Looks like the weekend’s going to start a bit early. Hulu’s subscription-based Hulu Plus service will launch for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 on Friday, and here’s the best part: it’s free for  Xbox Live (Gold and Silver) users until May 6th. After that you’ll have to drop $7.99 per month to kick back and watch your favorite shows from ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, MTV, and others. Hulu’s even adding Kinect support, which means you’ll be able to play, pause, fast forward, or rewind whatever you’re watching with your voice or with a gesture. Hit the jump for the full release.

Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE Delivers Controller-free TV Shows and Movies; Jack Link’s Sponsors Free Access for all Xbox 360 Owners

With an ever-growing entertainment experience at the center of the home, Xbox 360 will soon offer thousands more HD TV shows and movies via Hulu Plus. The Hulu Plus subscription service will launch on Xbox 360 this Friday, April 29, instantly delivering current season hit TV shows from ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, MTV, and more, plus classic movies anytime to U.S. Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Hulu Plus subscribers.

“We’re proud deliver the best in entertainment content like no other device in the living room,” said Pete Thompson, General Manager, Xbox LIVE. “Hulu Plus is an important addition to support our continued effort to expand entertainment on Xbox LIVE. And by adding the magic of Kinect, we’re truly transforming the way people enjoy their favorite entertainment.”

A Hulu Plus subscription currently offers hit TV shows and classic movies anytime in HD, including current season episodes of top shows like “Modern Family,” “30 Rock,” “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and many others. Catch up on complete back seasons of series including “Lost,” or explore hundreds of acclaimed movies from The Criterion Collection. All for just $7.99 a month with limited advertising.

With Kinect for Xbox 360, you can easily control your Hulu Plus entertainment from your couch using your voice as the remote control. Play, pause, fast forward and rewind any video content you are watching using gesture or voice commands, as well as select movies and TV shows recommended for you by Hulu through the Kinect Hub.

Jack Link’s and Xbox “Unlock” Hulu Plus to All Xbox LIVE Members

Launch is just the beginning, too. To celebrate the debut of Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE, Jack Link’s Beef Jerky is unlocking Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE from April 29 – May 6. Through this sponsorship, all Xbox LIVE members (Free or Gold) will be able to enjoy Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE, no Hulu Plus subscription or Xbox LIVE Gold membership required for an entire week. Jack Link’s and Xbox LIVE are also partnering to host an accompanying sweepstakes where users who download the Hulu Plus application can win everything from a vacation for two to a Beaches® Resort to an Xbox 360 GB Console with Kinect. For full details, click www.xbox.com/HuluPlusLaunch

With Xbox LIVE, take your Xbox 360 online and enjoy an expanding catalogue of entertainment from a range of partners, networks and studios around the world, and interact with a growing community of 30 million active members. With the community spending more than one billion hours a month online enjoying entertainment, Xbox 360 is the only place to experience controller-free entertainment with tens of thousands of movies and TV shows in HD streaming, thousands of live and on-demand sports, and millions of songs – all on the biggest screen in your home shared with the people you care about most wherever they are.

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We’ve just been tipped that Time Warner Cable has begun emailing users of its iPad application, informing them of a looming channel-lineup change. The app in question — TWCable TV App for iPad — was released on March 15th, and allows TWC subscribers to stream live television right to their tablet device. A very neat feature… for customers. It seems as though several major networks are not all that fond of this customer-centric feature. “While most TV network owners agree with us that this is a great convenience for our customers and their viewers, a few networks disagree,” reads the email. “Unfortunately, that means that channels from network groups Discovery Communications, Fox Cable, and Viacom will be removed from your iPad lineup, effective immediately.” Time Warner notes that Animal Planet, Discovery, TLC, FX, National Geographic, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, and VH1 will no longer be available. In response, TWC has added 17 national and 3 local “replacement channels.” 

Thanks, J.B.

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Phandroid is reporting that Verizon Wireless has started taking shipments of the Samsung Fascinate into their distribution warehouses. The report has a screen shot of one of Verizon’s systems that has the SCH-I500 prominently displayed. The blog is speculating a September launch which, at least to us, seems accurate. As one of our readers pointed out, the MTV Music Awards (of all things) will be officially sponsored by the “Samsung Fascinate a Galaxy S phone” and “Verizon Wireless,” amongst other things. The show is set to air on September 12th and it is hard to imagine a high-profile sponsorship such as this not to coincide with a release of some sort.

Read [Phandroid] Read [MTV Movie Awards]

Fox Mobile announced on Thursday that it is launching a streaming video service that will rival Hulu. The service will feature full-length, on demand television programming from CBS, Fox NBC, A&E, Comedy Central, Discovery, FX, MTV, and USA. Though not available at launch, full-length movies will be added by the end of the year. Targeting the mobile phone market, the service will be compatible with BlackBerry handsets including all the variants of the BlackBerry Bold series, as well as the Curve 8900 and Tour 9630. Though the BitBop app itself is free, the streaming service requires a $9.99 monthly fee that provides unlimited streaming and limited downloads. Interested BlackBerry owners can download the BitBop application from the BlackBerry App World and get their streaming on now. If you give it a try, let us know your first impression in the comments.

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Scoring a 9.5 out of 10 on the BGR WTF-o-meter, Sony Ericsson has apparently teamed up with MTV to concoct a handset with hideousness that will haunt our dreams forever. The W760 MTV Edition mobile phone, beyond being a design monstrosity, is identical to the standard W760 specs-wise. The phone that hides beneath the colorful exterior touts a 3.2 megapixel camera, Walkman 3.0, FM radio, internal GPS and 3G, making it a pretty solid offering. Essentially there are two things that separate the MTV Edition from the regular W760 though: The Andy Warhol meets Sponge Bob case design and a free service that will allow owners to stream MTV music and videos. As cool as that sounds, the ends hardly justify the means. The MTV treatment adds €40 to the W760′s price tag bringing it up to… wait for it… €300 or $470 as of today’s exchange rate. Pass.

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