Before Season 3 of sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica kicks off on October 6th, Sci-Fi Network has decided to release a free episode from the first two seasons of the said series. Their reason? To entice new viewers to watch out for the premiere and to give the show's current fans a memory-refresher of exactly where the series left off.

The free downloadable episode consists of the entire first and second seasons crammed into a whole 44-minute episode which traces Battlestar Galactica's rebirth as a miniseries. The exclusive special entitled "Battlestar Galactica: The Story So Far" gives fans an inside look at the events and people on the edge of extinction, and how they define life on the edge.

Sci-Fi Network says, "Whether a series fan, or first time viewer, this special will leave you up to date and prepared for the premiere of the third epic season of Battlestar Galactica, October 6th.Â? The adventure-packed 44 minute episode entitled Â?Battlestar Galactica Â? The Story So FarÂ? can now be downloaded for free at  iTunes.

Wal-Mart says it wants to play nice with others. According to the New York Post, Wal-Mart warned Hollywood movie studios that it would fight against distribution of movies on iTunes, worried that Wal-Mart DVD sales would decline as a result. Earlier this year, an insider suggested that many of the "big box" stores, including Wal-Mart, had expressed deep concern when Disney started selling TV shows on iTunes.

Wal-Mart, however, says otherwise. They submitted a recent report saying that they were not trying to stop movie studios from using other forms of distribution, such as Apple iTunes. According to an insider who wished not to be identified, Wal-Mart has discovered that the demographics differ on consumers who download movies--typically single young males--versus buyers of DVDs, and as a result now see no threat to their in-store DVD sales.

Downloads of movies from iTunes has produced $1 million in revenue in their first week of sales, according to Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger. iTunes, according to Iger, has not lowered TV viewership or DVD retail sales.

Now why should the Xbox 360 and the PSP, and soccer have all the Sega/Sports Interactive (SI) management fun? SI announces to all that a try-and-buy demo for NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 is now available for download. Nope, not from Xbox Live. This one's for PC's and Macs (and apparently only PCs and Macs via digital download) everywhere!!!

At least this is a refreshing change of pace for us, right? An announcement like this, but instead of the regular standbys (which are the gaming blogs), we get to post it on an Apple blog - which doesn't happen a lot of times for us. We thank SI for the breath of fresh air. We should do this more often. After all, Apples are for gaming as well.

The Mac demo is about 98Mb, and is fully functional, if only time-limited for six months (in game time, not in real time). Should you decide to purchase the title, the demo unlocks to become the fully-playable version. Have fun.

We've got screenshots and the demo download link at the full article!

Download: [Hockey Manager 2007 Mac try-and-buy demo]

Yesterday, we reported that over 75 movie downloads from various production companies such as Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures, and Miramax Films are currently being made available for the iTunes 7. Now, if you're not a big fan of walking to the nearest video store near you, then that spells good news.

However, getting those for free sounds like a way better news to us. And with iTunes7 you can do just that, but not with movies. Instead, ABC is offering FREE downloads for last season's finales of "Lost", "Desperate Housewives," and "Grey's Anatomy." Cool, huh? With this, you can take the girls of Wisteria Lane with you wherever you go, provided that you have your iPod with you.

Reports say that a million copies would be made available, so if you're in the US, you better hurry while these free goodies are still around. And just to clarify, only the season finale episodes of these TV shows will be made available for free. So if you haven't watched any of these shows yet, you better get your hands on the previous episodes first. But if you're a big fan of spoilers, or just want to check out the last episodes first just for the heck of it, well by all means, go on a downloading frenzy. Just don't spill the beans for those who aren't in the know.

Everybody knows you can download music over iTunes. C'mon, that's what the service is for, right? Okay, now did you know that you can also download sewing patterns over iTunes?

Yes, people, you can now sew while you're on the go with CRAFT zine's new pattern delivery service. Right now, their first pattern - a stretch tube top with drawstring bottom - is the only one available, but they are looking forward to having their channel added to iTunes by next week. When that deal pushes through, expect audio, videos, and more PDF sewing patterns from the CRAFT Magazine channel every week.

Hah. Sewing patterns delivered over iTunes. Nice idea. What will people think of next?

Three talented students from the Technical University of Munich created a brand new app for the Mac: a freeware that lets you simply be your very own disk jockey, minus the discs.

The program developed by Karim Morsy, Cristoph Teschner, and Federico Tessman known as Djay, allows for control over the mixing of your music over the Mac, and also lets you transmit the mixes through the Bonjour Network to other people with the same program. Djay supports all the usual music formats, and looks sweet on a Mac to boot.

Of course, you have to get it to work first. You'll need Mac OS X Tiger (10.4), a PowerPC G4 800 MHz, 512 MB of RAM to get it to work, though higher is definitely better.

Its main features?

• iTunes Integration
• Automatic artwork image loading on both turntables
• Customizable vinyl
• Forward spinning
• Time-Stretching
• Pitch-Shifting with amazing blend effect
• 5 band Equalizer
• Audio Unit Effects Support
• Pre-Cueing (requires multichannel sound card)
• Crossfade automation
• Manual Beat Counting
• Magnetic tempo slider for precise beat matching
• Cue points for beat-juggling
• GarageBand instruments integration via network
• AppleScriptability for mixing automation

They're out with version 1.1.1 now, which has the following features:

• Extended configurable iTunes columns
• Automatic tempo syncronization
• Full control with keyboard shortcuts
• Integrated check for djay updates
• Improved help book
• Bug fixing

Try it out and see what it does for your music needs.

Download: [DJay v1.1.1]

Having been students ourselves, we pretty much know your dilemma. You have a philosophy paper due tomorrow, and it's a major thing, mind you; one that constitutes 35% of your total grade. The topic? Explain existentialism according Martin Heidegger, Gabriel Marcel and Rene Descartes. Knowing that your standing in your class is somewhere between C and D, this is one school requirement that could make or break your grade.

Thing is, you also have a biology exam at 9am tomorrow, and an practical exam immediately after that (not to mention American Idol reruns are airing tonight), so how are you supposed to keep track of everything you need to know without losing your sanity?

Here is where iProcrastinate enters the picture. Errr... no, it's not a magic wand that you could wave to make all your school requirements disappear. But it does make you keep track of the things you need to do for a certain period. So it's actually the next best thing, right? It runs on Mac OS X and best of all, it's free. There have been previous versions of this already, version 10 being the first one, followed by version 11 (which had date and completion columns for step tableview, as well as colored priority bars), then the version 12, and finally version 20, which we have here, which features the following:

• Many bug fixes
  
• General UI Improvements
• Multiple class selection
• Assignment Total
• Keyboard commands
• Grades

So if you want to check it out, click the link below to download the program. Now, if only we had this before...

Download: [iProcrastinate for Mac OS X]

Export Address Book is an application from Dibomedia that exports all the data in your Address Book into an independent data file that you can archive or import somewhere else or use for merges with applications like Word and Filemaker.

Updating the version of Export Address Book, Dibomedia now makes it possible for you to export your contacts on vCards, either as multiple files or as one vCard with multiple entries. This allows you to create vCards while keeping private those information that you deem is unnecessary to be made known to others, without having to alter the original contact in your Address Book.

Also, you can now create documents, which take care of changed group contents automatically. For example, when you add contacts, you can add and store references to groups instead of letting the application split up the group into their members.

Available as a Universal Binary, the Export Address Book runs with full speed on any Mac with PowerPC or Intel processor. The current version is free for those who have the old version of the app. If you have yet to try Dibomedia's wonder, you can give the demo a try by clicking the download below.

Download: [Export Address Book 1.3 Demo Version]

We cover a lot expensive gadgets, so it's nice to find something that's free.

Umundo has introduced a free service that allows video iPod users to view, publish, and share their camera-phone or camera-capable PDA video clips.

How does it work?

1. You use your phone to send in your video via MMS or email to Umundo's site.
2. Then you publish/share your videos: you and your friends log on (using your accounts) to iTunes, Google, MySpace, or My Yahoo! to watch your videos.

And here's the best part: the video from your phone or PDA is converted into H.264. That's the format used by the iPod. So this is basically a free cell-to-iPod converter.

Users in the USA with Cingular, Verizon, and T-Mobile subscriptions can MMS their videos to Umundo. Those who don't subscribe to those services and those who are outside of the USA can send in their videos via email from the phone or PDA. You can also send in .jpeg, .png, .gif, and .3gp files from the computer.

A nifty application was released that allows Mac OSX 10.3.9 (or later) users to Convert any Youtube video into iPod Video at the click of a button. It works in cooperation with the Safari browser so that you can convert YouTube videos into quality iPod video with a simple operation, even allowing you to add videos to your iTunes library.

The simple interface works great, and according to reviewers gives a great video output perfect for any iPod. The only limitations with this version of the program (v1.0) is that you cannot use this application to convert flv files (what YouTube uses) stored on your local computer, and that it doesn't have a progress meter to tell you how much of the video has been converted. Besides that, this program works really well and hopefully requested features such as a progress meter and local flv file support can be added in a later version.

Download: [PodTube v1.0]