[jgraham]

sorry posted twice.

[dberezin]

7.6 of iTunes is out now, also (2:39 PM Eastern).

[webmacher]

"I don't think once you'd start watching it you wouldn't watch the entire thing within the 24 hours allowed."?

I take it you don't live with any small children! There are MANY times I've only been able to get through part of a movie, and sometimes it's a couple of nights before I have a chance to resume watching.

The wonderful video store two blocks from our house charges the same amount, and lets us keep the movie for three days! The downside is leaving the house to go get the movie -- which again, would make renting online terrific if only there wasn't the previously mentioned problem of not necessarily being able to get through the whole movie. Seems to me that Apple is miscalculating about its target clientele.

I hope they'll reconsider/renegotiate. In the meantime, I'll be giving online rentals a pass.

[foxo]

Thought this was ready to go? Updated Quicktime and iTunes. Went to iTunes store and nothing to rent. No shortcut to rentals and no movies have the rental button like we saw during the keynote.

[dberezin]

I think they said a couple of weeks before the rentals will be available.

[foxo]

I thought this service was ready to go. Anybody else seeing any rentals yet on iTunes? Updated Quicktime and iTunes, but don't see any rental shortcuts or rental buttons.

Whoops! Double post.

[lantzn]

Thank you Apple! Time to go home and update my Apple TV 1.1 to 2.0 : )
I can't believe all the complaining about price from the Netflix folks. These are the guys that order 1-3 movies at a time and watch them all the same night they arrive, mail them back the next day and end up with those $1 movies. Most people have a life and will find Apple's prices just fine compared with going to the movies, PPV or rental store prices.

[bjojade]

For watching habits of 2 movies per week, definitely the price of netflix can end up a little cheaper. Most people don't watch that many movies, so the price per movie is going to be slightly higher. Then you have to consider the couple day lag to get the movie you want. With iTunes, you can get home from work and decide to watch a movie and pick one out. No waiting for the mail. If you get busy and don't watch movies for a couple months, there's no charge. With Netflix you pay per month regardless.

Comparing iTunes to Blockbusters rental is a fairly fair comparison. You can get the movie you want the day you want it. As far as costs, Apple has some pretty significant costs in hardware to make everything available for download. You'd be surprised how much it costs to maintain their internet connection. It would make the video store's costs seem downright puny by comparison. Remember that for everyone downloading at any given time they need enough bandwith and computers to be able to serve that up. Your $20/month internet connection is fast enough to have ONE download happen. Apple needs a connection that can support THOUSANDS of people downloading at any given time. This certainly isn't cheap!

Really, the price is very fair. The only thing I don't like is the 24 hour limitation. Just last night, I watched half a movie from 7-8 PM and I plan to finish it tonight when I get home around 9. With a 24 hour limit, that wouldn't work. 48 hours would be SO much better. But, oh well. The convenience of no trips to the video store and better yet, NO LATE FEES will make it worth it completely.

[dartmore10]

Eric, got to agree with your comment on the price. I like the convenience of whenever downloads, but as you point out, the going rate is $1.60/movie. The remaining $2.40 of the Apple's $3.99 rental price is their convenience premium - ouch! And that's not including the hardware investment.

The addition of video on demand, an GUI update and pricedrop are great. But there's no hardware update - ATV 2 = ATV 1 + software update.

What's still missing IMO - 1080P output & options for an optical drive. And the real killer app - TiVO-like abilities to enable timeshifting and program storage. EyeTV would be a great complement to ATV.

[claske]

Never heard a couple of Weeks Steve....is it ready or not ?????

[foxo]

Well, I guess I'll have to look at the stream after Apple posts it, but none of the live keynote sites wrote anything about a delay for the rental service and neither does Apple's own website. It just says to update iTunes and Quicktime and you can begin renting.

[claske]

Wow, I guess you didn't like my last posting...what happened to freedom of speech ??

[ericgorr]

lantzn said:

Thank you Apple! Time to go home and update my Apple TV 1.1 to 2.0 : )

I can't believe all the complaining about price from the Netflix folks. These are the guys that order 1-3 movies at a time and watch them all the same night they arrive, mail them back the next day and end up with those $1 movies. Most people have a life and will find Apple's prices just fine compared with going to the movies, PPV or rental store prices.

Even if one is just an occasional, but regular, movie watcher, netflix (and even blockbuster) has plans to fit those needs and the price per movie would still end up cheaper.

Only if your rental needs were just a handful of movies per year, would the iTunes rental pricing make sense...but I have a hard time believing that people are going to invest that amount of money for something they would hardly ever use. There will be some, of course, but I doubt it will consist of a significant portion of the market.

[trip1ex]

Yeah content pricing is too high. The studios (perhaps Apple too) pass on the convenience to you, but keep the distribution savings for themselves.