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Apple (AAPL) has issued a software update for its Apple TV set-top boxes. This is a fine, if small, update and should make the gadget more useful for people who already own one. But it won't attract new buyers this Christmas.

Specifically, Apple added the ability to stream music over your home network via "AirTunes," the wireless music feature built into some of its wi-fi base stations; support for third-party remote controls; playlists; and music volume control.

As we said, a fine, incremental feature update. But not what Apple TV needs to take off. We think that Apple still ought to:

Open Ap

If this is true, it's one of the least consumer-friendly things we've ever heard Apple (AAPL) get behind.

According to Wired, Apple has quietly added anti-piracy technology to its new MacBook laptops. If you hook your laptop up to your digital TV, projector, external monitor, etc. -- which we do on a near-daily basis -- to watch movies, it will block you from playing movies you've paid for from iTunes unless you have a "High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection" compatible display.

The problem: No one outside Hollywood has ever heard that term before. We have no idea if our TV would work or n

NYC-based software startup Boxee has raised $4 million to take on heavyweights like Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) as the companies race to be the ones who connect your living room TV to the Internet.

Boxee's set-top box software runs on Macs, PCs, and, via a clever hack, on Apple TV devices. The point: An easy interface to watch Web video like Hulu and CBS shows on your TV or laptop, listen to Internet radio like Last.fm, or watch movies from your computer's hard drive. There's also a requisite "social" layer, which lets you tell your friends what you've been watching, get recommendation

Movie rental service Netflix (NFLX) has been signing up gadget companies left and right to distribute its Internet movie streams, ranging from LG to Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox and TiVo (TIVO). And it recently hired a new executive to make more of those deals.

So are cable giants like Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner (TWC) -- who already have set-top boxes in millions of U.S. living rooms -- up next on the to-do list?

That would be nice, but it's not happening, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told PaidContent's Rafat Ali in a video interview (embedded below).

"That would be a great deal, we'd love to do it

Watching Web video on your TV is still more of a hassle than it's worth. But companies keep tinkering with new solutions to help out.

The latest: Seattle-based Web video technology firm GridNetworks has put together Gridcast TV, a service that links Web video to TVs via Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox 360s -- or eventually other devices that support the "UPnP" technology, like Sony's (SNE) PS3 and Internet-connected TVs.

How does it work? Not as simple as we'd like, but better than nothing:

• GridNetworks Web video customers -- content providers like Revision3 -- can put a "Watch On TV" button on their si