the world’s most
powerful home video jukebox on the market. Consumers can play on their TVs Blu-Ray quality up to
1080p digital video, high-resolution digital photos, MP3s and recorded television shows from their PCs or
storage on their network. They can also enjoy Internet content, such as YouTube, Internet radio, Flickr™,
RSS feeds, and videos from popular websites. The Digital Entertainer Elite automatically finds all digital
media files on the home network and organizes them into an easily accessible library.

The Digital Entertainer Elite is exceptional in that it works simultaneously with Windows®, Mac® and
Linux computers, and Networked Attached Storage (NAS) devices, such as NETGEAR’s award-winning
family of ReadyNAS® storage solutions. It supports an unmatched list of file formats, including:

•Video formats: AVI, DivX, Xvid WMV, MOV, M4V, MP4, VOB, MPG, MP1, MP2, MP4, ISO,
IFO, MKV, TS and M2TS;

•Audio formats: MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, WMA-Pro, AAC, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, LPCM, Dolby
AC3 5.1 stereo downmix, Dolby AC3 5.1 passthrough, DTS 5.1 passthrough, Dolby TrueHD
Downmix, Dolby+ Passthrough and DTS-HD Master Audio passthrough;

•Subtitle formats: SUB, SRT, SMI, SAMI, TXT and DVD Subpicture; and,

•Video codecs: MP1, MP2, MP4, Xvid, VC-1/WMV-9, H.264 and OpenDivX.

The Digital Entertainer Elite’s two USB ports also enable instant access to content on a USB flash drive,
digital camera, iPod® or other USB storage device. Three of NETGEAR’s exclusive RangeMax™ internal
metamaterial antennas and Dual-Band wireless 802.11n give the Digital Entertainer Elite the best wireless
performance of any digital media player on the market. More specifically, the Dual-Band wireless enables
the Digital Entertainer Elite to pick from not only three 2.4GHz channels, crowded by 802.11g wireless
networks in the neighborhood, but up to twenty clearer channels in the 5GHz band. Further, the Sigma
Designs 8635 chip ensures the most powerful and flexible audio and video performance.
Multiple NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Elite units can work in concert throughout a house. Using
“Follow Me,” consumers can pause a video in one room and resume it in another. While in “Party Mode,”
they can synchronize music playback for whole-home listening.

The Digital Entertainer Elite also features NETGEAR’s award-winning Push ‘N’ Connect to seamlessly
and securely connect wireless clients based on Wi-Fi Protected Set-up (WPS), eliminating the need to
remember or input password keys. Further, NETGEAR’s Digital Entertainer Elite includes
environmentally friendly features, such as an energy-efficient power supply and auto-sleep mode.
Backed by a one-year warranty and full 24/7 technical support, the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Elite
(EVA9150) is expected to be available in February through leading retailers, e-commerce sites, and
value-added resellers at an MSRP in the U.S. of $399. More information can be found at
(http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/eva9150.aspx).

“NETGEAR’s product introductions take advantage of two major trends that we are seeing with
consumers — digital media and connectivity,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst of
Parks Associates, which specializes in research and analysis for digital living technologies. “First, as
digital media collections grow, we anticipate that the average broadband household will require a
significant amount of additional storage and media centralization capabilities. Second, our Digital Media
Evolution study finds high demand for connected CE experiences that can deliver premium Web content
to the living room.”

As of today, a new Vudu Labs area on standard Vudu boxes will offer access to Flickr, Picasa and YouTube. In addition, the Labs' new "On Demand" area opens free streaming from ABC, CBS, MSNBC, Nickelodeon, Discovery, and ESPN—among lots of other web-available media.

Vudu's Rich Internet Application platform will be opened to developers in Q1 of 2009. And it seems like a pretty good way for Vudu to stay competitive against the likes of Netflix, Blockbuster and AppleTV.

VUDU Brings the Web to TV with Breakthrough Internet Application Platform

Company Launches More than 120 Channels of Web Based Content and Applications, Announces Rich Internet Application Platform Open to All Developers in 2009

Santa Clara, CA - Dec. 16, 2008 - VUDU today took a major step forward in bringing the Web into the living room by launching the VUDU RIA (Rich Internet Application) platform, a standards-based platform that brings Web-hosted rich applications and services to consumer appliances
such as the popular VUDU Internet movie player. VUDU RIA combines the openness and ease of development of Web applications, lightweight hardware requirements compatible with today's consumer Internet appliances, and a lean-back user experience optimized for television.
To demonstrate the power and flexibility of VUDU RIA, VUDU has created an initial set of applications and services in a new area of the VUDU home page, called VUDU Labs. Available today to all VUDU owners, these applications include casual games, implementations of Flickr, Picasa and
the entire YouTube library, as well as a new "On Demand TV" area with more than 120 channels.
Today, VUDU customers can access a broad selection of free on-demand shows provided by major network television and on-line specialty sites spanning news, food, music, sports, and more. Programs include daily highlights from shows such as "Today", "The Rachel Maddow Show", "Anderson Cooper 360", "Fantasy Focus NFL", "MTV News", as well as full programs, some in HD, from Nova, National Geographic, PBS and others. VUDU plans to add more applications and services throughout 2009.

"VUDU RIA enables us to quickly open up huge libraries of web based content to TVs in living rooms around America," said Edward Lichty, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Content. "We are excited to
deliver both high quality TV shows as well as Web applications which enable our customers to share their photos and watch the tens of millions of YouTube videos on their HDTV's." VUDU RIA Brings Web Application Development to CE devices VUDU RIA allows developers to take advantage of the most advanced RIA techniques such as asynchronous Web queries, local scripting, and persistent client-side storage, along with unique TV-centered technologies such as VUDU's acclaimed user interface, one-wheel remote control navigation, and VUDU's TruFilm-powered video rendering for
maximum visual quality. VUDU RIA enables the development of responsive, rich applications
optimized for display and use on high definition televisions that bring the wealth of data and content of the Internet to the living room without needing to deploy new software on the consumer appliance, a
first in the consumer electronics world. VUDU RIA is targeted at today's low power set-top boxes and Internet appliances and delivers a lightning fast user experience on a 300 MHz embedded processor with 128MB of RAM. Applications developed on the VUDU RIA platform are as responsive as native applications but have the added advantage of being able to pull from the vast and growing reservoir of
Internet content and services. They can also be updated anytime without modifying any software in the consumer's appliance, creating a dynamic experience heretofore unavailable in the living room. VUDU RIA
will be opened up to third party developers in the first half of 2009.

"Our goal in creating VUDU RIA was to allow anyone with Web development skills to easily author Web-driven applications for the TV," said Prasanna Ganesan, VUDU's Chief Technical Officer. "We are very pleased with the results and look forward to opening up VUDU RIA to the developer community."

Yes, that's a tad steep if you compare it to Apple TV, Roku, or Xbox 360, but not so bad if you compare it to the average HTPC.

The Netgear's biggest advantage is that it supports a wide variety of codecs and includes a 500GB SATA hard drive that's user-swappable.

The Netgear's biggest disadvantage is that it while it can browse YouTube, Flickr, content from your PC, and probably services like Hulu as well, there's no Netflix partnership to speak of. But for the Bittorrent fan who wants a place to toss media for an HDTV, it might not be a bad option when it's released at a yet unannounced time. [Wired]