AllThingsD reports that Netflix (and Blockbuster) will be required to wait twice as long, or a full 56 days after DVDs hit retail shelves, before offering Warner Brothers content under a new distribution agreement.

The move is part of Hollywood’s ongoing campaign to bolster flagging DVD sales, and sources tell me the new deal is supposed to be announced at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Warner Brothers executives have already talked publicly about extending the current window.

Redbox was also included in the initial report, however their parent company Coinstar has made a statement indicating they haven’t yet entered into a new contract with Warner Brothers. They are, however, set to renegotiate their contract at the end of January, but have publicly stated they’d look for “workarounds” if studios attempt to double the time window.

While studios may think this type of dumbassery forces people to buy more DVDs, it only forces them to hate the circumvent the customer-hostile studios. Hollywood is once again on the wrong side of history and common sense. Rapid availability and fair pricing is what boosts sales. iTunes taught that to music studios ravaged by Napster and the like a decade ago. Steve Jobs told them at the time their competition was free-as-in-file-sharing. Is Hollywood really this intent on making the recording labels seem like geniuses by comparison?

Here’s once again hoping the old-guard gets replaced soon.

Source: All Things Digital

9to5Mac got a tip that Apple has started allowing downloadable content from magazine publishers into the new iOS 5 Newsstand app. Right now it seems like only Wired and GQ, but more are sure to follow as tomorrow’s iOS 5 launch approaches.

We’re still waiting on the likes of The New York Times, SF Chronicle, Daily Telegraph and many more. Magazine publishers are jumping on board too, with National Geographic, SPIN, Conde Nast, Nylon, The Telegraph, GQ Esquire etc.,

Anyone else manage to nab a newspaper or magazine in Newsstand yet?

Source: 9to5Mac

Qantas has announced they will begin a trial run for an in-flight entertainment system centered around Apple’s iPad tablet, initially limiting the test to a single Boeing 767-300 which allows streaming of music and video content to all of the aircraft’s 254 seats.

In what it’s trumpeting as a ‘world first’, Qantas will next month begin trials of Apple’s iPad for in-flight entertainment, using wi-fi to stream content to the tablets from a central server on the aircraft.

The central server will use 5 WiFi access points throughout the aircraft, of which each iPad can connect to using a custom pre-loaded ‘Q Streaming’ app that bypasses Apple’s default iOS homescreen and instead presents users with an on-demand library of content to stream. Qantas says that if any passenger decides to take one home with them, the iPad will be essentially rendered useless outside of the aircraft thanks to their Q Streaming app lockdown.

Passengers who opt to bring their own tablet or laptop can also hook into the new content streaming system, and Qantas will additionally allow a 24-hour viewing window for those using their own device if the movie is cut short by the flight. If successful, Qantas will add an additional 10 aircraft to the program and they’re also considering bringing it to the Airbus A330.

I don’t know about you, but the prospect of being able to hook my iPad into a content-rich streaming system would surely make a cross-country flight a lot less unbearable.

[Australian Business Traveller]

Speaking of John Siracusa, he has an interesting post up on his Fat Bits blog concerning the Apple strategy tax — whether Apple’s increasingly divergent interests, from iTunes to iOS to App Store to iAds, will inevitably lead to compromise, contention, and/or conflict.

Apple’s recent App Store changes, however logical and empirically justifiable they may seem, all point strongly to a company that has started to believe that what’s good for Apple is good for America. And indeed, this may be the only way to reconcile the inherent conflict of interest. The alternative is philosophically and practically untenable. Apple can try to be a good platform owner and ensure that popular apps like Kindle and Netflix thrive on iOS, and it can also try to advance its own competing services, but both efforts cannot succeed to their fullest potential.

So the new 30% subscription policy can increase revenue but drive out companies like Amazon and Netflix, hurting the platform. Having AdMob on iOS it improves the platform but hurts Apple’s own iAds. If they try to dominate everything it stifles competition and Apple risks stagnating and becoming non-competitive (as Microsoft did with Internet Explorer 6.) If they keep their own software and services modest they aren’t producing the best possible products they can and suffer in a similar fashion.

If Apple were only making the platform it wouldn’t be a problem. If they were only doing content it wouldn’t be a problem. If they were only handling content delivery it wouldn’t be a problem. But by trying to do all three successfully, it divides Apple against itself.

What’s the answer? Perhaps Apple shouldn’t have entered into so many businesses, especially the ones increasingly outside their core competence like online ads and subscriptions. But they have entered them, so what now? Can they balance all interests fairly and profitably? Could anyone?

[Ars Technica]

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has started testing advanced features in the iTunes movie versions of Salt, The Other Guys and Resident Evil: Afterlife, including search in script/scene, social sharing, and song playlists.

Buy the Will Ferrell comedy The Other Guys and you’ll notice three extras that can’t be found on DVD or any other digital platform. A search button allows you to input a word, and any mention of it in the script will be retrieved along with a link to the exact moment in the movie in which the line was uttered. A “clip & share” function lets the viewer take select scenes and post them to social networks. There’s also a playlist with songs from the film, which are linked to to places on iTunes where those songs can be purchased.

Those sound like some pretty cool features, with hopefully more to come from further testing and with additional studios getting involved. One thing to note, however, is that Apple still hasn’t extended support for iTunes Extras to devices like the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Even the new Apple TV doesn’t support the feature, but our hopes are for Apple to pick up the pace and rollout full integration of the service soon if they expect iTunes Extras to actually be a success.

So what do you think of Sony testing out these new features, will it be enough of an added value to help movie sales in iTunes reach their full potential? Let us know in the comments!

[PaidContent via MacRumors]

Another countdown to Macworld, another rumor! This one says that Apple is developing a turbo-boosted version of Time Capsule that would offer HP Media Smart Server-like capabilities. Some of the more nifty, iPhone related features, according to 9to5Mac, could include:

The device will tie in MobileMe with an Apple built-in Dynamic DNS system. For instance, if your MobileMe account was “9to5mac”, your domain name would be “9to5mac.me.com”. This is how you’d reach your filesystem throughout the Internet. Your media would also reside here. [...] Sharing media with iPod Touch and iPhones both over the Internet and while at home. AppleTV as well.

Hey, if multiple drives and RAID-5 (RAID-6!) are in the cards, it might even be a viable Drobo alternative — something that’s already the darling of the Apple community…

Last week Rene reported on the upcoming iTunes 8 release and how HD content may be included. According to a source over at Gizmodo, the iPhone handles full 1080p screen resolution “just fine”.

My guess is that if this does indeed turn out to be true, we will more than likely start seeing video clips in 720p right on the iPhone. I say 720p simply because that happens to be Apple TV’s native HD resolution. In my opinion, 1080p is a little too much. Actually it is complete overkill for such a small screen.

While this may sound great, there is a flip side to this coin. Processing power would be huge, which may have a negative effect on battery life. Also, if you think syncing apps takes a while now, just wait until you have to sync HD content.

We can only hope, if this is the route Apple is going to take, they have it perfected before we become their beta testers again.

Anyone remember the 2.0 firmware?

[Via Gizmodo]