In a Web 2.0 update of FDR’s famous fireside chats, President-Elect Barack Obama has pledged to film weekly chats that can be viewed on the Youtube video streaming service. This comes as no surprise, given that during his campaign he uploaded over 1,100 videos and racked up over 110 million views. The talks will also go out over the radio.

In addition to the weekly addresses, cabinet members and policy experts will be holding Q&As and video interviews at Change.gov. Obama will release his first chat, which is expected to cover the transition, next week.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes suggested during a recent conference call with investors that the company may have a movie set top box available for the holiday season. The Xbox 360 has skyrocketed up the sales charts since it became an STB for Netflix. The Roku Netflix Player is also doing very well.

Keyes passed along no other pertinent information on the unit, however. No official pricing or release date was given.

MGM has announced it will be putting up full-length movies from its archive on to Youtube. First, the company will test the waters by putting up full-length TV shows. Old episodes of American Gladiators will be the first to hit Youtube, followed by a limited collection of movies including "Bulletproof Monk" and "The Magnificent Seven."

MGM will be making money by allowing the full-length features to be ad-supported. In time, MGM plans on releasing most of their archive on the popular video streaming site.

Western Digital recently strayed from its platter-based roots and released an HD media streaming unit. The WD TV HD Media Player claims to "turn your USB drive into an HD media player, allowing you to watch your favorite HD movies on your TV." Basically, it allows you to plug in your USB key or USB hard drive and play back multimedia clips up to 1080p on your HDTV. The unit works via the HDMI / composite outputs. The box is sized at 1.6- x 4.9- x 3.9-inches and is priced at $129.99. The company unveiled the product with little fanfare, as it’s already sitting on store shelves.

Softbank Mobile announced the mid-December release of a TV streamer for the iPhone. Unfortunately this is only available in Japan. The device is interesting in the way in works. The tuner receives TV signals then streams the signals to the iPhone over Wifi. In addition, it also doubles as an external battery when connected via the dock connecter. With one full battery charged it can receive and transmit video continuously for 3 hours.

The tuner has a suggested price of $100.