June 30 - 12:05pm EDT   Imation has acquired "substantially all" of XtremeMac's assets, according to a company announcement. The deal is said to be worth at least $9 million, divided between $7 million in cash and a remaining amount in assumed liabilities; Imation may additionally pay as much as $10 million over the course of three years, depending on how profitable the acquisition becomes. In any case the company does not expect the deal to substantially affect its fiscal 2008 results. [full story]

June 5 - 1:15pm EDT   Vudu, the maker of a self-named video streaming set-top, has released a new upgrade for its system called the Wireless Kit. The add-on enables users to download movies and TV shows via wireless Internet rather than an Ethernet cable, a factor which may be crucial given the distance of many TVs from routers and computers. Competitors such as the Apple TV and the Roku already have Wi-Fi. [full story]

June 4 - 7:40am EDT   (Updated on firmware issue, Canadian prices) Apple on Wednesday revealed the addition of movies to iTunes for both Canada and the UK, expanding availability past the US for the first time. The launch includes both purchases and rentals and includes support for direct-to-device HD and standard rentals from the Apple TV. More than 700 titles are available on launch with more than 100 of these available in HD, Apple says. Rental rights have also been extended with the launch: while the 30-day window to start viewing is the same, viewers now have up to 48 hours to finish watching a given title and can watch it an unlimited number of times in that timeframe. [full story]

June 4 - 6:00am EDT   Confirming earlier reports, Apple on Wednesday began offering film downloads and rentals to UK customers and doubled the period to watch rented movies from 24 hours to 48 hours. Movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, MGM, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate UK are now available on the iTunes Store in the UK. Unlike the same day as DVD deal announced in early May in the US, the UK deal also includes titles from MGM. Apple said the iTunes Store in the UK features over 700 films available for rent or purchase, with titles available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including ... [full story]

May 24 - 10:45am EDT   Internet video-on-demand provider Akimbo today has been confirmed by NewTeeVee as having shut its doors. The company says it has so far been unable to raise enough cash to remain profitable for its video delivery services and has decided to drop all but a bare minimum of staff while it seeks a mergers and acquisitions partner to buy up the company's assets. All video services run by the company at present, including Homezone and MavTV, are still running, according to checks. [full story]

May 21 - 3:55pm EDT   Apple Core has released v2.2 of the aTV Flash, an add-on for the Apple TV. The Flash is a USB flash drive, which when connected to an Apple TV will automatically install files that liberate some of the functions of the device. Users can, for instance, play AVI, WMV and DivX/XviD movies, as well as raw DVD files including subtitles. Rentals can be streamed from Jaman.com, in addition to the iTunes Store. [full story]

May 20 - 7:05am EDT   Roku on Tuesday is seeking to up-end the traditional approach to media hubs with the Netflix Player. The small, five-inch-square hub sheds the local storage common to many media hubs and is designed solely to hook into Netflix' Watch Instantly feature: customers of nearly all of the video rental company's subscription plans can stream an unlimited number of movies from the Internet while still receiving DVD movie rentals in the mail, including for movies that aren't yet available in streaming form. The company's existing business gives it more than 10,000 movies online, or roughly ten times the size of Apple's iTunes rental catalog. [full story]

May 12 - 12:10pm EDT   Apple is on the verge of selling movies and TV shows from HBO, according to Portfolio. The publication cites HBO employees "involved in executing the agreement," who say that sales will be announced and launched at the same time, probably within one to two weeks. HBO is famous for a number of high-profile TV series, such as Deadwood, Flight of the Conchords and The Sopranos, as well as a number of first-run original films. [full story]

May 1 - 9:40pm EDT   Apple on Thursday quietly enabled its Apple TV set-top device, in the wake on this morning's movie announcement, to allow owners of the device to purchase movies directly, without the use of a computer. iLounge reveals that the update was automatically applied, without needing an entire system upgrade. Apple also added a "Top Sellers" category to the "Top Movies" menu, which shows the most popular purchased titles. [full story]

May 1 - 11:50am EDT   Apple will remain fairly conservative in terms of who it targets in future, but should continue to expand on technological possibilities, says the analytical firm Piper Jaffray. In spite of the iPhone's forthcoming enterprise support, and some continued efforts at business outreach, Piper notes in a list of "unanswered questions" that Apple insists it is primarily a consumer-focused company, and will continue to focus on related products like the iMac and the iPod. Apple realizes that "every consumer is likely [a] PC user at work," according to Piper. [full story]

May 1 - 10:45am EDT   Startup firm ZeeVee today offered up an unusual take on media streaming hubs with the ZvBox (link active soon). Rather than operate on a traditional home network, the device draws on the raw VGA (or adapted DVI) video output from a computer as well as a user's existing cable TV wiring; linking the two with a ZvBox automatically creates a new 1080i HD station in an unoccupied cable channel that can then be accessed by any HDTV in the home. [full story]

April 29 - 2:20pm EDT   BBC today has announced that its programming is now available through the iTunes Store in the U.S. Starting today on iTunes, customers can purchase single episodes and complete seasons of BBC America's sci-fi series Torchwood, the the comedy Little Britain and hit drama series Robin Hood -- which premiered its second season Saturday on cable channel BBC America. During the run of the new season, Robin Hood episodes will be available on iTunes 24 hours after its premiere, Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Like other shows on iTunes, BBC's programming the U.S. for $1.99 per episode and can be viewed on a Mac or PC, iPod with video, iPhone or widescreen TV with Apple TV. [full story]

April 21 - 3:50pm EDT   Sony's anticipated PlayStation 3 video store could be available as soon as this summer and with wide support, sources tell the LA Times. The console maker is allegedly in talks with multiple major studios and would open the store with a mixture of full-length movies and TV shows. No information has yet been supplied as to which companies are likely to be onboard or whether Sony will offer any videos in HD. [full story]

April 15 - 12:15am EDT   Apple on Monday released Apple TV Software 2.0.2, an update to its set-top box software that brings (undocumented) bug fixes along with a single discoverable feature: it adds a viewable gallery of your contact's favorites photos within Flickr -- in addition to the previously available ability to view a contact's publicly available photo-streams. Some users also report faster menu and/or networking performance: one user on Apple's discussion boards reports getting better network connectivity with some 802.11n networks. [full story]

April 10 - 9:30am EDT   Blockbuster today is subject to rumors which claim the movie rental house is developing its own networked media hub. Similar to stand-alone devices such as the Apple TV or the Vudu, the unnamed project would let users watch Internet-streamed movies on TV and would take advantage of Blockbuster's union with Movielink to supply the content, with an unnamed electronics maker assembling the hardware itself. The device could be announced as early this month, though it may not be available until at least May. [full story]