MACWORLD KEYNOTE, SAN FRANCISCO: Steve Jobs is getting into the video stuff now. Here are the details:
iTunes movie rentals
– Launches today in U.S., as software update to iTunes, iPods, and iPhones; international later this year
– Every major studio participating
– Library title will cost $2.99, new release $3.99
– Launching with over 1000 movies by the end of February, will have films 30 days after DVD release
– Can watch anywhere — Macs, PCs, all current iPods and iPhone
– You can watch instantly, in less than 30 seconds on broadband
– 30 day rental, 24 hours to finish — as many times as you want within 24 hours
– Can transfer films to another device in the middle of watching — e.g. if you have flight to catch, want to finish on iPod
– Participants: Touchstone, MGM, Miramax, Lionsgate, New Line Cinema, Twentieth Century Fox, WB, Walt Disney, Paramount Universal, Sony Pictures
– update on prior offerings: 125 million TV shows, 7 million movies sold to date (Jobs: “That’s way more than everyone put together but it did not meet our expectations. We think there’s a better way”.
Updated Apple TV
– No computer is required
– New price: $229
– Free software upgrade to existing owners
– Shipping in two weeks
– HD movies w/ dolby 5.1: 100 titles in HD, “and this is going to build very very fast”
– Podcasts — audio and video
– Photos from Flickr and .mac, can go right over the Internet; can play your videos uploaded to .mac too; Flickr doesn’t work while Jobs is demoing this
– Can buy and rent TV and movies, play iTunes content
– recommendations (others who rented this also rented)
– over 50 million video streams from YouTube
– Jim Gianopulos, president and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox, just came on stage and fawned about Apple, talked about “choice, access, convenience, control, portability.” Digital copy of movie included with DVDs starting today.
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