In June 2001 Apple introduced the world to iTunes, a music marketplace that largely changed the way we buy music. And now, almost a decade later rumor has it that Apple wants to revolutionize the way we get our television delivered by offering all you can watch TV for $30.

Before Apple can offer consumers the opportunity to ditch their cable subscriptions for an all-you-can-watch plan it has to convince the television networks that it's a good idea, just like it did with the music labels.

Given the numerous side projects of networks, like CBS' TV.com, and the attempts by cable companies to restrict online streaming to customers, Apple faces a big hurdle before it can offer a $30 unlimited TV package.

Psst. How'd you like to get a 52-inch Samsung flat-screen TV for $9.99? Hot off the back of a truck? No way. How about from BestBuy.com?

If you popped onto Best Buy's Web site overnight that's the price you would have found instead of the actual price of $1,699.99. Word got around fast and the item became a hot-seller -- showing up as "sold out" by morning. Some customers commented about ordering several at that new low, low price.

But, alas, Best Buy replaced the missing digits -- adding another $1,690 to this seemingly amazing offer. And shortly thereafter, the TV and the comments apparently were pulled from the site altogether.

So what about all those people who ordered at the special price?

No dice. You're not getting the TV, not for that price.

"It was an unfortunate human error," Best Buy spokeswoman Susan Busch told WalletPop. "As you probably noted, the erroneous info was quickly taken down. We are not processing orders for the TV at that price. We apologize to our customers for any confusion or inconvenience caused by this pricing error."

Busch said she didn't know how long the erroneous price was online or how many orders were placed at that price.

Talia Ran, 23, an executive assistant in Washington, D.C., got a call from her brother -- who notified everyone he knows -- at 5:32 a.m. alerting her to the price. She doesn't have much room for such a big TV in her apartment, but for 10 bucks she'd find a spot.

Even though she realized the price was a mistake, she said still hoped her order would slip through.

"I kind of hoped they would forget about me and send them anyway," Ran said.

Then she got an email canceling her order.

"I know there isn't any legal recourse but there has to be something that Best Buy can do to ease our loss," Ran said. "I would think they would want to do something to honor the commitment made between the consumer and Best Buy when we clicked 'continue with purchase.' At the very least shouldn't Best Buy feel compelled to offer the same TV for a discounted price to those who did order?"

It might seem unfair, but Best Buy and most online retailers have error policies buyers agree to (usually without reading the terms) before making a purchase.

Here's an excerpt of Best Buy's policy: "Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Best Buy reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted and whether or not the order has been confirmed and your credit card charged."

A few years ago, Amazon.com was sued after canceling 6,000 orders for a $1,000 TV mistakenly priced at $99. Amazon won because the error was considered unintentional and shoppers agreed to the terms of its error policy before making their purchase.

Dish Network has reached an agreement with 46 states' attorneys general to pay nearly $6 million plus restitution to settle allegations of deceptive consumer marketing and a lack of disclosure about costs and service limitations.The states came after Dish after thousands of consumer complaints were lodged.

Consumers with complaints against Dish are eligible for restitution from the settlement if they have filed a complaint with their state's attorney general or Dish Network between Jan. 1, 2004 and July 9, 2009. Complaints eligible for compensation from the settlement will continue to be accepted through Dec. 14 as long as it involves problems that happened over the past two years.

Many of us -- this blogger included -- like the idea of whizzing past commercials to get back to our favorite programs sooner, but put up with having our viewing interrupted by Madison Avenue because we're resistant to the idea of shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a digital video recorder.

Soon, though, those days of being forced to sit through talking animals and how-did-that-get-stuck-in-my-head jingles might be over, thanks to the Supreme Court. Yes, that Supreme Court.

While the nation's highest justices don't normally insert themselves into our TV habits (thankfully -- I'd hate to be judged for my addictions to Hell's Kitchen or Law & Order: SVU), in this case, it's a welcome involvement.

Let's cue up a Fred Savage-era voiceover and go back to when this all began. In 2006, New York cable operator Cablevision developed what it called "network" DVR. This would let viewers store programs for later viewing on the cable company's servers rather than in a DVR box on their set top. Think of it as the equivalent of using a Web-based e-mail program; all of your information is housed in some distant server, not in your computer itself.

The implications are obvious: With this technology, any TV could record and play back shows, provided you were paying Cablevision for digital cable service. No pricey box, no installation fees or headaches. Now, take one guess who was not a fan of this new development. That's right: the people who currently make money forcing you to watch those commercials.

Armchair real estate moguls rejoice: In a post on the group's Facebook page, Bravo mega-hit Flipping Out announced that it would be returning to the network for season three later this summer:

Flipping Out will kick off its third season on Monday, August 17 at 10/9 pm. Central. It will take over for "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," which wraps its run on August 10. Keep watching for more updates!

The show stars Jeff Lewis, a gay, obsessive compulsive high-end real estate speculator who invests in properties with the help of a lazy, under-worked staff of assistants.

For some reason, it's incredibly entertaining and possibly even addictive. I have the first two seasons on my laptop (thanks Amazon UnBox,) and I've seen each episode a few times more than I'm willing to admit.

When the new season gets started, I'll try to distill the weekly hour of drama into a few tips that might be useful for homeowners and real estate investors.

The television Powers That Be have made true castaways of Jeff Probst and company. To save money, CBS will produce back-to-back seasons of Survivor in the same locale, forcing the production crew to spend four months on location instead of the usual six weeks.

Usually, the show shoots once around June and once in the fall. But rather than move the 80 containers of cargo it takes to produce each elaborate season of the show, TheInsider.com says, Survivor producer Mark Burnett elected to maroon the production in the South Pacific for double duty, with only a short break between competitions.

"This season we're doing back-to-back seasons is because of budget cuts, and that's just the truth," Probst told Reality Blurred. "We are having to do two seasons to save money, because every television show is undergoing some sort of a cut."

The day of reckoning is close; come June 12th the analog airwaves will no longer be graced with the witty banter of sitcoms, daytime soaps evening news shows.

Instead stations nationwide will finally make the long talked about, and oft delayed, switch to digital television. If you haven't already taken the steps to make sure you don't see static next Friday, you better get moving.

A quick reminder: If you get your television from a cable or satellite operator or your existing TV has a digital tuner, you won't need a converter box and can return to your regularly scheduled programming.

To find out what consumers who aren't ready should do in the next week, WalletPop spoke to Nick DeVita, a manager at a Best Buy store in New York.

One of the most common questions he has heard from customers, aside from "Why?" is, "What's the difference in the converter boxes?"

I'm always on the lookout for a better deal for our home TV, phone and Internet plans, especially since my cable company recently raised its rates.

While I don't mind calling a few companies for price quotes, the main difficulty is comparing one company's offerings to another's. Finding the same telephone service isn't so hard, but trying to compare plans for the same TV stations and Internet speed can be next to impossible.

Allconnect.com, a Web site used primarily by people moving and setting up such services in their new home, is trying to change that with updates to its Web site this week. While the changes are big -- comparing home utility company services and taking customers' orders -- the site doesn't yet go far enough to make it easy to find the best deal.

Until recently, Jon and Kate Gosselin were this decade's answer to "The Brady Bunch." Now, they are considered more like the "Addams Family," The Bundys from "Married with Children" or The Osbournes.

America's least favorite married couple, and stars of TLC's hit program "Jon and Kate Plus 8: now face accusations that they violated child labor laws in their home state of Pennsylvania.

"We're not saying that there was or was not a violation, just that we're conducting an investigation," a spokesman told usmagazine.com, which broke the story.

Whether or not some disgruntled viewer or angry family member turned in the Gosselins remains unclear. Government agencies are required to act on complaints brought to their attention. What government can not do is fine the Gosselins for lacking common sense.

Family members are quoted in the celebrity magazine as saying the children hate having the cameras around. I can't say I blame them. But exploiting their 8-year-old twins and five-year-old sextuplets on basic cable is lucrative for Jon and Kate who earn as much as $75,000 per episode.

America can't enough of this dysfunctional clan. Almost 10 million viewers tuned into the recent season premiere curious about whether the program would address Jon's reported infidelity with a college student and Kate's with her bodyguard. It's like watching a train wreck.

If the Gosselins split up, they better save their money to pay for the therapy they and their kids will need once America grows tired of their antics, which by my calculations will take about a year.

You know that scene in Wayne's World where Wayne and Garth are really excited to meet Alice Cooper backstage, and all the shock-rocker wants to do is talk about Native American history? Wayne, undeterred, yells out: "Does this guy know how to party or what!" Talking to Seth Green reminded me of that scene -- and also reminded me of being up all night at a slumber party, when the conversation turns deep and dark.

If TV is supposed to be an escape from your worries, then the upcoming TV season isn't going to help many Americans dealing with the recession.

While not all TV shows are about leaving your worries behind, some new shows are diving into the recession by showing how the big guy is brought low and the little guy struggles as the economy falters.

Here are some of the shows. I'll leave it to you if these tales are worth your time.

"Hank" on ABC features Kelsey Grammer in a comedy as Hank Pryor, a titan of industry who suddenly finds himself out of work, almost out of money and around a wife and kids for whom he's never made much time. He's confident he's on the road back to greatness.

With the great Grammer heading this family comedy, it has a chance. Here's a clip:

I'm supposed to write about the disappearing 10 p.m. drama, but quickly, first, a Jay Leno anecdote. Back in the early 1990s, shortly before he took over the reigns of The Tonight Show, I actually met the legendary comedian in person. He was performing at Indiana University where I was a student, and I had written him a fan letter, and he was nice enough to call me and invite me backstage to meet him. Unfortunately, as cornfed college student, I was so excited that when I did meet him, I didn't act like a normal person. I stammered a few inarticulate thoughts and punctured our stilted conversation with a lot of long, awkward pauses. It's one of those fond memories that also makes me cringe.

In any case, Mr. Leno's gesture way back when means that I can't help but hope he succeeds when this fall, he starts his 10 p.m. show, Monday through Friday. I hope his show is a big hit even if -- as some people suspect -- it means a deathblow to the 10 p.m. drama on network television.

A German mathematician who died 450 years ago was sent a letter demanding he pay long-overdue TV license fees, according to a Reuters story.

The bill from Germany's GEZ broadcast fee collection office went to the last home address of Adam Ries, an algebra expert who bought the house in 1525. A club in his honor was set up at the home 400 years later.

The head of the club returned the letter to GEZ, explaining that Ries died in 1559, centuries before the invention of television and radio. She received another reminder a few weeks later.

Start transferring your VHS tapes to DVD if you want to watch all of those old movies you have when the nation's analog TV signals change to digital transmissions in mid-June.

Unless you can pop for a new VCR with a digital tuner or can find some way to jerry-rig your old VCR, those video tapes will be as useless as Betamax tapes were in the '80s, according to a Contra Costa Times story.

DVDs replaced video tapes years ago at video rental stores, but 72% of U.S. households with a TV also have a VCR, according to the research group Nelson. Just 24% of TV-owning households have the new way to record -- the digital video recorder, or DVR.

DVD recorders are expensive. DVRs usually work with pay TV systems and require a monthly fee.

People still want to travel in a recession, and if flying across the country or an ocean or two and then staying in a hotel room found on the Internet -- only to find it's not as clean a room as the hotel promised -- can lead to frustration.

TVTrip.com is a Web site that's trying to take the guesswork out of finding out if the $99 Internet deal on a hotel room is really a place you want to stay, by allowing travelers to watch videos of hotels around the world and possibly "trade down" in their hotel stays by seeing more of a hotel before they book a trip.

Whether or not that saves them money is debatable, especially with Internet deals everywhere. But seeing the videos should save travelers money, said Steve Stollerman, North America vice president for TVTrip.com.