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Posts with tag rentals

Filed under: Internet, Video, Apple

Apple launches iTunes movie rentals

iTunes video rentals
As had been widely expected, Apple today announced the availability of video rentals from the iTunes Store. Up until now you could only buy movies and TV shows, with no lower-priced rental option. Competitors like MovieLink, CinemaNow, and Amazon Unbox have been offering rentals for some time now, but none has become the household name that Apple's iTunes is.

Steve Jobs announced the move during his Macworld keynote today. Rentals are available starting today and about 1,000 films should be available from the iTunes store by the end of February. Apple will charge $2.99 for regular titles, $3.99 for new releases, and a dollar more for HD content.

Movies will be viewable for up to 24 hours, and you can start watching 30 seconds after your download begins (assuming you have a fast internet connection). Probably the coolest feature is that you'll be able to transfer rentals to an iPod or iPhone for viewing on the go. While other services offer portable viewing options for purchased movies, this is the only way to rent a movie and take it with you on an iPod.

In related news, Apple and Fox have announced a partnership to include digital copies of movies that you can manage with iTunes on all DVDs the studio releases.

Filed under: Internet, Video, Apple

iTunes movie rentals coming soon

iTunes movie store
The Financial Times is reporting that Apple has struck a deal with Fox to bring video rentals to the iTunes store. While we've been hearing rumors for a while that Apple would start offering a rental option (right now you can either pay to "buy" TV shows or movies or take your business elsewhere), we find the Fox deal a bit puzzling.

Why? Because Apple has a strong relationship with Disney, which is the only studio currently offering new release DVD titles for sale via iTunes. So if Apple wanted to get into the video rental business, we would have expected Disney titles to be available at launch.

Of course, the Financial Times reports Apple and News Corp both declined to comment on the deal. While the paper's sources are saying that Fox movies will be available soon, perhaps we'll see video rentals from other studios as well?

Apple is hardly the first online video distributor to offer movie rentals. Amazon, CinemaNow, MovieLink, and other services have been offering downloads that self-destruct after a limited time for ages. But Apple is still probably the biggest name in online video sales, so if the company could shake up the young market if it makes the leap into lower-priced rentals.

We can probably expect an official announcement, or at least a few more details, in a few weeks.

[via tuaw]

Filed under: Internet, Video, Apple

More clues that Apple will launch iTunes video rentals

iTunesWe've been hearing rumors for at least a year that Apple was going to start offering video rentals through the iTunes store. But over the past few months we've seen growing evidence that there's something to this rumor.

In September one user noticed that there was a way to report an error with video rentals (even though there was no way to actually rent a movie yet). And now Evan DiBiase has noticed a few intriguing lines of code in iTunes 7.5.

Specifically, there are strings for things like "rental-content," "rental-bag," and "getvodaccountselectionlist."

Does this mean iTunes 7.5 will support video rentals as soon as Apple is ready to flip a switch? Maybe. It's also possible someone at Apple just has a sense of humor and likes throwing things like this into the binaries just to get the blogosphere talking.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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