Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has started testing advanced features in the iTunes movie versions of Salt, The Other Guys and Resident Evil: Afterlife, including search in script/scene, social sharing, and song playlists.

Buy the Will Ferrell comedy The Other Guys and you’ll notice three extras that can’t be found on DVD or any other digital platform. A search button allows you to input a word, and any mention of it in the script will be retrieved along with a link to the exact moment in the movie in which the line was uttered. A “clip & share” function lets the viewer take select scenes and post them to social networks. There’s also a playlist with songs from the film, which are linked to to places on iTunes where those songs can be purchased.

Those sound like some pretty cool features, with hopefully more to come from further testing and with additional studios getting involved. One thing to note, however, is that Apple still hasn’t extended support for iTunes Extras to devices like the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Even the new Apple TV doesn’t support the feature, but our hopes are for Apple to pick up the pace and rollout full integration of the service soon if they expect iTunes Extras to actually be a success.

So what do you think of Sony testing out these new features, will it be enough of an added value to help movie sales in iTunes reach their full potential? Let us know in the comments!

[PaidContent via MacRumors]

When upgrading to the new iOS powered Apple TV, you may have noticed that iTunes Extras and iTunes LP were missing. These features were included with the old Apple TV, so imagine the disappointment when veteran Apple TV users were stripped of them. Conor Winders of Redwind Software was one such user and emailed Steve Jobs himself regarding it.

The question:

I’ve been a massive fan of the original Apple TV since it launched, in fact I have 2 of my own and have bought a fair few as gifts over the years. So as soon as the new Apple TV was released I bought one. Overall it’s a fantastic update for me as I always stream from my Mac mini anyway. But here’s the kicker – Where are iTunes Extras and iTunes LP gone? I’ve purposely been buying content with those features just for my Apple TVs. And now the features are unusable on my new box?! Is there an update coming to fix this?

Steve’s one word reply:

Coming.

Sent from my iPhone.

This is exciting for Apple TV users and also a good sign for iPad users. We here at TiPb were surprised to learn that the iPad did not include support for iTunes Extras and iTunes LP. Being able to experience these features in your hands would be fantastic. Since Apple TV is now running iOS, it only makes sense to include iTunes Extras and iTunes LP on the iPad as well.

Any Apple TV users out there excited for the return of iTunes Extras and iTunes LP?

[MacRumors]

Boy Genius has an unconfirmed source claiming that, as part of Apple’s rumored iLife 2010, long-ignored iDVD will finally see an update — and that update will be support for iTunes LP (and we’re assuming iTunes Extras) creation/authoring.

It certainly makes sense, not only to keep iDVD relevant (though would it need a name refresh as well?), but also since Apple recently made iTunes LP and iTunes Extra (and TuneKit) resources available to developers. A consumer/prosumer-friendly development environment, similar to GarageBand or iMovie, makes the kind of sense that does.

Apple.com has published a new page with information on iTunes LP and iTunes Extras for Developers:

Here’s everything you need to know to create a rich, interactive experience around your music and movies. All right in iTunes.

It includes the latest version of Apple’s TuneKit (think WebKit HTML+CSS+Javascript with iTunes hooks), as well as templates, best practices, a development guide, and info on asset delivery and testing. It’s not all automagical yet, however:

Automatic, electronic submission of your iTunes LP or Extra is scheduled for the first quarter of 2010. Until then, the submission process is manual and limited. Please contact your label or studio rep for details and consideration. An existing iTunes contract is required. Your iTunes LP or iTunes Extras will be reviewed by the iTunes team for appropriateness of content and for technical quality.

Still, it’s nice to see the technology and supporting material made available, and the brouhaha from last month made farcical.

Now, all we need is for Apple to show some iTunes LP and iTunes Extras love to the iPhone. Where’s that iPhone 3.2 already?!

Anyone planning to get TuneKit’ty with it? Let us know how it works for your content!

[Apple.com via feed://www.9to5mac.com/feedburner.xml">9to5mac]

It still baffles us how iTunes LP and iTunes Extras content — which was introduced in the seemingly Apple TV-ideal 720p format — wasn’t compatible with the new Apple TV 3.0 software to begin with. In fact, we’ve gotten Wall-E with iTunes Extras to play on our Apple TV already. But according to Apple, it’s now really for real compatible…

With the latest versions of iTunes (9.0.2) and Apple TV software (3.0), you can now use iTunes Extras on your Apple TV. We have updated iTunes Extras that were included with the movie Wall-E so that they can now be viewed on Apple TV in addition to your Mac or PC. It is available for you to download now, free of charge.

So begins an email Apple sent out to iTunes LP and iTunes Extras purchasers today, which follows up with download and update instructions. (And even a knowledge base article — Updating iTunes Extras and iTunes LP content for your Apple TV).

We’re downloading that new version of Wall-E now and will report back on what, if anything, looks different (any chance of a better UI for Extras?)

Still, we’re left to wonder — where’s the love for iPhone users, Apple? Could it be you’re prepping a new interface for them for iPhone 3.2? We’ll wait — if it’s worth it!

iTunes Extras was easy to see as a DVD extras competitor, offering a similar feature set to what’s already on the market, and users are already familiar with using. iTunes LP, on the other hand, harkened back to a time decades ago when vinyl albums and turn-tables were how people experienced music — something decidedly not familiar to modern MP3 and iTunes music listeners.

Why then — aside from Steve Jobs’ nostalgia, did Apple expend resources on iTunes LP? TNL.net, like us, saw the 720p resolution and immediately thought of the Apple TV — and TV in general. (We also thought of the rumored iTablet). Going further, however, they posit this might be the first step in a grander game. Could Apple be seeking to replicate the success of the App Store — tens of thousands of mostly independent developers creating mostly low cost, high volume content — for iTunes music and video? Could they be gearing up to give music and video creators the same easy distribution channel, and 30/70 split, they’ve given App developers?

The components all seem to be there and it seems to me that it won’t be long before Apple starts pushing the idea that we are all content producers (an old idea at Apple, which was at the source of their creating the iLife suite) and we can all make some money at producing that content. Having done so, Apple would not only have control of the music industry but could also assert itself in the TV and movie space.

Dr. Horrible was an experiment by Joss Whedon during the writers strike, and one that we enjoyed thoroughly. Could we see a world where the Dr. Horribles aren’t the experiment, but the norm? (And will they bring endless “cat on piano” videos — fart apps of the media space, the lot of them — along for the ride?)

Alex Lindsay from the PixelCorps has likewise been saying for a years that Apple now has everything in place, from Final Cut Pro on the backend through to Macs, Apple TVs, and iPods and iPhones on the front to offer a totally integrated media ecosystem with lower barriers of entry than have traditionally been in place.

Will Apple pull that trigger? Do we want them to?

More than 2 years post-iPhone launch, no news on Flash ever coming to the iPhone, yet Apple is pressing ahead with technologies like H.264 video (YouTube App’s been using it since day one), HTML 5 and CSS animation (iPhone Safari supported them first), HTTP Live Streaming, and now WebGL for hardware accelerated 3D-graphics, and TuneKit, the framework behind the new iTunes LP rich media content.

Read on to find out what they are, how they work, and why they might make plugins like Flash increasingly unnecessary…

Says developer blog Wolfire:

WebGL is basically an initiative to bring 3D graphics into web browsers natively, without having to download any plugins. This is achieved by adding a few things to HTML5, namely, defining a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES 2.0 and letting you draw things into a 3D context of the canvas element.

This would bring 3D-gaming (or any 3D application) right into the browser with hardware acceleration, with no plugin like Flash needed to hog your memory, heat up your processor, or crash the browser. (Browsers can do all of those things well enough without the extra help). In addition to WebKit (which is the foundation of Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, Palm’s Web, BlackBerry’s just-purchased Torch Mobile, and some Nokia devices), Firefox and Opera are also supporting it. Internet Explorer? Shrug.

TuneKit is the foundation behind iTunes 9‘s new iTunes LP and iTunes Extras formats, according to AppleInsider:

Similar to Apple’s use of the SproutCore JavaScript framework to build its MobileMe web apps, TuneKit provides media developers with a familiar JavaScript framework for creating interactive bonus materials. TuneKit, like SproutCore, proves that a proprietary middleware runtime plugin such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight is simply unnecessary to deliver this kind of interactive media content, thanks in part to rapid advances in JavaScript rendering engine optimization.

Like TiPb, they couldn’t help but notice the 720p nature of the current iTunes LP and iTunes Extras formats seem destined for the Apple TV, and we’re keeping the oft-rumored iTablet on that list as well.

Adobe Flash on the other hand, still hasn’t produced an optimized version for Mac OS X, never mind iPhone OS X, according to Apple is the number one cause of browser crashes, continues to experience security threats (though Javascript is no angel here either), and is under increasing privacy scrutiny due to Flash cookies. (If you’ve never checked, here’s the page on Adobe’s site that shows which websites are storing information about you in the Flash plugin).

Since, at the end of the day, users don’t care about Flash or WebKit/browser technology, they just want their videos and games, things like WebGL and TuneKit could very well replace large amounts of Flash (and competing formats like SilverLight) on the web, especially the mobile web.

And personally I’m fine with that. A series of cutting edge, specific, highly optimized technologies are sometimes better than aging, overextended architectures anyway (feel free to insert iTunes jokes here).