The Mac Professional's Resource
In the latest round of software updates, Apple released version 7.6.1 of their QuickTime multimedia software. The has no new features, but fixes some bugs and improves compatibility with Apple TV 2.0. The change that has been making people feel happy in their pants is the introduction of a discounted “Pick of the Week” at the iTunes Movie Store. The pick of the week costs $0.99 and a new selection will be available every Thursday. This week Apple offers up The Hours (highly recommended).
I like the Apple TV hardware and software interface, but I am already paying for content from enough other sources that the Movie Store and Rentals aren’t compelling enough for me. For example, I installed VMWare Fusion on my computer specifically so I can utilize the Netflix “Watch Instantly” feature and it works like a charm. The Hours is one of the available choices, so I can watch it for free any time I want. It’s not playing on my 42” LCD, but only because I don’t have an Intel laptop to use in the living room.
On top of that, I get 3 movies any time from Netflix, plus I get HBO and Showtime in HD as well(in better quality than what I saw from Apple TV, although I haven’t tested it in my own home theater). When I get a BluRay player, my rentals will be in HD, etc. I maintain that Apple has ways to end my frustration, but I don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon.
— Joe Fahs
For those of you who have not been around this Internet thing for very long, DVD Jon is a legendary hacker. While he may be knowns as the father of DeCSS, the breakthrough decrypting software that paved the ways for DVDs to be copied, he has also kept his trained on Apple and the DRM in iTunes. It started with QTFairUse, moved on to PyMusique and is now at DoubleTwist.
DoubleTwist media’s aim is to “liberate” your digital media. Basically, it converts purchased iTunes music to MP3. And once you have it on MP3, you can use it anywhere your heart desires, including music players not named iPod and cell phones not named iPhone. Go get it while it’s hot, or until Apple’s lawyers start circling the waters of Norway.
— Joe Fahs
A new report from Websiteoptimization.com mentions how iTunes surpassed RealPlayer for the number of unique visitors during the middle of 2007. We file this under “Why Did It Take This Long”. With iPods being installed on so many PCs, iTunes is available to just as many users. Although it is nice that iTunes streaming media has growth, you can see from the numbers that stand alone streaming media player growth overall is fairly flat. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the real streaming growth is on the web, and Flash is still king in that arena. We hate to kick Real Networks while they’re down and their stock can be bought for less than some of the items at Starbucks, but we have to wonder how they plan on staying relevant in the future.
— Joe Fahs
As we mentioned last week, we are sort of down on the Internet movie download thing. This week sees more speculation arising as Apple is working on movie rental agreements with more studios, after many reports had Apple completing a deal with Fox last week. As Apple looks to compete in the video download business, these deals make sense for them. Unfortunately, the movie rental business does not yet make sense for consumers.
The rumors are that Apple is looking to do movie rentals starting at $3.99 for a 24 hour rental. That should be enough to woo some people who are too lazy to go to Blockbuster, but at that price, Netflix allows you to have up to three DVD movies at once for an unlimited amount of time. Additionally, the Netflix price comes with 16 hours of the “Watch Instantly” movies on demand feature, not to mention a much wider selection. And if you have invested a lot into your home theater, NetFlix offers HD-DVD and BluRay rentals, serving up picture and audio quality Apple can’t match. So while Apple might be better at wooing the studios in, there is much more work to do before their sweet talk works on the consumer.
— Joe Fahs
Earlier this year, Steve Jobs wrote an essay saying that DRM should be abolished. Some people called it hypocritical because Apple has always been tenacious with protecting patents, but I think it shows a genuine frustration with the record labels and the growth of alternative forms of music distribution. Since Apple is the leader of alternative forms of music distribution thanks to their iTunes Music Store, any move that makes music more free seems to benefit apple.
A few months later, Apple partnered with EMI to release DRM-free downloads, but rumors are suggesting that Jobs will take things a step further by partnering with Hip-Hop Mogul Shawn Carter, who you probably know better as Jay-Z to form their own record label. Some people are going to look at this deal and wonder what Jobs was doing, because despite Jay-Z’s success as a business man and performing artist, there will be some negative connotations to his style of music. However, there is a lot of potential in this deal.
Taking a look at iTunes demographics, I think Apple made a savvy move. Although their new label might only be a drop in the bucket at first, there is a potential for Beyonce to join, and if they are successful, I could see other successful bands willing to do think differently about how they make their albums. In the meantime, Apple will be building their brand with some of the most recognizable names in pop culture. Even better, they get to stick it to Universal (Jay-Z) and Sony (Beyonce) at the same time.
— Joe Fahs
Popular Mechanics 10 Worst Gadgets of the year special featured what some my say is a surprising entry when they highlighted Apple TV right along side Microsoft’s Zune. Many people were quick to point out that Apple and iTunes are still leading the video download market. We agree that there are things that Apple TV can do better, and shouldn’t be called a bad product simply because the market is still emerging. That opinion is backed by some new analysis from ABI Research which states many devices have struggled but the “increased availability of content should help the market grow”. From that standpoint, Apple is in a good position.
While Apple TV is a market leader, we still believe they can improve upon things. At this point, the storage is a joke. 200GB would be a good start for the base model and 500GB for the top of the line. Some may say this is overkill because movies can also be streamed from a Mac, but storage is cheap. Another big improvement would be more content not linked directly to iTunes. YouTube is a good start, but Apple should use some of their billions in cash to make a deal with the networks to stream their shows or to get the NetFlix Watch Instantly function to work, or to, well, Steve has that vision thing, so I am sure he can come up with something.
— Joe Fahs