Tuesday, July 18, 2006

APPLE TO OFFER MOVIE RENTALS?

The company known for its iPod and digital music (and TV) downloads may announce next month a way to download rented movies. Or so says Think Secret, a Mac rumor site:
Apple is said to have ironed out agreements with Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros., and is currently in talks with other major movie studios as well. It's unknown to what extent content will be available come the August 7 announcement, or whether Apple will announce all of its studio deals at that time.

Because the movies will be rented to consumers and not sold, people familiar with the situation report downloads will be coded with a date stamp that will restrict playback. It is not known exactly how the coding system will work, but industry experts tell Think Secret that the software would likely either limit the number of playbacks or provide unlimited viewing for a period of time, after which the movie will be "turned off" and no longer available.
Watching movies on an iPod screen? Seems a little ... little to us.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, it could be watched on your monitor. These days more and more people are going to higher-quality and widescreen -- even hi-def -- computer monitors. (I don't know if Apple offers those, however. I'm exactly an Apple geek.)

There are also a lot of media devices coming on the market that are trying to link your computer with your TV, from new game consoles to DVRs.

Cool idea. They're ahead of the curve, again.

Anonymous said...

That should read I'm *NOT* exactly an Apple geek.