Will digital downloads via Xbox Live, PSN, and iTunes soon take over the business of delivering consumers TV shows and hit movies? Not if you ask top Hollywood execs. In a recent gathering of the industry's movers and shakers, the general notion was that physical media would remain on top in the few years ahead. Read the details in the full article up next.

With the 79th Annual Academy Awards right around the corner (whoops, it's this weekend actually), everyone in star-filled Hollywood is prepping up for the biggest show this Sunday eve. And guess who's also gearing up for a little publicity stunt? Yep, that's right: Apple.

According to the Mac gurus at MacWorld, Apple will be inserting an iPhone-themed teaser ad, specifically fashioned to match the grandeur and star-studded Oscars awards night, Sunday, 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

Although there have been no other details regarding the ad, given the advertising brainstormers they have at Apple, we're sure its going to be a blast. What else could you expect from Apple, after Jobs surprised the world with the announcement of the iPhone?

You'll remember Apple for its constant advertising war (featuring Justin Long and John Hodgman) against Microsoft and their recently released Windows Vista flagship operating system. But perhaps you'd also like to know that Apple created the "1984" advertisement in the 1984 Super Bowl that was considered the best-rated advertisements in history.

But wait, isn't Hollywood kind of freaked out by Apple?

So, how are we today? Still clutching your pitchforks, waiting for the next wave of attacks on your living room, eh? The Battle for the Living Room chronicles is still under full swing. Three set top boxes - Sony's PS3, Microsoft's 360, and Apple's Apple TV (iTV) - are vying for that oh-so comfortable spot in your living room. Digital download services have been around for quite some time now, but with these three new factions on the battle field, how can one survive through the media format wars?

Indeed there are a lot of interesting elements, features, and other factors involved when comparing these three set top boxes (again, we are stressing that we are viewing these as set top boxes with the "gaming console" aspect stripped out). Some might even say that, what with all the tech specs thrown into the equation, choosing your Living Room King can be a task left for the gods.

We here at QJ aren't gods (aaaw, sadness) but we can still enlighten you! When you're in a war, you'd definitely want to be on the winning side. And as of now, there isn't any clear-cut winner just yet. We can just assess the tipping scales as the battle changes every so often. Time to rip open the reports in the case file!

Cry: "Havoc!" And let click the "Full Article" link of war!

For a company who is usually stringent, to the point of overbearing, when it comes to keeping up-and-coming projects under wraps until its intended announcement date, Apple's recent previews of their movie offers over at the new iTunes 7.0 has caused some suspicion among analysts. Considering Hollywood's reluctance to get on the iPod bandwagon, could this be Apple's way of letting biggie movie studios see what they could possibly be missing by not submitting to the will of the great white Apple?

As of the moment, episodes of some TV serials have already been made available for download, while Disney and some smaller Hollywood companies have already agreed to sell their movies via the internet.

For many studios such as Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros., one main issue that seems to be unsettled is the pricing of their movies, as Hollywood execs are insisting that the price of downloading a movie should cost more than buying the physical DVD. Their reason for this is that despite the absence of further production, distribution, or inventory costs, obtaining the movies has become more convenient and should therefore cost consumers more. An episode of faulty logic? Maybe.

One thing remains more certain than other details though, and that's the fact that "iPod" has become a household term, Apple has taken over the industry of downloading music and TV shows, and almost everyone you meet down the street is sporting white earbuds. How long can Hollywood resist the dark side? We'll wait and see.

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.

If iTunes has the potential to kill off Blu-Ray and HD-DVD - and even DVD as well, then it probably explains why Wal-Mart is worried. Worried enough to - according to some sources - threaten any Hollywood player that decides iTunes is the wave of the future.

Well, the story that appeared in the New York Post says that Wal-Mart CD/DVD sales executive David Porter toured Hollywood studios to deliver the message: join iTunes, Wal-Mart buys less of your movies. It wasn't exactly an offer they couldn't refuse - one high-level studio executive says that they "all want to be in the Apple business" - but then Steve Jobs reportedly called Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott to ask him to moderate his stance.

Wal-Mart is a power player in Hollywood: it accounts for five billion dollars in Hollywood's DVD revenue. That's a lot of revenue. But then, so's Apple, if Steve Jobs' in the Disney board, and it continues to sell iPods like hotcakes (with iTV to follow).

Clash of the titans? A Wal-Mart spokeswoman announced, "We intend to meet our customer needs whether they choose to purchase movies online or in the store and will continue to work hard with all our partners to do that." They're hedging their bets?

(True to journalistic form, all the sources for the New York Post's article remain unidentified).

Despite Apple's earlier announcement about the availability of full-length movies from the iTunes Store, it seems that many major movie studios (and not to mention some retailers) are rather wary about releasing their titles to the public in such a manner.

So far, only Disney has willingly come to an agreement with Apple execs to put up their movies for sale via iTunes. On the other hand, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros. have imposed the condition that instead of selling their movies via iTunes for $9.99 a pop, the titles would instead be rented out to users.

Despite having given in to the pressure from the Hollywood bigwigs, Apple is still hoping that by offering movies from companies such as Disney and other smaller movie companies, the major companies will finally be convinced that Apple's deal may not be so bad after all.

Apple's dominance over the music-download industry might be giving the iPod maker some troubles when it comes to moving into the movie-download market . The issue? Hollywood studios are frightened by Apple's dominance.

The movie studios are afraid they will face the same troubles that record studios are facing. See, in the music industry, sales for individual music tracks may be at an all time high, especially since Apple promotes single song downloads on iTunes. But because of that, album sales are going down, and album sales are where labels get their profit from.

So if Apple does for movies what they're doing for videos, then only the better known movies will be downloaded and paid for. The lesser known or less popular films won't stand a chance. You could say that's what marketing and advertising is for but, the truth is, word of mouth on the "intarweb" is faster than any Hollywood hype/spin/marketing plan.

To keep in touch with the program while protecting their interests, major studios have now signed a string of deals to kick-start movie downloading in an attempt to ensure that the market shares are spread around. For example, BSkyB allows you to download movies for free from them via subscription instead of per movie.

Apple still has the major advantage though, as its portable devices still dominate, and all the larger iPods already have video capability. Given the market penetration of their handhelds and the temptation to just sign up with Apple's service, Apple is likely to gain a significant share of the emerging movie download market.

Now that Apple dominates the music world, film studios are afraid the computer company has its eye on the film industry as well. Nonetheless, several Hollywood studios are currently in negotiations with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Other studios, wary of dealing with a member of Disney's board, are talking with Apple VP Eddie Cue instead.

The studios are resisting Job's idea that feature films be priced at $9.99. Typically, library titles are sold to big-box chain stores for much lower prices than new releases. Right now, the studios think Apple should sell similar content at multiple price points, which has not been done previously.

According to Variety, film studios are also negotiating with other distributors such as Amazon, Movielink and BitTorrent, to head off any chance of a monopoly. Most major studios will probably have movies available through the iTunes Music Store by year's end.

Good news to iLife customers, Apple has released several software updates for iLife '06 applications like iDVD, iMovie, iWeb and iPhoto. iDVD 6.0.2 (5MB) update addresses issues with burning some 16:9 projects and improves overall stability. And now it allows you to use either a SuperDrive or compatible third-party DVD burner for your Hollywood-style DVDs.

Future filmmakers will love these updates for iMovie HD 6.0.2 (7MB). It addresses issues with Ken Burns rendering performance, scrubber bar editing performance theme image quality, PAL audio, and displaying iLife Sound Effects automatically in its iLife Media Browser. A 54.6MB installer is also available for those who want to upgrade their iMovie HD version 6.0 or 6.0.1 to a 6.0.2.

Better weblife equals iWeb 1.1 (88.8MB). Updates include comment support for blogs and podcasts (.Mac published sites only),blog search support (.Mac published sites only),usability improvements to themes and templates and image management fixes to improve site performance.

Updates to iPhoto 6.0.3 (13.9MB) addresses issues with the Photocasting of Smart Albums, sharing iPhoto libraries, and creating calendars and books. So whip out those photos you took on your honeymoon and share them with your loved ones in an instant.