It's official. HBO content just entered the digital halls of iTunes with variable pricing. Episodes of Rome and The Sopranos pop for $2.99 while The Wire and Sex and the City (yes the complete series) go for the iTunes "standard" pricing of $1.99. We just fired-up iTunes and confirmed it just like the rumor predicted. With Apple backing down from its strict, flat-rate pricing policy, don't be surprised to see additional content from previously iTunes-shy providers arriving in succession.

Update: Deadwood ($2.99) and Flight of the Conchords ($1.99) are also available with "much more" apparently in the works.

Update 2: Apple just released the PR.

[Thanks, Turki]

It looks like Apple might finally ready to give up its demands for straight up and down $1.99 TV show pricing on iTunes. If you'll remember, Apple and NBC had quite the squabble over price flexibility and margins last year, and some other show providers have held off providing content until they can get a more favorable deal from Apple. It seems one of those content holders was HBO, with word on the street that Apple is finally going to bow to desires for flexible pricing, and has signed up HBO to kick things off. Apple has also in recent months added NBC Universal shows to its UK store with variable pricing, which might be a sign that a return to the US store isn't far off.

[Via Silicon Valley Insider]

Being an HBO subscriber is about to get a lot more appealing, as the Time Warner-owned pay channel giant is set to roll out a new service that allows subscribers to both download select content as well as view live feeds on their PC. "HBO on Broadband," as the feature is called, will give HBO on Demand customers on Time Warner's Roadrunner network access to both the live east coast feed along with numerous TV episodes and Hollywood films, although downloads expire after 12 weeks or less, and you can't natively transfer any of this video swag to a portable device. Mac support is also conspicuously absent here, but seeing how the offer is confined to Time Warner cable and broadband subscribers only in Wisconsin for now, anyway, it's quite possible that an OS X client (and 64-bit Windows one) will become available as more regions get switched on. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks, Judith]

Wouldn't you know it. After paying for anger management sessions to deal with those repetitive delays, finding out it wouldn't work right with your shiny new plasma, and wondering if the thing was even worth the $800 to begin with, we've got yet another reason to pass on TiVo's almost-excellent Series3. If your box hasn't been plagued with issues just yet, we sure hope you aren't the proud owner of a JVC receiver, or you could be facing more of those ever-present DRM snafus. During CNET's testing of the Series3 box with the JVC RX-D702 receiver, things were going perfectly smooth as the TiVo streamed video / audio to the JVC over HDMI, and separate monitors via composite / S-Video -- until they switched over to HBO HD. Programming on this channel, as well as HDNet and Universal HD, yielded a gray screen complemented by a (presumably enraging) message stating: "Viewing is not permitted using the TiVo Digital Media Recorder. Try another TV input." Further investigation (read: hitting the "Info" button) spilled the beans on the DRM-laden troubles, as testers were greeted by a statement declaring "regulations of the copyright holder" the villain. While the "glitch" would probably be a non-issue had TiVo included TiVo To Go on the Series3 boxes, the almighty media providers would have none of that, and currently, the problem can only be solved by swapping out your (presumably costly) HDMI-equipped receiver for another brand. Chalk another one up for the content guardians.

[Via Thomas Hawk]