TiVo will introduce a “product purchase” feature on Tuesday in partnership with the Internet retailer Amazon.com. Owners of TiVo video recorders will see, in TiVo’s various onscreen menus, links to buy products like CDs, DVDs and books that guests are promoting on talk shows like “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Daily Show.”

In the months ahead, TiVo plans to begin offering this feature to advertisers and programmers, so that the chance to buy products and have them delivered will be presented to viewers during commercials and even alongside product placements during live shows.

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 video game console will be able to stream thousands of movies over the Internet, thanks to a deal announced Monday with Netflix Inc. that highlights the way gaming devices are expanding into all-purpose home-entertainment hubs.

The arrangement, revealed at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles, will let Netflix subscribers stream 10,000 movies and TV shows to Xbox consoles for viewing on television sets, beginning this fall. Xbox had movies and shows available for download before, but only half as many.

“This generation of consoles will change the face of home entertainment more than any other generation before,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment division.

As Microsoft vies for a stronger foothold in the living room, so is rival Sony Corp., which has tried to make its PlayStation 3 into a broader entertainment device by including Blu-ray high-definition DVD players in the consoles.

The deal with Microsoft also marks an important expansion for Netflix, whose 18-month-old streaming service - which supplements its DVD-by-mail program - has been available on computers instead of TVs, unless consumers had bought a small streaming device from a Netflix-backed startup called Roku Inc.

Microsoft already has sold more than 10 million Xbox 360 consoles in the United States. More than half of Xbox 360 owners pay $50 a year for a “gold” membership, which will be required for access to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” library. They also must subscribe to Netflix, which charges $9 per month for the least expensive plan that includes unlimited streaming.

In partnering with Microsoft, Netflix may be building the streaming service to prepare for the day when the convenience and widespread availability of video downloading kills its DVD-by-mail service.

I expected that iPhone 3G service from AT&T would be more expensive compared to the original iPhone - $30 per month for data on top of voice service, a $10 increase), but the telco slipped in a poison profit pill by removing SMS text messaging from the plan.

Instead, you can pay $5 per month for 200 messages (the amount included in the original iPhone plan); $15 per month for 1500 messages, or $20 per month for unlimited messages. If you sign up for a FamilyTalk plan, your choices are either $30 per month for unlimited or $0.20 per message.

Well instead of paying money to send text messages you can do it with using AOL’s downloadable instant message client for iPhone 2.0, which is free. Just like the full-blown AOL IM system, you can add buddies that are the phone numbers of cell phones you want to send SMS to, and you establish a two-way conduit. The recipient still pays for SMS (if they have a fee) on their end, but if it’s another iPhone user, you could coordinate with them via SMS to use instant messaging instead.”

Japanese consumer electronics maker Pioneer Corp said on Tuesday it plans to launch Blu-ray DVD recorders by the end of the year, taking aim at a rapidly growing market after the end of a bitter format battle.

Pioneer is developing Blu-ray recorders with help from Sharp Corp Pioneer’s top shareholder with a 14 percent stake. Sharp already offers Blu-ray recorders.

Pioneer plans to start selling Blu-ray recorders in Japan before the year-end shopping season, followed by overseas launches.

The selling price and unit sales target have yet to be set, a Pioneer spokesman said.

These days when customers walk into electronics stores, the first question they ask is how much electricity the fridge, washing machine or laptop computer they are contemplating buying consumes.

“Energy savings were not exactly a hot topic among customers last year,” said Kim Dong-han at South Korean electronics retailer Hi-Mart. “But this year, nine out of ten people ask point blank whether a product will help them save money.”

With oil at around $145 a barrel and electricity costs jumping, consumers are becoming preoccupied with keeping down their power bills. Electronics makers that develop energy efficient product lines and market them effectively to customers may get an edge in a gloomy global economy, firms say.

“Going green is not only eco-friendly but crucial for business,” said Kim Jik-soo, a spokesman at LG Electronics Inc. “This goes beyond just products, extending throughout the development and manufacturing process.”

From washing machines that use steam instead of hot water, to fridges that use low energy compressors, to low power computer screens, electronics firms are furiously developing energy efficient products and heavily promoting lines already on the market that use less electricity than competitors’ brands.

U.S. consumers who want the new iPhone but cannot or do not want to sign up for a two-year contract with AT&T Inc will eventually be able to buy it for an extra $400.

Apple Inc has said the new iPhone will go on sale July 11 at $199 for the model with 8 gigabytes of storage and $299 for the 16-gigabyte version. These prices apply to customers signing up for a two-year AT&T contract.

Those who don’t want to be locked into such a contract, or do not have adequate credit, can buy the iPhone for $599 or $699 as long as they sign up for some kind of AT&T wireless subscription, AT&T said on Tuesday.

Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co is finalizing plans to mass-produce 37-inch organic light-emitting diode TVs in three years, aiming to overtake rivals in the next-generation flat-TV race, the Sankei Shimbun daily reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said that Matsushita would be the first to mass-produce OLED TVs of over 30 inches, and that the company aimed to challenge Samsung Electronics for the top share in the global flat-TV market.

The paper also said Matsushita would likely start selling the OLED TVs for around 150,000 yen ($1,390).

Matsushita spokesman Akira Kadota said the company was considering the commercialization of OLED TVs in the future, but it had not decided on any details including the launch timing or size.

Zyxel has introduced one of the oddest, but most interesting twists in connecting a Webcam to the Internet: their V750W has a phone number attached.

The camera connects to a network via Wi-Fi, and supports the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) protocol used primarily for VoIP and voice chats.The idea isn’t as strange as it sounds initially. SIP can be used to tunnel through otherwise difficult to reach network connections, and thus you can control the cameras many features via a handset or soft phone, where Web-based management might not be available.

Zyxel doesn’t explain well how you would adjust the zoom, pan, and tilt without being able to view the camera’s current image–that relies on a Web connection to wherever the camera is proxying its video, not a direct connection to the camera.The camera also has motion detection, infrared LEDs, and other tools for automated monitoring. The camera can place a call when it feels the situation warrants it–when your various triggers for action are engaged.Pricing wasn’t announced, and the camera won’t be sold at retail, but will rather be available through telecom, cable, and VoIP providers.

Monster Cable Products Inc., the company that’s synonymous with expensive video and audio cables, is going wireless.

On Thursday, Monster is introducing a set of two boxes: a receiver that plugs into the back of a high-definition TV and a transmitter that connects to a DVD player or other components of a home entertainment center.

The transmitter can send an HD video signal wirelessly up to 30 feet to the receiver, using so-called ultra-wideband, or UWB, technology from Sigma Designs Inc.

“This is our Monster Cable-less solution,” joked Monster Cable president Noel Lee, in an interview.

The Monster Digital Express HD boxes will be available in October for $299.95 each.

Microsoft Corp. and Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. introduced a high-tech interactive bar table Wednesday that lets patrons order drinks, watch YouTube videos, play touch-screen games and even flirt with each other.

The tables offer Harrah’s a new way to track its customers’ habits and behaviors, adding to its sophisticated costumer rewards program that tracks users’ gambling habits.

“Of all the goodies up our sleeves lately, this is one of the most dramatic,” Tim Stanley, chief information officer of Harrah’s, told The Associated Press. “The range of opportunities are fairly limitless.”

The six rectangular tables with built-in 30-inch flat screens using Microsoft Surface technology were installed in a lounge at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, with custom applications built for Harrah’s.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the units sold for a base price of $10,000.

It’s been a long, leak-filled wait, but Apple finally took the wraps off its 3G iPhone. Thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware — Apple’s taking a lot of the criticisms to heart from the first time around. Obviously 3G is at the forefront, but they’re also making sure it’s available all over internationally, works with enterprises, runs 3rd party apps… and does it all for cheaper. Apple claims its 3G speeds trounce the competition, with pageloads 36% faster than the N95 and Treo 750 — and of course it completely trounces the old EDGE data speeds.

Battery life isn’t getting put out to pasture though, with 300 hours of standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio. GPS is also a go. Apple is using A-GPS, which supplements regular satellite GPS data with info from cellular towers for faster location. (WiFi data is also worked into the mix, which should give users a pretty solid lock on where the heck they are on this planet.) Unfortunately, as expected there’s no front-facing cam, and while its edges are thinner than before it’s still about a millimeter thicker at the center (12.3mm over 11.6mm before). Apple hopes to launch in 70 countries this year, with the black 8GB going for $199 and 16GB for $299 in black or white. (Both price points require a contract, of course.) Apple will be hitting the 22 biggest markets, including the US, on July 11th. More info after the break.

Coming to late-model Sony LCD flat panels: YouTube videos.

Sony Corp. on Thursday said YouTube and Wired.com have been added to the video providers for a $300 module it sells for its LCD flat panel TVs.

The Internet Video Link module is a small box that fits into the back of some 2007 and 2008 LCD TVs. It connects to the home broadband router and is controlled by the TV remote. Video service comes free with the module.

Yahoo, AOL, Sports Illustrated and Style.com are among existing video providers for the device.

Similarly, Apple Inc.’s Apple TV set-top box streams YouTube videos to a TV set, but it works with any high-definition set.