![\"macbook-air.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/macbook-air.jpg\")
So, did you drink the Kool-Aid this afternoon?\u00a0 I spend my seemingly annual ‘lunch hour in front of the computer’ checking out whatever Steve Jobs had to offer, and there was some pretty interesting stuff regardless of what segment of the electronic entertainment industry gets your blood flowing.<\/p>\n
There were a number of cool hardware and software announcements, including:
\n– The Macbook Air: this think and light wonder is a thing of beauty, with serious laptop specs in a subnotebook package.
\n– Time Capsule: an advanced wireless router with loads of connections for direct hookups, printers, and something new – a built-in hard drive!\u00a0 You can get it with either 500GB or 1TB.\u00a0 Considering I currently use a 250GB FireWire drive, this has me drooling.
\n– Enhancements to the iPhone including a new Maps app that utilizes GPS for locations, enhanced text messaging, web clips and a bunch more.
\n– Enhancements to the iPod Touch that bring even more iPhone features to the device via WiFi – for $20.
\n– New software for Apple TV that greatly enhances the device’s interaction with the owner’s iTunes account for buying and renting all sorts of media.<\/p>\n
Renting?<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, there is that … the worst kept secret of iTunes, which everyone has just been waiting for since videos have been available on the service.\u00a0 The bottom line is that you can now rent movies on iTunes and watch them on your Mac, PC, iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.\u00a0 Video rentals are $3 for ‘library’, $4 for ‘new releases’ and $5 for ‘HD new releases’.<\/p>\n
Of course the devil is in the details.<\/p>\n
The first stipulation is that you can download them and hold them for 30 days, but once you press ‘Play’ you have 24 hours to watch the feature before it expires.\u00a0 This makes the service pretty much the same as doing a $4 ‘On Demand’ from Comcast or $4 Pay Per View through DirecTV.\u00a0 And it was similar in a way to how things worked on Netflix – when they restricted your hours of viewing ‘Watch Now’ content based on your subscription plan.\u00a0 Of course, now Netflix offers unlimited online viewing for all but one of their subscription plans.<\/p>\n
There is also the detail that you can only rent HD movies from the Apple TV, and that you cannot share them with your PC or Mac – so if you were planning to use your 30″ Apple Cinema Display … think again.<\/p>\n
I have yet to see what my kids think about this – they have brand new iPod Nanos (the video ones) which they loaded up with movies and TV shows from the iTunes store before our trip to Disney.\u00a0 I cannot picture them grabbing something for a day, but perhaps I am wrong.\u00a0 It seems to me that this sort of thing will prove a fairly marginal business model … but then I have no idea how Comcast and DirecTV do with theirs.\u00a0 What Jobs made clear was that movie and TV sales over iTunes, while a clear market leader, were disappointing.<\/p>\n
To me this highlights all of the confusion around how we’ll be watching movies five years from now – will be be HD-DVD or Blu-Ray or direct download or some other thing?\u00a0 Apple did nothing today to answer that – they will certainly open up another revenue stream for themselves, but not much else.<\/p>\n
What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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