By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Dec 19th 2011 4:40PM 
It's Monday, and almost as regular an occurrence as the day itself, we're here to help by letting you listen into the recording booth when the Engadget HD podcast goes to mp3 at 5:30PM. Please be a part of it by reviewing the list of topics after the break, then participating in the live chat as you listen in. What's wrong with TV, and what it might take to change it
Apple reportedly discussing its 'vision for the future of TV' with media execs
NFL renews TV deals with CBS, Fox, NBC for nine more years, money reportedly involved
Avatar special edition takes another dip on iTunes Tuesday, brings exclusive extras
Time Warner finally cuts a deal for HBO Go streaming, launches 'in the next month'
YouTube, Verizon FiOS TV and more video services roll out to Xbox Live
Gamers spending more time streaming video to their consoles, Nielsen finds
Roku's official iPhone remote app is available, has gesture control and channel selection for all
Netflix updates iOS app with new iPad-optimized interface
Channel Master TV review
FCC tells advertisers to CALM down, lowers the volume on commercial breaks
Roku 2, LT update adds support for both MKVs and an upcoming official iOS remote app
Must See HDTV (December 19th - 25th)
Live broadcasting by Ustream
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Just because there are a few celebrations going on this time of year, doesn't mean mobile news stops coming -- for one, AT&T lobbyists and lawyers are getting some well-deserved time off for the holidays! So in honor of the season, we feel like getting a little jolly today and are ready to crank out a podcast for all the world to hear. So join Myriam and Brad -- and our very own Richard Lai -- for a special holiday episode of the Engadget Mobile Podcast today at 4PM ET! 
Hear that, MPAA / RIAA? That's the sound of Louis CK's audience chuckling. Not at one of his jokes, mind you, but at the notion of strapping DRM onto everything you possibly can in order to "make people buy it." In an effort to see if this crazy idea was true or not, the famed comedian decided to sell his Live at the Beacon Theater for just $5. Procuring it was dead simple -- you could either surf over to his website and plop down a PayPal payment, or you could pirate it. Either way, no DRM was affixed. Turns out, people actually are fans of paying money for things that they see as both fair and worthwhile, as evidenced by the $1 million that currently sits in Louis CK's PayPal account. Of course, we've never advise anyone to hold anywhere near that much cash in an account that could be frozen on you at a moment's notice (not that we have experience or anything), but at least he's going to do awesome things with the proceeds. We'll let you hit the source link to find out precisely what that is. Kudos, Louis. 
It's a story as old as, well, 8-bit video gaming itself: man creates robots, 99 percent go rogue, the other 1 percent valiantly fights back and future world order is (temporarily) restored. Sound familiar? It should if you've logged any time with Mega Man X, Capcom's mega-popular series from console gaming's halcyon days. That SNES classic has just been ported over to iOS and is now available on the App Store for your thumb-smashing amusement. At $5 it's certainly cheaper than that other recent 16-bit retread, though nowhere near as awesomely epic. 
We've heard the promises of bringing Ubuntu past its comfort zone and into the mobile space, but who wants to wait until 2014 when a home remedy can deliver precisely that right now. XDA-Developers AdamOutler and Loglud have been grooming a way to bring the OS to your Barnes & Noble tablet, because -- you know -- we're all longing for slates with desktop-scale operating systems on them. At the moment, you can get a quick glimpse of Ubuntu running on the Nook, but porting can only be done via a VNC Server, which opens up plenty of potential avenues for lag to mar the experience. Notably, the delays should all but vanish once a ROM solution becomes available. Now, if we could only get Jane Lynch to sing her way through letting us know the Nook Tablet can also run Ubuntu, we'd be set. Have a peek at the Glee-less demo vid just after the break. 
Twas a sad day when Mindscape was forced to shutter the online service used by its collection of Nabaztag robotic rabbits -- as the tale goes, the domain's demise left the tiny, Linux-running hares inanimate, mute and nearly useless. But just five short months later, things are starting to look up. Via email, the company has confirmed that nabaztag.com will come (back) alive on midnight of December 24th (a timezone was not specified), allowing Nabaztag users to communicate with their coney comrades. "At midnight you can turn your rabbits on without changing anything," writes the bunny builder. That's not all. The company is promising to "enrich" the devic's modules with "community contributions." If you're a Nabaztag owner, step away from that eggnog and put on a pot of coffee... Christmas is coming a full 24-hours early.
While many programs take a holiday vacay, we've still found a few things to watch including the return of the NBA. Check below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listings of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames. 
Excepting Jersey Shore participants, people generally value privacy and it's a bigger issue when so much data is stored online. Ethical data controllers will keep it encrypted, but much like leaving food in a fridge, you have to take it out if you wanna use it, which is when it's most at risk. A team from MIT, thinks it's found a solution: a database that allows you to ask it questions without taking it out of the fridge... wait, what? CryptDB works by turning data into "homomorphic" information: strings of numbers, which you can then calculate against one another to get the answers you require. The frankensoftware is comprised of other encryption services, layered like an onion -- but capable of switching between processes instantly. The project was funded by Google and Citigroup and has been so successful that DARPA might be rolling some tanks up Massachusetts Avenue to offer the team a $20 million bounty. Head on down to our source link to read the paper that's so complex it made our eyes go cross-eyed.
Don't call it a comeback, it's a Xyboard -- Motorola's rebranded (for the US, anyway) Xoom 2. A 10.1-inch attempt at sidestepping the original Xoom's notoriety. With baked-in LTE of the Verizon variety, a slimmer waistline and a distinctive design, this Android 3.2 tablet could very well inject a dose of excitement back into the company's flagging category appeal. But with the spotlight-stealing ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime already on the map and dazzling consumers with its notebook-like functionality, will anyone even notice Moto's second swing at Honeycomb? Are LTE speeds and an improved silhouette enough to lure wayward users back into the company's willing embrace? Does anyone even care about non-Ice Cream Sandwich tablets? Read on as we explore the odd ends and angles of this curiously-shaped slate.
With a dual-core processor bumped up to 1.2GHz and an ample 1GB of RAM, the Xyboard zooms along, hampered only by the addition of Moto's Blurring of the Honeycomb OS. Indeed, transitions are often choppy and lack the fluidity of Samsung's TouchWiz UX. Why the company chose to break from offering users a pure Google experience and overlaid a choppy skin is beyond us. Again, tradition seems to prevail here. Save for the original Droid, all subsequent brand descendants shipped with the OEM's special skinned touch. And so, too, has Motorola extended that consistently poor software customization to its successive Android 3.2 tabs. 
NASA's found the smallest black hole it's ever seen, thanks to the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) -- weighing three times less than our own sun, it's near the bottom weight limit for the super-heavy phenomena. It was discovered by its unique "heartbeat", an X-Ray emission that takes place when gas sucked from a nearby star is swirled around the event horizon until friction causes it to super-heat. The disc then repeats the process every 40 seconds and when examined, looks just like the readout on an ECG machine. After the break we've got a video that talks you through it all and we won't mind if you start booming "Space... the final frontier..." halfway through -- we did too.
Seated above, from left to right, are Ms. Snuggleberry, Mr. Cuddlekins, and Professor Puddles. They congregated atop this egg yolk for what they thought would be another customary meeting of Mammalian Malice -- a vaguely neo-Jacobean slam poetry collective founded in the aftermath of the Crimean War. Little did they know, however, that they were walking straight into Yuti Sugiura's trap. Sugiura and his colleagues, you see, have created a toy known as Pinoky -- a small, ring-like device that wirelessly brings stuffed animals to "life," as Snuggleberry, Cuddlekins and Puddles soon discovered. Developed as part of a project at Keio University, Pinoky uses a micro controller, a Zigbee input device and a servo motor system to move an animal's extremities, with a set of photo sensors designed to measure the angle at which it bends. All you have to do is grab your favorite imaginary friend, strap a Pinoky around his limb, and use the accompanying remote controller to make him flail around like a fish on house arrest. See it for yourself, after the break. 
If you've been poring over the PlayStation Vita's US manual, here's a peek under the hood to fuel your mobile gaming fire. The folks over at PocketNews have popped open Sony's highly anticipated handheld thanks to the official Japanese release over the weekend. We're hoping to have our hands on one shortly for a full review, but until then, hit the gallery below for a look at the inner-workings of the Vita for yourself.
"The exciting thing is, we've only just begun." That was the closing remark of then-CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as he wrapped up Nokia's 2010 CES keynote, and while the words ring true today, we're guessing that what has transpired in Espoo between then and now wasn't exactly on his radar at the time. After laying low through the 2011 episode, Nokia will be making a triumphant return at next year's Consumer Electronics Show, even going so far as to reserve a block of time for a Metro-themed press event. The fun kicks off at 3:00PM PT on January 9th, and if you couldn't tell by the invite, we're guessing Windows Phone will be somewhere in the discussion. Naturally, we'll be bringing you every moment of it right here on the site -- nothing wrong with blocking out some vacation time to be here, you know? 
Nokia seems to have finally realized that it can't just kill off a long-standing name like Symbian with a mere three-word mention (in parentheses) on its official blog. It's now posted up a marginally more detailed statement in response to "heaps of questions" from Nokia fans about the name change, and it reads as follows: 
It's been a long December for RIM, and there's reason to believe this year won't be any better than the last. This month, the company was sued for its use of the BBX trademark and was forced to change its name to BlackBerry 10; then, it all hit the fan when co-CEO Mike Lazaridis broke the news that phones running the aforementioned OS won't arrive until late in 2012. And let's not even get started on the quarterly earnings report. Sadly, it's not over: BBM Canada, a Toronto-based broadcast industry group that has used the BBM moniker in one way or another for six decades, wants to reclaim its name -- used and made popular by RIM's BlackBerry Messenger service -- and has filed a lawsuit against the phone maker for trademark infringement. BBM Canada CEO Jim MacLeod says he's made several attempts to resolve the matter with them in hopes of avoiding the courtroom -- even to the extent of offering to rebrand his own company as long as RIM footed the bill -- to no success. 
Early birds may get the worms, but early adopters aren't always as equally rewarded. But, as they say, maybe first-gen Roku owners should simply be elated that their box is still on the update trail. A week (and change) after the Roku 2 and Roku LT saw a fairly significant software update, the company is now pushing v3.1 to OG models. As the company says: "Unless your Roku player is smaller than a hockey puck, this update applies to you." The fresh bytes provide added enhancements to support the official Roku iPhone app, improved playback of MP4 files streamed over the internet and over USB via the USB Media Player channel, and the ability to purchase Roku players, accessories and toys within the Roku Channel Store. 
Seagate and Western Digital really do have the spirit of the holidays running through their veins, as both companies are slashing the warranty periods on hard drives for the new year. Gone are the days of five-year safety periods, instead owners of Seagate's Barracuda XT, Constellation 2, ES.2 and Momentus XT drives will have three years protection. SV35 Series and Pipeline HD drives have two years while Barracuda, Barracuda Green and the 2.5-inch Momentus get a measly one year. 
It never hurts to stop arguing, hug it out and agree on a patent licensing deal. Today, Rambus -- which has a history of litigating against chip makers it feels are have violated its intellectual property rights and filed a complaint against Broadcom to the International Trade Commission in 2010 -- signed a licensing deal that resolved previous claims for Broadcom's technology. In the statement, Rambus said it will license its patent for integrated circuits used in chips made by Broadcom. The company did not disclose any financial details related to the deal, or which technology would be part of the agreement, though Broadcom is typically renowned for its wireless networking chips which are often found in WiFi, Bluetooth and cellular-capable devices. In other news, Rambus and Broadcom have added each other as Xbox Live friends and gotten to level 36 in Modern Warfare 3 co-op gameplay. 
They don't call this the "giving time of the year" for nothing. A couple of years back we saw Google hook up the traveling masses with gratis WiFi, and today Skype is matching the big G's kindness by giving you a holiday gift of its own. Starting on December 21st thru the 27th, you'll be able to cling to an hour of costless internet access while you're waiting on your flight -- as long as you're in one of the 50+ airports included in the deal (map shown after the break). Aside from being outside of the lounging areas capable of accepting the courtesy, Android users are being left out of the equation, as the present can only be used by those who own a Mac, PC or iOS device. Now, the nice gesture would be even better if we knew that our fellow travelers wouldn't be hogging all the bandwidth... 
The PlayStation Vita has just barely hit the market in Japan, and it's already off to a rocky start with consumers. Only a matter of hours after the first unit was sold, users started complaining of software bugs, unresponsive touchscreens and complete system freezes. It's actually quite normal for new consoles to have a rough first few days with their new owners, but the speed at which it went from a few folks complaining of poor performance to a firestorm of furious customers flooding Twitter was quite surprising. Strangely enough, Sony must have been aware that some of these issues still lurked inside their latest portable gaming hardware, as the company has already issued a public apology and a software update. Hopefully most of the kinks will be worked out by the time the handheld hits stateside -- we're not sure how forgiving American gamers will be when faced with the lag you can see in the video after the break. 
Remember Sony's sugar high from a few years back? Sony has been trying to get electric results from glucose-based batteries for some time. But with the competition showing off cool concepts like Coke-powered phones, Sony's Bio Battery program brought its latest development to Eco-Products 2011 in Tokyo. This info just might be worth the paper it's printed on because, well, the battery runs on paper. By using the enzyme cellulase, the device can break down the glucose from cellulose-rich paper or cardboard, which generates enough energy to run a small fan. It's not quite ready for prime time, but given the potential of easily turning junk mail into electricity at a more portable scale, this is certainly worth a continued look. 
Coming next week to a US Cellular website near you... we give you the Huawei Ascend II. The carrier's first Huawei device is no stranger on American soil, having spent a good five months on Cricket's lineup. While the handset was available for $180 with no contract on Cricket, US Cellular is offering it for free with a two-year commitment -- after a $100 mail-in rebate. Perhaps it's not as likely to induce salivation as we were hoping, but it may still be a temptation for a few smartphone fans on a budget that don't mind a contract. The Android 2.3 device, complete with a 3.5-inch HVGA display, 5MP camera and 600MHz CPU, is available online next week and will be offered in stores in early January.
Toshiba's tablet attention may be focused primarily on its Android-based tablets these days, but the company's not leaving Windows behind just yet -- at least in Japan. That steely-looking slate pictured above is its new Dynabook WT301/D, which packs a 10.1-inch display, an unspecified Atom processor, a 64GB SSD, and Windows 7 Professional edition for an OS. No indication of a North American release for this one, but those in Japan will apparently be able to pick it up sometime next month.
We won't be seeing the finished version of Ubuntu's next release for a few months, but the folks at Canonical are hard at work making Precise Pangolin the very best it can be. Version 12.04 is an LTS release, meaning only refinements are in store for the OS, but apparently one of the areas targeted for improvement is power consumption. 
Showing your friends the latest viral video traditionally requires huddling around a smartphone or tablet, which is odd when you're sat in a room with a 40-inch flat-screen. Web connected TVs or media units like the Apple TV will let you watch YouTube as long as you spend five minutes tediously inputting the search term on your remote. For those of us who can't afford a unified Airplay setup, there's PacketVideo's Twonky Beam Browser, which lets you push mobile content to your TV as fast as your wireless router can handle it. Does it work as well as advertised? Is it the answer to your prayers? Read on to find out, dear reader, read on.
