January 15th, 2008
Apple Announces iTunes Video Rentals
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
Today at Macworld, in his keynote, Steve Jobs announced a number of items, but this is what companies like Netflix were expecting - and fearing: iTunes Video Rentals. According to Jobs, they have every studio (he listed Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, New Line, Lion’s Gate, Fox, Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Universal and Sony).
The U.S. launch is today, with international coming later.
Details: Movies will be available 30 days after the DVD release. You can watch them anywhere: Macs, PCs (yes, PCs), iPods and iPhones. Video is streaming, with 30 days after rental to start watching it, and 24 hours to view it after you start. Nicely, you can watch the first half on your computer, transfer the movie to your iPod, then watch the rest of the movie on the move (but still within 24 hours).
Cost: $2.99 for older titles, $3.99 for new titles. Want HD? $1 more.
We Say: Not bad. Though the 24 hour limit after you start to watch it seems short. I would think you could cut the 30 days in half or even less and then give a person 3 days (typical rental time for a DVD) to watch once viewing starts.
Steve The Pirate « Schmimd. My New Favorite Word. says:
[…] The MacBook Air was just introduced for pre-order. The “world’s thinnest notebook” actually looks pretty cool to me after watching the ad on the Apple website. However I am not here to discuss what I like about Apple at this time. I am here to discuss my disgruntles with Apple and Steve Jobs and their new found glory in screwing their customers. The release of iTunes movies rentals is supposed to compete with NetFlix’s online rental service. At a simple price of $3.99 for new releases and $2.99 for older titles, Apple’s service looks good enough to look into. I’ve read a few reviews about the process, and besides a few quarks, the movie played well. At the Keynote, Steve Jobs made a point to iterate the fact that during the 24 hour rental period, you can transfer the movie to your iPod or iPhone and watch it there. However, Jobs failed to include a tiny detail: You can only watch rented movies on the iPod Classic, iPod Nano with video, and iPod Touch. 5th gen iPods that are supposed to play video? Can’t do it. That means people like myself are left hanging with this new feature. My iPod is only 1 generation old! I cannot justify buying a new iPod yet…..although I am very drawn to the Touch. Until Steve the Pirate struck. […]
January 17th, 2008 at 7:32 am