TVShows is a free, open source application that triggers automatic downloading of TV shows via BitTorrent.
Working in conjunction with a BitTorrent client, the application manages show subscriptions. Favorite shows are automatically downloaded in the background whenever they become available online.

Most BitTorrent video is encoded in DivX or .AVI formats, and will play fine in a media player like VLC, but if you want to stream it to an AppleTV, you will need to convert the shows — or hack the AppleTV to support DivX and other formats.

Another way to get TV shows automatically is to set up Azureus with the RSS Feed Scanner plugin. Full instructions here.

Via TorrentFreak

So Apple’s had one HELL of a first quarter, haven’t they? With tax day nearly upon us, I thought it might be a good idea to look back at how well Apple is answering the issues that I thought were important late in December of last year, especially now that the AppleTV is out in the market and the iPhone has set the world on fire with its hype flames. Or something. So click through — we’ll laugh, we’ll cry, and we’ll learn something about forecasting. Here, again, are the 10 Questions Apple Must Answer in 2007 — and how well they’re responding.

Technorati Tags: apple, speculation, Steve Jobs

If you asked Apple’s legion armchair CEOs the one number one thing they’d do if they ran the company, the top priority is always the same: develop a series of adverts that spell out the Mac’s best features compared to PCs.

Well, Apple’s real CEO has finally done just that. After a decade of wishy-washy lifestyle ads like the “Think Different” campaign, Steve Jobs is finally taking the competition head on with a new set of TV spots trumpeting the benefits of the Mac over the PC.

Apple’s new Get a Mac campaign centers around six TV spots touting the Mac’s security, stability and ease of use.

Featuring the author John Hodgman as a nerdy PC and another younger, sexier actor as the Mac, the ads make gentle fun of PCs focusing on viruses, unexpected freezes and the iLife software package.

There’s also a spot about compatibility, the Mac’s lifestyle focus and finally, one that quotes from the Wall Street Journal’s review of the iMac naming it the best desktop computer on the market.

There’s no info about who made the ads, but they look like the work of documentary maker Errol Morris, who shot Apple’s previous Switch campaign. The new ads use a similar setup — the characters address the camera head on against a white backdrop.

The Switch spots were generally judged annoying and ineffective (except for the Ellen Feiss ad), and I can’t say I like the new ads much better.

They’re somewhat insipid and maybe a little smug. I like Hodgman, but I’d prefer something more visceral, like footage of that cubicle guy going apeshit on his malfunctioning PC. I say get some real human emotion in the ads — that’d get the Mac message across.

I know I’m harping on about this, but there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not Apple remade — or was even infuenced by — The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” video for its new 30-second TV ad for Intel-based Macs.

In comments here and at my other blog, some people insist the two videos simply use the same setting, a cleanroom, and that’s where the similarities end.

But now ChrisJM at Elite Productions has taken the Apple ad and spliced it with corresponding shots from the Postal Service video to make a side-by-side comparison.

I say it nails it (not that there was any doubt in my mind). The Apple ad is more or less a shot-for-shot remake.

It’s not that Apple’s ad is not artful. I actually think the ad works better than the video, which I found over long and boring. I just find it mystifying there’s any doubt about the source material.

I’ve made enquiries with both Sub Pop Records and Apple’s ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, and will report any findings here next week.

Update: Duncan Rawlinson at the Last Minute Blog has created a much better comparison screenshot of the two videos, which I’ve nicked and posted above. Duncan has a slightly higher-resolution version on his site. Also, in the comments, it seems some people think I’m referring to similarities in the music, but it’s the visuals that are similar, if not identical. Plus it’s the whole idea: the concept, the setting, the narrative. Compare the corridor tracking shots, the movements of the wafer-making machines, the interaction between the male and female workers. The Apple ad is not just “influenced” by the Postal Service video, it’s a remake.

Apple is at it again — making TV ads that bear an uncanny resemblance to other people’s videos.

Apple’s latest TV advert, touting Intel chips inside its new Macs, is remarkably similar to a music video from The Postal Service for the song “Such Great Heights.”

Both are set in clean rooms, and feature bunnysuited workers making eyes at each other.

See for yourself. Here’s the Apple ad, and here’s The Postal Service video (Windows Media download).

Apple is currently being threatened legally by Lugz, which claims an apparently actionable similarity between Apple’s iPod ad featuring Eminem and a 2002 spot for Lugz footwear.

Of course, in the latest case, Apple may have an agreement with The Postal Service or its record company, or may have hired the same director, or licensed the work.

Developing…

So I just woke up and see that Apple is offering about a dozen new TV shows for download from NBC, USA Network and the Sci Fi Channel. Sorry for being the last person on the Net to post this.

The new shows include:

NBC’s “Law & Order,” “The Office,” “Surface,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,”

the USA Network’s Emmy Award-winning “Monk”

Sci-Fi Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica”

classic TV shows including “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Dragnet,” “Adam-12” and “Knight Rider.”

Pricing is a bit weird. Entire episodes of “Law & Order” cost $1.99, but so does a 10-minute clip of Conan O’Brien.

Two more TV networks will begin offering primetime shows on demand for a buck a pop, but not through iTunes online store, reports Reuters, because of fears of digital piracy.

“NBC and CBS unveiled separate plans on Monday to make some of their hottest prime-time shows available for viewers to watch at their leisure — without commercials — for 99 cents an episode, throwing open the door to “on-demand” television,” the Reuters report says.

NBC will offer “Law & Order SVU” and “Criminal Intent,” “The Office,” and the cable show “Battlestar Galactica” to viewers with a DirecTV Plus DVR.

Likewise, CBS will offers four hit shows on demand — “CSI,” “NCIS,” “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” — to Comcast digital cable customers in various cities.

Both platforms are pretty well locked down, with no easy way for owners to get video off the settop boxes and onto file-sharing networks.

In a seperate Reuters report, NBC said it will offer movies and hit shows online only when watertight copy-protection mechanisms are in place.

“We can’t provide them (Google, yahoo and presumably Apple) with content unless they can adequately protect it,” said NBC Universal Chairman Bob Wright.

Apple has sold more than 1 million videos in three weeks through the iTunes music store.

“Selling 1 million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads,” said CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. “Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods.”

The ITunes store offers about 2,000 music videos, popular TV shows and shorts from Pixar.

In 2003, when the iTunes store launched, it sold one million songs in its first week.

The Christmas season is starting, and there’s good news for fans of the Peanuts holiday specials. Apple made the holiday classic A Charlie Brown Christmas available for everyone to stream free this weekend, whether they’re an Apple TV subscriber or not.

That gives everyone the opportunity to watch Linus teach his friends what Christmas is all about.

Critically acclaimed thriller series Hijack returns to Apple TV for a second season on January 14, 2026, Apple said Tuesday as it released a moody teaser trailer for the show.

The second edge-of-your-seat hijacking once again puts Emmy-nominated actor Idris Elba at the center of the action. He sure gets into some trouble, doesn’t he?