NBC and Amazon have made the pilot episodes for NBC’s new series “The Bionic Woman”, “Chuck”, “Life” and “Journeyman” available for free download. By free download, you can download them to a Windows PC and watch them on it or on TV via the TV out on your computer - or you can download them to your Series 2 Tivo (I don’t think they have Series 3 support yet). Links to the shows and an explanation of how to get them on your Tivo (it’s easy and it’s officially supported, no hackery involved) are after the cut.

NBC recently had a well-publicized kerfluffle with Apple over the iTunes Store, resulting in NBC deciding not to renew their contract to carry their TV shows on iTunes. Given that Apple can’t guarantee that those shows will be available for the whole season, they’ve decided not to offer any of NBC’s new fall programming (they wouldn’t be able to offer season subscriptions to shows).

There’s a lot of finger pointing. NBC says that Apple was inflexible in its pricing. Apple says that NBC wanted to raise the price on shows and wanted them to try to detect and prohibit pirated video and music from being loaded on iPods (which I can see no reasonable technical way to do other than requiring everything to be authenticate and DRM’ed, which is definitely well beyond “reasonable”).

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Amazon’s trying really hard to get your Harry Potter business. The final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is out in a little over a week. As usual, bookstores are planning midnight parties on Friday night, July 20th, to celebrate the release of the book.

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Apple has a couple of ways you can save on a new Mac this summer. First, if you buy a qualifying printer with a Mac you’ll get a rebate of up to $100 on the printer. That’s enough to cover the cost of many of the printers available through the Apple Store. This works with any Mac, new, refurbished or on an educational or developer discount. Click through the banner to the left for more info.

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Amazon is offering Tivo’s 80-hour Series 2 recorder for $170 - with a $170 rebate, it’s free, with free shipping. You still have to sign up for Tivo’s service, of course, with a year-long commitment (but without Tivo service turned on, it’s a free door-stop).

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Speck ToughSkin for iPod Nano

Speck ToughSkin for iPod with Video

Amazon has a rebate on Speck’s ToughSkin case for the iPod Nano (2nd generation - the ones with the metal case) or iPod with Video. The rebate makes the case free before shipping. If you don’t have Amazon Prime, ordering a book or CD or something else to bring the total to $25 or more will get you free shipping. Click on one of the two above to check it out on Amazon

The ToughSkin is a ruggedized case for your iPod that doesn’t just protect it from casual scratches when you throw it in your pocket or bag that’s full of coins and keys and bottle caps; it also protects it from being dropped or knocked to the floor. The case allows access to all the functions of the iPod, and includes a screen protector.

I’ve never yet met a case that would work in my iPod dock, unfortunately. I’ve read about a company doing a “dock extender”, which would lift the iPod slightly up from the dock so that you can dock it in its case. I don’t believe they’re shipping yet. In the meantime, I find it’s worth more to me to protect my iPod by keeping it in its case than it is to have it sit pretty in its dock.
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I would have posted about this sooner had I run across it sooner. This deal ends today - December 20th. Buy.com offers Cables To Go’s iPod retractable travel kit for $50. The kit includes a retractable sync and power cable with USB and Firewire ports, retractable earbud headphones (which look like they take up more room than non-retractable ones would), an A/C adapter and a car power adapter. No FM transmitter or cassette adapter. It’s compatible with dock connector iPods - fourth and fifth generation models, the iPod nano, video iPods and photo iPods and the U2 iPod. You can find out more about it at Cables To Go’s web site.

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The iTunes Store has made Sufjan Stevens’ “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever” available as a free download. Free songs are usually available for a couple of weeks at the iTunes Store. It’s a pretty good song, and a welcome relief from most holiday music. Click on the icon to download it:

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Buy.com is offering 1GB Secure Digital cards from Kingston at $50, which is not a great price, until you take into account a $30 rebate, which drops it to $20. Google is offering a $20 instant rebate if you use Google Checkout for Buy.com orders $50 or over, which means you can get the card for $0. If you choose slow shipping, the card is yours for the cost of remembering to fill in the rebate form and mail it. The rebate allows for two rebates per household, which must be sent in in the same envelope.

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I felt very odd when I first ran across Canadian science fiction author and biologist Peter Watts’ work - “Peter Watts” was the name of a major character, sometimes-hero, sometimes-villain, always mysterious, in my favorite television show ever, “Millennium”. So of course I was surprised when I found that there’s a real person named Peter Watts, writing science fiction.

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I generally can’t wait for the holiday music to subside, but if you’re in the mood for it, iTunes’ free song of the week this week is Sarah McLachlan’s version of “Silent Night”. I you want a copy, click on .

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