Ah, the Disney Channel, a place saturated with enough drama for the prepubescent - a wonderful place filled with lip-syncing 14 year olds and high school musicals. If you hate/love the channel here's news for you. Macworld UK reports that Walt Disney's CEO Bob Iger has confirmed that the company has sold 23.7 million episodes of its television shows and an additional two million films through Apple's media service. Top selling titles include "Cars" and "Pirates of the Carribean".

What's interesting about this bit of news is that this could serve as a nice example that the digital distribution model (something some companies seem to be allergic of), can not only work, but help you be dominant. Bob Igor notes that they make as much online as they do from physical sales. He expounds:

There are cost of goods that are factored out of the iTunes sale, which allows them to sell at a lower price. ThatÂ?s their decision and it allows us to take revenue out that is equal to, in terms of a per-click sale, store sales. So, yes, weÂ?re quite comfortable with iTunes...

This is, hands down, an amazing testament to the buying power of drama starved pre-teens.

Now if only Apple can hurry up with all that "no more DRM" stuff they're mulling around with at the moment.

Kids whose parents are certified Mac-aholics would be pleased with this bit of info. Disney Online finally made the kid-friendly PC-based MMO Disney's Toontown Online available to Macintosh computers. Disney must have realized that everyone should get in on the fun and welcome Mac players into the wacky world of Toontown.

Mac users will now join the 15 million Toon characters created in the game. What's more, Disney is adding new "gags to keep players on their toon-toes". It's a little something for Mac players who got left behind for a good three years.

The gag bag includes the Wedding Cake throw gag, an Ocean liner drop gag, an Opera Voice sound gag, and more gags waiting to be unlocked once you reach the highest level on each of their gag tracks. These gags are fun to use especially when you go battling the Cogs. If you're not up to some Cog-nuking, you can always plant these gags using the recently added Estate Gardening feature.

Toontown Online for Mac and PC is available via digital download for US$ 9.95 per month. Extended membership packages are also available at special rates, so the the whole family can create their own characters.

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.

Apple has just announced iTunes 7, a new enhancement for the iTunes store that now allows users to download movies, among other things. iTunes 7 now comes with several nice features in the package which now makes things even more convenient for all Apple-lovers everywhere. These features include new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies, expanded parental controls, and an iTunes video playback window with on-screen controls. The iTunes store also currently has 75 movie downloads from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films, as well as mini-video games from various manufacturers, all of which are playable on fifth generation iPods.

Mac and Windows users can download iTunes 7 for free on the iTunes online store. However, as far as the availability of TV shows and the like, feature films are available only in the US while while video availability varies from country to country. At the moment, games can only be downloaded in 21 countries and can only be played on fifth generation iPods.

By the way, Steve Jobs has already showcased an upcoming product which has been informally dubbed as the iTV player. Expect more info about this in the future here at QJ.

It's always a joy to welcome a new member of the family, and the iPod family is no different. To complement the new offerings of iTunes (as revealed in our companion article), Apple has unveiled the latest generation of the iPod, the Nano, and the Shuffle.

With all the new feature-length films from Walt Disney and Co. coming out on iTunes (yes, Disney seems committed to it), the basic iPod has been beefed up to handle the additional megabytes of data. It's now a whopping 80GB - that's worth 20,000 songs, 25,000 photographs, or 100 hours of video (we haven't even started talking about the games yet!) The battery on the 80GB model will last four about six and a half hours of video usage - that's about three or four movies' worth. All this entertainment value is packed into the same dimensions as the 60GB iPod, and can be available for $349.

The second generation iPod Nano sports a slimmer profile and an all-new aluminum casing - just like the Mini before it. Those shells come in an assortment of 5 colors that's suited to match the user's style or personality preferences (and we can predict that the third-party accessories market will switch to aluminum soon enough). There's a new 8GB model that's decked in black metal, and of course the 2GB and 4GB options remain available. The battery's been upgunned for 24 hours of operation. The 2GB Nano will sell at $149, the 4GB at $199, and the 8GB at $249.

Finally, the Shuffle. It's always been the little tyke of the family, and it's gotten even smaller. It's a little over an inch and a half long, weighs about half an ounce, comes in an all-new aluminum body like the Mini and 2nd-gen Nano, and while it says it comes with a built-in clip, it's not just a built-in clip. It is a clip! It will go on pockets, belt loops, belt straps, bag straps, hem lines, and what ever else you can clip on; a very handy feature to secure such a tiny gadget. 1GB for 240 songs, all for $79.

As expected, the new iTunes was launched today at the San Francisco event. As expected, the new iTunes will new feature a lineup of movies from Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax. But surprise! iTunes now stocks on-the-go video games. And even more surprise! There's a hot new Apple Box sighted on the horizon: the (temporarily code-named) iTV.

iTunes will stream movies to customers in near-DVD quality at resolutions up to 640x480 (depending on the video iPod or media player). CUstomers can order the iMove the same day as it comes out on DVD, or they can pre-order and have iTunes deliver it automatically when the movie is released.

The games available from iTunes will work on 5th generation iPods. All the games in today's lineup will be available for $4.99 each, and include:

• Tetris, Mahjong and Mini Golf from Electronic Arts Inc.;
• Pac-Man from Namco Networks America Inc.
• Cubis 2 from FreshGames, LLC;
• Bejeweled and Zuma from PopCap Games, Inc.; and
• Texas HoldÂ?em and Vortex from Apple.

Ah, and now the (temporarily code-named) iTV. As suspected by a New York Times writer, it's the Living Room Mac Box, more or less. The same movies you download into your Macs and iPods may one day stream onto your flat-screen TVs. It will communicate with your Macs wirelessly via 802.11 (it also has a USB and Ethernet connection). It will hook up to the TV via component audio or even HDMI. And it will be available, as they claim, in Q1 2007 - two seasons from now. (Most likely, it would be - Steve Jobs demoed a unit at the San Francisco event).

Ah, but this is only half the battle, so they say. They also unveiled the latest generation of the iPod family. Check that out at our companion article!

During a financial earnings conference call last August 17, Lions Gate Films' executives revealed that they have reached an agreement with Apple to launch Apple's movies online.

In addition to Lions Gate, Apple has also reportedly tied up with other major movie studios - Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros. for its iTunes movie rental service. Although Apple has reportedly been trying to work on their movie features, the current movie distribution model allows for movie rentals only.

No one knows yet when Apple will launch their movie rental service except for Steve Beeks, Lions Gate's president, who also would not disclose the information to the press. All we know is that Apple's movie rental service is due for launching later this year. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how things work out.

We have been covering the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2006) that will be happening this coming August. We also mentioned in our earlier reports that Steve Jobs will be showing a preview of the Mac OS X "Leopard" at the August 7 event at the San Francisco's Moscone West. But there has been rumors that aside from the OS presentation, the Apple CEO will use his keynote address to announce the debut of movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store.

If this is true and all that, then this just goes to show how Apple is planning on dominating the field of digital media downloads. I bet some movie and studio execs are trembling with fear right now and how much more afraid could cinema operators be? According to the same rumor mills, Apple is said to have inked agreements with Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros., and is currently in talks with other major movie studios as well.

So how would the rent-a-movie-the iTunes way work? Well, according to backfence talks, because the movies will be rented and not sold, people familiar with the situation report downloads will be coded with a date stamp that will restrict playback. The coding system is still a hazy area, but most likely the coding system will limit the number of playbacks or will provide unlimited viewing for a period of time...until it expires, and won't play anymore.

According to Apple sources that claim to be reliable, "we knew that Steve (Jobs) saw the rental model as the only viable option...we knew it was a matter of time before he signed on." Whether it will be a click or a flop, will heavily depend on the price tag, that is if this rumor ever becomes true. We have until August 7 to speculate about that.