Classic TV shows coming to Disney.com...

Disney has announced that it will begin offering classic TV shows over the internet via its website. The company already sells full-length feature films and modern hit TV shows through Apple's iTunes Store, but classic shows which still remain unnamed will debut directly on Disney.com, according to the New York Times. "In the near future, you'll see more of that product available on Disney.com, either for free or through some sort of subscription," said Roger Iger, CEO of Disney. "Providing physical goods on DVD is tougher and tougher these days because shelf space is limited."

iPhone SDK restrictions "troubling" to some...

Apple yesterday unveiled its forthcoming iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) during a town-hall meeting on its campus in Cupertino, but developers who read the company's own iPhone Human Interface Guidelines say the SDK comes with several troubling restrictions. TechCrunch reports that VoIP services are "basically out of luck," and developers can only use published APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) according to Apple's rules. The most significant limitation, however, is the fact that third-party iPhone applications can never run in the background and will immediately quit when users 'leave' the application to perform another action -- such as making a call.

iSale 5.1 adds video clip integration...

Equinux today released iSale 5.1, the latest revision of its online auction software for Mac OS X. iSale 5.1 allows users to integrate video clips into auctions from all leading video websites, according to Equinux, including Apple's .Mac service. The update also increases security by supporting the PayPal Security Key for 2-factor-authentication. The Template Editor in iSale 5.1 includes a new item for integrating video clips in all of the 222 templates that ship with the software. iSale 5.1 is available for $60, and requires Mac OS X 10.5.

Macgamestore.com offers Rainbow Web 2...

Sugar Games today unveiled Rainbow Web 2, the sequel to its color-matching puzzle game. Having freed the lands of the influence of the Sorcerer Spider, players must now rid the Royal Palace of its presence. In order to clear the Spider's webs from the castle, players must match letters and colors over 82 levels to break the Spider's spell. Rainbow Web 2 is available from Macgamestore.com for $20 as a digital download.

ShadesCases ships Shades for iPod touch...

ShadesCases has begun shipping its Shades cases for Apple's iPod touch. The new cases keep the same thin look as the originals, measuring just .4mm thin and weighting 0.5-ounces. The cases feature built-in clear screen protection that allow users to operate the multi-touch screen interface, and come in 10 different colors ranging from black to silver. Shades cases for iPod touch are priced from $17, and are designed to show the iPod's unique design without adding bulk or hindering usage.

Ballmer: ActiveSync on iPhone, ponders Silverlight...

Steve Ballmer recently sat down with Guy Kawasaki at the Mix 2008 conference in Las Vegas, where Kawasaki asked him about his feelings on Apple's iPhone developer announcements yesterday. According to CNET, Ballmer thinks that Silverlight on the iPhone would be interesting, but somewhat dismissed the idea. He says that there has been no official conversations with Apple CEO Steve Jobs on the matter, and Apple's business model of taking 30-percent of revenue is questionable.

EasyListening bridges with Sony Ericsson phones...

Divine Robot has released the first version of EasyListening, a music copying utility. The software is specifically aimed at simplifying the transfer of iTunes songs to Sony Ericsson phones, a process which normally involves either Windows programs or exploration inside a phone's folders. To use EasyListening, people can either drag either songs or playlists directly into the app, which will copy all necessary files to the right locations.

Ballmer questioned on Apple, Yahoo, Google...

Guy Kawasaki recently sat down with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to talk about the Yahoo buyout offer, as well as the company's competition with Google and Apple. According to eWeek, Kawasaki wondered if Ballmer felt that Apple was like a little dog, biting at his heels that he had to kick away every day. Ballmer retorted that he did not, saying that both Apple and Microsoft do a "pretty good job", but ultimately, Microsoft has more of a "footprint" than Apple does.

Cinematte plug-in reaches Macs...

Nova Design has released the Mac version of Cinematte, a Photoshop plug-in that generates masks and clipping paths based on blue- or green-screen technology. Users can set up batch processing through Actions, and output mattes, layer masks, transparencies and keyed foregrounds. A real-time preview lets users check results, and special coding works to prevent color spill or the alteration of foreground colors.

iPhone SDK, MS Exchange impress investors...

Yesterday's "iPhone Software Roadmap" event raised analysts' faith in AAPL stock, with Shaw Wu of American Technology Research reiterating a "buy" rating and a price target of $175. According to Wu, Apple had met and exceeded expectations with its "superior" implementation of ActiveSync. Apple's method eliminates separate server software, while also providing a direct connection to the server, rather than through a third-party network operations center.

Piper: iPhone plans increasing confidence...

Apple's press event yesterday inspires greater confidence in the company's sales targets for 2008, say analysts with Piper Jaffray. The research group notes that it is particularly excited by the prospect of the SDK and the App Store, which, come June, should liberate iPhone users from the restrictions and speeds of current web-based applications. Piper describes the new iPhone as a "full-fledged mobile computing platform," and expects Apple to follow up with a "full family" of Internet-capable devices going into the future.

[U] BBC iPlayer for iPhone launches...

(Updated with BBC commentary) The early indications of a beta iPlayer client for the iPhone have been confirmed. Beginning today, mobile visitors to the iPlayer website can now watch a limited number of BBC TV shows, such as Whistleblower. The video has been specially converted to cope with the limitations of Apple's Safari browser, which cannot play Flash; it is most likely then that episodes are being encoded in streaming QuickTime.