12.27.07 - 01:28pm
Apple has made its first deal in online movie rentals through iTunes with News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox.
The record breaking deal should boost lagging sales of movies from iTunes and Apple TV, as well as set the precedent for more deals should it prove successful.
Users will be able to rent a film from Fox with a limited amount of time to watch it before the DRM encoding makes it void.
Apple has been trying to make the landmark deal with movie studios for some time now and has finally succeeded. The full details involved in the deal are expected to be announced at MacWorld on January 14th.
Category: apple | Tags: apple, fox, itunes, movies | Be the First to Comment »
06.11.07 - 10:42am
Although Apple has of course refused to comment, word has leaked out from the Financial Times, about a possible iTunes/Hollywood deal that would expand iTunes movies to not just downloads for buy but downloads for rent.
The word is that the Apple is in late talks with the Hollywood execs to allow their movies to be purchased through Apple’s iTunes as a month long rental for $2.99. The films could be copied from the computer onto one other device such as the iPod or the iPhone and would allow play for 30 days.
It would be a big boost for the lagging Apple TV and also a big boost for the iTunes movie department which so far has only been able to sign with Disney and Paramount.
The deal would launch Apple into competition with cable and satellite television operators and anyone else offering video on demand in the home.
Category: itunes | Tags: apple_tv, hollywood_execs, itunes, movies, video_on_demand | Be the First to Comment »
03.23.07 - 11:02am
Appe TV is being touted as the iPod for TV as it builds a bridge between the TV and the computer. To put in
metaphorical terms, until Apple TV there have only been rope bridges that are hard to walk on and rickety at best - Apple has built a bridge that is made of tough cement and is strong and easy to cross.
Apple TV offers state-of-the-art 802.11n wireless networking and maintains backwords compatibility with older Wi-Fi and wired networks. Basically streaming from the PC to the TV is extremely smooth and effortless.
However there are some drawbacks - the major one being you can not just upload any video from your computer through your TV to Apple TV - similar to the iPod it only streams iTunes content and at the moment there is not a large amount of video available on iTunes with only Disney offering new movies. Also while capable of HD their is no HD content on the iTunes store, yet, so the video doesn’t look that great on the big screen. Also you must have a new wide-screen TV if you are going to purchase this product. Apple TV won’t connect to older non-wide-screen TV’s. No A/V cables are included as well as no internet radio support.
Category: apple, iFrogz Products | Tags: apple_tv, hollywood, itunes, movies | Be the First to Comment »
02.05.07 - 01:07pm
“No longer will production studios and record companies have to deal with Apple Computer if they want to sell to the exploding iPod market of which literally millions of video iPods and other similar devices have already been sold,†said Scott
Levine, PodDisc founder and President.
PodDisc is a new technology that will allow a portable copy of a movie to be made that then will allow for transfer to the iPod. One disc would record up to six full-length movies or a full television series.
The PodDisc would allow studios to bypass Apple and their licensing agreements while still getting out their movies to the growing iPod audience.
Category: iPod, itunes, video | Tags: apple, hollywood, movies | Be the First to Comment »
11.29.06 - 07:00am
One would think that when you go to all the trouble to go to a store, wait in line, pay full price for a movie, you would then be able to watch it on whatever media you like. Not according to Congress. According to them if you purchase a DVD, you are only allowed to watch that DVD on a DVD player. If you take that movie and download it to your iPod then you are breaking the law. If you want to watch a movie on your iPod you must then purchase it through iTunes or some such store. (??? can you then hook your iPod up to your TV and watch it or is that illegal too?)
There are some exceptions to the rule. If you are a professor wishing to teach a class you can break the encryption technology in order to put together compilations of movie clips for education. While the movie studios have argued that they could use VHS to do this, congress has disagreed. (Does VHS even exist anymore?)
Category: iPod, video | Tags: ipod-video, movies | Be the First to Comment »
