While most of the announcements Apple made today were expected and rumored for at least a week or two, the one big surprise that it had was Ping, its very own social network. Determined to shrink even more into its own, isolated world rather than embrace the grander landscape around it, Apple has made Ping an iTunes-centric social network designed to allow users to share music and music related news with friends. In addition to sharing music, Ping lets you follow your favorite artists and music news. The social network will be built into iTunes 10, the latest version of iTunes, also unveiled today.

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Apple’s big press conference went down earlier today, and it ran like a line by line rumor confirmation. For the most part. As was expected, Apple launched a revamped version of Apple TV with some expanded content. Evolutionary rather than revolutionary, the new Apple TV set-top box is 80 percent smaller than the original, carries a lighter price of $99 and offers expanded viewing thanks to $0.99 rental shows from Fox and ABC, movie rentals and streaming from Netflix and iTunes podcasts.

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Last spring, Borders made a small splash at the shallow end of the e-reader pool when it introduced some cheap, barebones options–the $150 Kobo and the $120 Libre. They were two of the first big moves in the drastic price lowering of the e-reader market, and at the time were priced more than $100 lower than leading e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook.

Unfortunately for Borders, Amazon and B&N followed just weeks later with price drops of their own, and when you can get a smaller, redesigned Kindle or a Nook for $139 and $149 respectively, the Kobo and Libre aren’t looking so attractive.

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OLED televisions are among those frustrating technologies–so close, so awesome, but so not going to be on the market when I get my next paycheck. This OLED television from LG has got my mouth watering more than ever for OLED technology.

On display at the IFA show in Berlin, the television is a 31-inch OLED screen that measures a hair-like 0.11 inch deep. It also features 2D to 3D switching. If you happen to be at IFA, be careful not to cut yourself on this razor.

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Boxee announced today that it will be adding a searchable movie library to its popular TV Show library. The service says that its new library will include thousands of films, most of which are ad-supported and free to users.

Boxee will offer movies from such content partners as EZTakes, Indie Movies Online, MUBI and Openfilm. The sites will give Boxee users access to content that includes independent films, shorts, classics, film-based social networking and movie news.

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For those of us growing up in the decade of awesomeness (or maybe that should be dudicalness) that was the 80’s, one of the greatest debates of our day had to be whether you’d rather own a hoverboard or monstrous Nike hightops with auto-laces from Back to the Future II. I’m pretty sure that the hoverboard won out, but you would have been an 80’s god had you managed to make/get either.

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Earlier this week, the rumor mill was working overtime about an upcoming announcement of $.99 TV show rentals that Apple will offer through the iTunes store. The reports indicated that Apple was going to announce the new deals–which will include Fox, CBS and ABC shows–at a September 7 event, ahead of the upcoming fall television season. The shows would be available on iPads, iPhones and iPod touch models.

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You now have a new way to make phone calls: Gmail. Google has integrated Google Voice into Gmail, allowing for free telephone calls to any U.S. or Canadian phone from your Web browser. You’ll also be able to receive calls via Gmail and use your Google Voice contacts book. You’ll see a “Call Phone” function at the top of your chat list, and will be able to enter in a phone number or a contact’s name.

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Dell has officially entered the U.S. smartphone market with its $100 Aero handset. The Android-based phone is carried by AT&T and will run $99.99 with two-year contract or $299.99 without contract.

The Aero is a mid-level Android handset that Dell touts as one of the “lightest Android smartphones.” It weighs under four ounces. Unfortunately, it’s bogged down with a rather dusty Android 1.5. It does run Flash Lite, though.

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