Avid Studio is a new app that lets you edit video, audio and photographs right on your iPad. And if you think Apple’s iPad version of iMovie has just gotten some real competition in the video editing space — you’re right.

Avid and Apple have been battling it out for years now in the professional space, with Avid’s high end movie editing kit seeing competition from Apple’s much lower priced Final Cut Studio. Several prominent directors switched from Avid to make high profile movies using Final Cut. Following Apple’s recent re-invention of the digital editing model with Final Cut X, they faced a lot of push back from unhappy editors who missed features or simply didn’t like the new software. Apple did, however, achieve some consistency across their editing software, with everything from iMovie on iPhone and iPad, to iMovie on Mac, to Final Cut Pro embracing similar user interface and design concepts.

Now Avid is bringing the battle back to Apple, and on Apple’s mobile turf for a change. We’ll have a full hands-on, and a side-by-side comparison with iMovie coming your ways soon. In the meantime, here are all the details on Avid Studio for iPad.

Big-screen moviemaking comes to the touchscreen with Avid® Studio for iPad. We’ve distilled the world’s leading film-editing technology into an easy-to-use app that enables you to edit video, audio, and photos at the speed of your creativity. Swiftly arrange your clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and add high-quality transitions, effects, and a soundtrack. Then share your movie directly to YouTube, Facebook, and more—or export your project to Avid Studio for the PC and continue editing with even more advanced tools.

Easily Access Your Media

• Work with any media on your device—video, audio, and photos
• Access media from external devices via an iPad Camera Connection Kit (sold separately)
• Capture video and photos from within the app
• See your media organized by Albums, Events, Faces, and more

• Get started quickly with how-to materials
• Easily navigate your project with intuitive gestures
• Swiftly arrange clips in the Storyboard
• Make precise edits and trim individual frames in the Precision Trimmer
• Use the Razor Blade tool to cut on the fly and delete or replace the second half of the clip
• Easily replace one clip with another

• Quickly create multi-layer 3D animations, transitions, and titles with included Montage templates
• Easily composite video tracks to create layered looks
• Add high-quality fades and dissolves to help your story flow
• Generate professional-looking motion titles and graphics with full control over text, font, color, size, position, and rotation
• Create amazing Picture-in-Picture effects with full control over position, size, and rotation
• Pan and zoom on your photos to create high-impact slideshows
• Enjoy full-screen playback

• Use your own audio or choose from the included sound effects
• Trim audio to any length, set levels, and fade audio in or out

• Easily share movies via YouTube, Facebook, email, and more
• Export projects to Avid Studio for the PC

• Created by Avid, the maker of the world’s leading film and music editing technology
• Easy enough for the hobbyist, powerful enough for the pro

• App Store link

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

The holidays are upon us and what spreads holiday cheer more than decking out your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with lots of holiday content? Whether it’s wallpapers, music, movies, apps, or games, it’s easy to make your favorite iOS device the center of your festivus festivities.

Holiday wallpapers

One of the nicest treats for the holidays is a seasonally stylish new wallpaper for your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Our TiPb Forums have a great thread going to find some really nice ones, and share your own. Check it out!

• Holiday Wallpapers!

Holiday music

If you already have a ton of holiday music in your collection, why not enjoy it on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? If it’s on CDs, just load them into your computer and rip them into iTunes. If you’ve ripped them into iTunes already, you can use Home Sharing to stream them to your device, or use iTunes sync or Wi-Fi sync to move them over. If you bought them from Apple’s iTunes Store, you can use iTunes in the Cloud to re-download them right to your device — or iTunes Match if you’ve subscribed! If you’re starting from scratch, you can check out holiday channels on apps like Slacker or just hit up iTunes and buy yourself some classics!

• iTunes holiday music

Holiday movies

Whether your favorite holiday movie is Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, or Die Hard, curling up with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is a great way to enjoy them. If your movie collection is scattered in a bunch of different places and formats on your PC hard-drive, you can use something like Air Video to transcode them on the fly and watch them right on your device or beam them via AriPlay to an Apple TV and your big screen television. If they’re all safe and sound in your iTunes library, again you have Home Sharing to stream them to your device, or iTunes sync or Wi-Fi sync to move them over. No holiday movies to call your own? Find some on Netflix or go straight to iTunes and check out their holiday collection.

• iTunes holiday movies

Holiday apps and games

When it comes to the holidays, you can bet your last chocolate coin there’s an app for that. In fact, there are many apps for all kinds of thats! From cards to carols, books to bells, cutting ropes to angering birds, cooking to candles, fireplaces to fun with photos, there’s a ton of stuff to keep you busy.

• App Store holiday apps and games

Your favorite holiday stuff?

If you have a favorite holiday wallpaper, music, movie, or app or game, let us know in the comments. We’d love to check them out!

A couple of experienced industrial designers have come up with a brilliant new Bluetooth speaker for the iPhone that packs a powerful punch. They’re currently looking for funding on Kickstart to begin mass production.

The HiddenRadio & Bluetooth Speaker is based off minimal, timeless design and user intuition. When asleep it hides all its functions, being silent and unanimated. To turn it on you simply twist and lift the cap; the further you lift the cap the more internal volume is created and will amplify to over 80dB of crystal clear sound. This unique design connects and captivates the user through its intuitive functionality.

The project has a goal of $125,000 in order to begin mass production, which they’ve easily passed with current funding of $382,413 just a few days after introduction.

For $99, you can get a Hidden Radio in metallic silver, however the limit for this funding bracket has already been met. If you want to get in the game at this point, you’ll need to pledge a minimum of $119 for the metallic silver unit. The pledges from there range from $229 for two units in either metallic silver or graphite black, all the way up to $659 for 7 units with individual units retailing at $175 after production completes and hits retail shelves.

Source: Kickstarter

As we head on into Thanksgiving for those of us in the U.S. we’d just like to say we’re thankful for all you TiPb readers out there. Before you head off for time with the family make sure you check out the TiPb Forums for the best darn discussion in iPhone and iPad today!

• iPhone 4 Forum: Vibration for SMS alerts, can it be customized?
• iPhone 4S Forum: Using GPS coordinates as Address in Contacts
• TV, Movies, and Videos Forum : Top 5 all time favorite TV shows?
• iCloud Forum No delete button in Photo Stream, will there ever be one?

If you’re not already a member of the TiPb Forums, register now!

If you’re not already in the TiPb Forums you’re missing out on the best darn discussion in iPhone and iPad today! And good news, they’re getting even better! We’ve opened some new ones up — For movie and TV fans we now have the TV, Movies, and Videos Forum and for everyone who enjoys cooking and dining out, we’ve got the Cooking and Foodies Forum.

• iPhone 4S Forum: iPhone 4S more oleophobic then iPhone 4?
• iPad 3 Forum: iPad 3 rumors – Lets discuss them
• TV, Movies, and Videos Forum: Top 5 favorite movies?
• Cooking and Foodies Forum: Recipe: Healthy-ish chocolate peanut butter pancakes

If you’re not already a member of the TiPb Forums, register now!

UK satellite TV provider Sky has just released its latest app “Sky Movies” for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The new app offers subscribers to its subscription movie channels a new way to view trailers, short list movies to watch and lots more.

Delve deeper into movies that are on at the cinema, keep a record of movies you want to watch with your own personal shortlist and remote record those that are on the Sky Movies channels. You can even watch all available movies directly on your iOS device if you have Sky Go.

Categories include –

• Daily Picks
• On Sky Movies
• On Sky Movies Box Office
• Coming Soon
• At the Cinema
• My Movies Shortlist

Movie information includes –

• Synopsis
• Airing times
• Trailer
• Cast
• Director
• Reviews

The Sky Movies app is available as a universal binary and is free. It does however require a movie subscription with UK satellite broadcaster Sky to be of any great use.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Apple is preparing to deliver movies via its just released iCloud service. According to the report, representatives from Apple have been in meetings with various studios to finalize deals.

Representatives of the iPhone and iPad maker have been meeting with studios to finalize deals that would allow consumers to buy movies through iTunes and access them on any Apple device, according to knowledgeable people who requested anonymity because the discussions are private. The service is expected to launch in late 2011 or early 2012.

Source: Los Angeles Times

While we haven’t had time to test all of them, but off the bat we’re getting mixed results with AirPlay Mirroring of iPad 2 TV and movie apps. CityTV wouldn’t work — it cited contractual obligations. CTV did work and so did Global. Crackle was buggy. We’re trying more now.

Some TV and movie apps use Apple’s built in media controls so AirPlay works automagically. Others… have opted out. We were kind of hoping iOS 5 AirPlay Mirroring would let us work around it. Maybe it will. Or maybe Hollywood will update to shut it out of more apps. We shall see.

Have you tried out your favorite iPad 2 TV or movie app on Apple TV yet? Did it work?

LOVEFiLM, owned by Amazon, is the UK equivalent of Netflix and it has at long last released an app which allows you to stream content directly to your iPad. Previously all you could do was manage your DVD and Blu-ray rental queue.

Watch films instantly as part of your LOVEFiLM membership, and browse the UK’s largest selection of DVDs and Blu-rays.

• Stream films instantly (wifi only)
• Watch trailers
• Rate movies
• Read user reviews
• Add, remove and prioritise DVD rental titles
• Browse the UK’s widest selection of DVDs & Blu-rays
• Browse by genre, new releases, most popular and coming soon
• Customise your search results to return only the formats you’re interested in

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Apple has posted up a great tip on how to find closed caption TV shows and movies on iTunes.

Closed captioning for the hearing impaired is now available in iTunes for new TV episodes as well as thousands of movies and iTunes U video episodes. As you browse the store you can determine whether the particular content you’re looking at has closed caption support by looking for the small cc icon in the info on the left side of their pages. The cc icon also appears in lists of TV episodes and in iTunes U offerings with multiple episodes (e.g. Developing Apps for iOS, from Stanford). To find all the content with closed captioning in Movies, TV or iTunes U, click the Power Search link in Quick LInks in the iTunes store, select the category you want to search within from the Results popup, and check the option to search only for closed captioning before you use the Search button.

On iPhone and iPod touch, Select iPod in General Settings and scroll down to the Video section. On iPad look for the switch in Video in General Settings.

Apple does an amazing job with their accessibility features and hopefully even more TV shows and movies will be made available with closed captioning soon.

If you have any other TV, movie, or accessibility tips for iPhone and iPad, let us know!

Source: Inside iTunes

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

GetGlue, the social network for checking into your favorite TV shows, movies and music, has just updated their iPhone and iPad app to version 2.5.2 bringing all new features and a revamped UI to let users check-in to their favorite TV shows just in time for the Fall TV season!

Check-in to what you are watching, reading and listening to. Connect with friends, discover new favorites, and unlock FREE stickers and discounts. Join more than 1.5 million other users who are sharing 9 million check-ins per month.

• Interesting Conversations: See your friends and everyone else’s conversations about shows you watch – in real-time!
• Friend Leaderboards: Who is the biggest fan? Check out the leader board to see how you stack up against your friends.
• New Check-in Flow: Check-in faster and get more out of every check-in – stats, friends, specials, and of course, stickers!

GetGlue is available for free for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

[iPhone, App Store Link [iPad, App Store Link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game.

To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

Amazon Mobile – @sethclifford

I love Amazon. I visit the site multiple times a day, whether to order things for my home or the office, or just to browse and do some product research. I’m also an Amazon Prime member, which only fuels my compulsion even more, allowing for free 2-day shipping of almost anything. As a fully-grown child with instant gratification issues when it comes to purchases, Prime can’t be beat. But mostly, I like being able to buy most of what I need easily, from the same place, and I also enjoy having a detailed history and actions for my purchases after they’ve arrived.

It’s far from new, but an app I can’t live without is Amazon Mobile. It’s a universal app, and as a customer, it’s got everything you need. You can browse the massive Amazon library of products from any of your devices, adding items to your cart quickly, and completing the order exactly when you think of something during the day, and not have to remember to do so when you get back to your computer. Once you’ve placed an order, you can track it and see your historical purchases, as well as check out the daily deals and manage your wish lists.

One of the great things about it is that you can snap pictures of items and scan barcodes while you’re at a physical store to compare prices. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a store with my wife, killing time, when I come across something I’d like to pick up, quickly do a barcode scan and put it right back on the shelf, because I can save a ton of money and have it shipped for free – fast!

Amazon actually has a few different apps in the App Store, including a more visually oriented shopping app called Windowshop which is pretty cool too, but I always find I preferred the original. It’s always worked exceptionally well for me, and I find myself using it – constantly.

[Free - App Store link]

Calorific – @andrewwray

If you’ve recently set a goal to drop a few pounds and need an effective calorie-counting companion app to help you along the way then look no further than Calorific for iPhone. This calorie-counting app is very simple and straightforward in design and does away with complicated food categories and menus in order to help you quickly add meals to your daily calorie intake.

Instead of presenting you with a myriad of options for different foods, meals and snacks, Calorific breaks down your intake into ‘Great’, ‘OK’ and ‘Bad’ food types with different serving sizes. This makes keeping up with your calorie log a fast and streamlined experience with very little effort! Just jump into the app and tap on which meal you’re having for the day, then select the food score and the approximate amount of calories you think the meal contains. That’s it! You can even mix and match food types and serving sizes if you’re having a mixed meal, or drill down into specific foods and meals within the app itself if you aren’t sure how many calories your meal contains.

Calorific will also keep a running history of the calories you’ve taken in on a daily basis and spits out a general score of how healthy you’ve been eating, along with a nice profile feature that will help tackle your weight loss goals. This app has made it easier than ever for me to keep track of my food and calorie intake on-the-fly without any hassle thanks to its unique approach to counting calories — go ahead and give it a try!

[Free - App Store link]

Wikipanion – @JorjLim

Wikipanion is a free wikipedia app for both the iPhone and iPad. It acts as a fairly standard wikipedia app that displays articles, pretty much identical to the website.

It splits the different titles and subtitles into a really easy to navigate contents panel, to save you time, from having to scroll up and down to find a specific piece of information.

If there is word you don’t understand, you can also look it up in wiktionary (with pronunciations) from the options menu, which will also let you change the font size, or even change the font to “serif” to make it easier to read.

It has a location based search option, so you can search for articles that are relevant to things around you, which is perfect for holidays when you want to know more about your surroundings.

One of my favourite features in Wikipanion, is the ability to add custom ‘topic-specific’ wikis (Wikiquote, Apple Wiki etc.) and view them in the exact same format as regular wikipedia. If a custom wiki that you use, isn’t in their database, you can request it to be added.

There is a pro version for £2.99, which lets you save articles for offline reading, and have article queues, to load multiple articles in the background, however most casual wikipedia readers will be perfectly happy with the free version.

[Free for iPhone - App Store link] [Free for iPad - App Store link]

Magic Painter – @Alli_Flowers

I paid $2.99 for Magic Painter last week, and now it’s free. I don’t know if it’s going to stay free, but go grab it while you can. This app is awesome! I used to have something similar on Palm that I loved, so when I saw this, I knew I had to have it.

Unlike apps like Brushes or Art Rage, Magic Painter is for those of us with no artistic talent whatsoever. I’ve already made wallpaper for both my iPhone and my Mac that really pop. You start with a blank canvas, and you can not only choose any colour you want, but you can also choose from a variety of textures, or a photo from your photo album. From here, you simply choose a brush that paints a design on your background, like stars, vines, or swirls. Of course, you get a fairly wide variety of colours from which to choose as well.

I’ve had a ton of fun with it, and I think you will, too.

[Free - iTunes link]

Hanging with Friends – @skeetobite

My pick of the week this week is Hanging with Friends. This game is by the developers of Words with Friends, but is a Hangman style game between two players. There are many aspects that are carried over from Words with Friends – points for using letters, having a tile region that gives you limited letters to spell words, and many elements of the game visually look like Words with Friends. But this is hangman, where you challenge each other to guess words, and whomever loses enough times has their avatar fall into a pit of lava! Throw in lifelines (along with a method of earning coins to use more lifelines), random triple word/double word/triple letter/double letter bonus tiles, and you have a great guessing game! I found this to be more addicting than Words with Friends. If you are Words with Friends fan, you should give this game a shot – and go ahead an challenge me, I am not too hard to beat.

[$1.99 - App Store link]

Sherlock – @reneritchie

I had to spend last weekend coding and wanted to have something on the TV to generate some noise. I fired up Netflix, checkout out the new arrivals section, and after flirting with some childhood glee in the form of War Games, Starman, and Blue Thunder, I quickly settled on the new British series, Sherlock.

A modern re-imagining of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, it has all the traditional elements smashed to bits and brilliantly cobbled back together into a smart, taught series of 3 90 minute episode. The first one is great. The second one is okay. The third one is fantastic. (Though there’s this final misdirect in the third episode that I really wish they’d had the courage to just go with — would have made for a fantastic second series.)

And, of course, an iPhone plays a pivotal part in the series. So grab some popcorn and spicy drink and queue this gorgeous show up on your iPad or Apple TV. The game is most certainly afoot.

Your pick?

You’re part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for the announcement on twitter or our Facebook page each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

TNT has just released an iPad optimized version of its TNT app bringing with it full length TV episodes and movies.

Get complete access to your favorite TNT shows wherever and whenever you want. Check out episode guides, watch clips and behind-the-scenes videos, set schedule reminders and even watch full episodes of The Closer, Falling Skies, Rizzoli & Isles and more after authenticating through your television provider. Every life needs a little drama–now, you can take it with you wherever you go, for free.

• Full Episodes of TNT Series and Movies (after authenticating)
• Series Episode Guides
• Clips and Behind-the-Scenes Video
• Show Schedules with Reminders
• GetGlue, Facebook and Twitter Integration

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

CNET drops a big bottle of killjoy juice on recent rumors that Apple might just be ready to rollout their fabled iTunes Replay service — the ability to re-download and stream content to iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV and iTunes on Windows and Mac from the iCloud — or a Netflix-like subscription service.

While Apple has music and now TV available for re-download, at least in the US, apparently they’ve only got agreements with 4 of the 6 big studios needed to add movies to the mix.

One reason is the HBO window. During specific periods of time–often referred to in the film industry as windows–HBO owns the exclusive electronic distribution rights of films from three of the six top films studios: 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. Any retailer that wishes to sell physical DVDs from these studios during HBO’s window is totally unrestricted. But online retailers are legally prevented from delivering movie downloads from the three HBO-restricted studios during HBO’s window and they also can’t stream titles from those studios. This means that right now iTunes can’t stream a movie to a customer during the HBO window that the customer may have purchased outside of the window.

Broadcast windows are also the reason movies and TV Shows sometimes disappear and reappear from iTunes, Netflix, etc. But the bottom line seems to be, at least for now, that iTunes movie re-downloading, streaming, and subscription services are still a long way off.

[CNET]

Orange in the UK has teamed up with Apple to offer its users a free iTunes movie rental each week, under the name of Films To Go. The service, which is UK only, will offer a different movie each week. The movie will be available to view for 30 days but once you have started watching, you have 48 hours to complete it.

This week’s film is My Blueberry Nights with The Wrestler scheduled for next week. To get access to the free movie rentals, Orange customers just need to text FILMTOGO to 85060. You will then be sent a text message with a code to allow the free download via iTunes. The movie can then be viewed on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

One small point to note, when you send the text message to Orange, you do get charged 35 pence for the privilege of receiving the code!

[Orange Film To Go]

XBMC is now available as a jailbreak app for the Apple TV (2010), iPad and iPhone 4. XBMC, for those that do not know, is a free open source media center application, that until today was only available for Linux, OSX, Windows and the original Xbox.

The Apple TV version is a full XBMC install and allows full network sharing of media, hardware decoding of 720p and 1080p movies plus everything else that XBMC has to offer. The iPad version also offers full hardware accelerated video playback and network access to media. The iPhone 4 has been included in the release however the devs do point out that navigation is a bit frustrating.

The app is jailbreak only and you will not find it in the App Store anytime soon. It is free to install, so what are you waiting for? Check out the videos after the break, one running on the Apple TV and the other on the iPad then let us know if you’re going to be jailbreaking and installing XBMC!

[xbmc]

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]

Apple started sending out free iTunes movie rental codes to US iTunes users today. The promo code will allow you to rent one of the 8,500 available movies.

Redeem your free movie rental below, and start watching one of your favorite movies on iTunes. Watch what you want, when you want. Enjoy movie rentals on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, the all-new Apple TV, or on your computer. You have 30 days from the moment you rent a movie to start watching, and 24 hours to finish it.

Apple has not indicated the reason behind this promotion, but we’re not complaining – we’ll gladly accept a free rental. Perhaps this is Apple’s way of saying “Happy Holidays”.

Who’s received a free rental code? What do you plan to rent? Do you plan to watch it on your iPhone or iPad?

[9To5Mac]

Netflix streaming from iPad or iPhone to your TV via iOS 4.2 AirPlay? That’s what Mark Gurman is showing off.

We connected some speakers to an Airport Express and the audio from the Netflix film wirelessly streamed and played perfectly with absolutely no hiccups. When the new Apple TV launches, you’ll be able to wirelessly stream both the video and audio to your television set; that’s right, I said television.

Now if only they let Hulu Plus do that…

[9to5Mac]

If you’re a frequent browser of the iTunes movie section, you may have noticed the addition of a Rotten Tomatoes rating section.  If you’re not familiar with Rotten Tomatoes, it’s basically a site where users and critics can rate movies as fresh or rotten.  To the left you’ll see the classic TomatoMeter rating system while to the right you’ll see a few of the most recent ratings for that specific movie.

And if you still want to know more about a movie, clicking the find more option will take you to the Rotten Tomatoes site page for that film.  Fancy! What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

[via TUAW]

We have to say we’re pretty excited about the streaming video possibilities on the iPad. So excited, in fact, that the YouTube app feels pretty much like old hat. Jeremy already took a quick look at Netflix on the iPad and the verdict is that it works and the magic of simply having Netflix streaming on an iPad does much to overcome the fact that what you essentially have here is an app made of up Netflix’s webpage.

ABC Video, however, is much more elegant and is a nicer iPad app. You get a set of tabs at the bottom for viewing video, your video history, and even a schedule of ABC shows. The video looks crisp to my eyes, but I’m especially impressed at how well the app saves my place on the various shows I’ve watched.

A quick video comparison of ABC, Netflix, and the default Videos app, along with a gallery of ABC and Netflix, are after the break!

You say you just picked up a new iPad and wanted to sit back and watch your favorite episode of Lost or perhaps a blockbuster movie? If you are a Netflix member you can do just that with the official Netflix iPad application! [iTunes Link - Free]

All you have to do is download the Netflix app from the App Store and you can instantly watch TV shows and movies directly on your iPad. Once you start the app you will be taken to the Netflix website that seems to be optimized for iPad and you will enter in your password and username and everything will be familiar. If you start to watch a movie from your computer or TV and want to resume it on your iPad, you can. Even better is that since the app uses the web interface you have the ability to manage your que or make any account adjustments directly from your iPad.

I’ve been playing around with it for a while now and must say it is very snappy with no lag in the UI and the video content streams flawlessly. This is a must have for all Netflix users out there!

Screenshots after the break!

In that stream of 700 iPad apps revealed last night, Engadget noticed a few gems including Netflix and ABC, and with CBS doing the HTML5-video thing and Hulu once again being rumored, could content consumption nirvana finally be near?

Netflix is said to be a free app that will be ready by the April 3 iPad launch. You’ll be able to browse and manage your queue and stream movies and TV shows right to your iPad. No word on weather its Wi-Fi-only or 3G as well, and no word on whether an iPhone and iPod touch version is coming (ahem!)

ABC’s player is also said to be free but Wi-Fi bound. You’ll still get your Lost and Grey’s Anatomy fix direct from the network, however. Whether it will make into the iPad App Store by launch day is unknown, as is their monetization method (i.e. will there be commercials?)

CBS, according to the Wall Street Journal, is sticking with their web-based strategy of streaming HTML5 video through Mobile Safari and not making a dedicated app. Hey, maybe that at least will give iPhone and iPod touch owners equal access?

Hulu, which carries the last two remaining networks, NBC and FOX is still unclear but the New York Times once again gets our hopes up. It’s not all rosy, however, as the network nuts behind the scenes reportedly aren’t happy with revenue and want something like subscriptions bolted one. They better get their act together and quickly or their old world thinking will condemn the bright boys and girls at Hulu to last place in the brave new mobile media world…

For all TiPb readers who have dreamed of having their very own home theatre, we now have a solution for you and all that is needed is your iPhone, shoe box, and 1 to 2 hours of your time.

It’s a pretty clever idea, check out the videos after the break!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

When Steve Jobs whipped out the iPad, the first thing I did was do a double-take on the screen’s 4:3 aspect ratio. At 1024×763 it’s what I used to have on my 2005 Windows XP CRT screen. It’s wide. It’s iPod “phatty” nano G3 [Wikipedia link] wide and that design only lasted 1 generation before Apple back-peddled to the long and slim. Apple used to default to 16:10, and the new iMac is 16:9, which is modern HDTV aspect ratio. (The iPhone and iPod touch are 3×2)

At 4×3 the iPad will require the same monstrous letterboxing on videos that old SD TVs required. (TUAW has a great post up on this). So what’s the deal?

First, unlike a TV where you sit across the room and the screen fills a relatively small part of your field of vision, like the iPhone, the iPad will be held much closer. Even with monstrous letterboxing, the video will still fill a large part of your field of vision.

Of course, the iPad isn’t only a video player. There are other forms of content to consume. For web browsing, even 16:10 sometimes feels too “short”, and you need to scroll more than you like. For books, a narrow page may not be ideal, and with a two-page spread, those pages will seem squat, squarish.

Now don’t get us wrong, if Apple added pixels and made it 16:10 (1280×800), TiPb wouldn’t complain (they could pillarbox the books!). If they took pixels away to make it 16:9 (1024×576), it might lose part of that “big screen iPod touch” infamy. And it might lose functionality for anything other than video.

It’s definitely a compromise, but is it a good one?

[Thanks Antony for bringing the counter-argument to our attention!]

Universal Home Entertainment will be introducing Blu-ray releases that contain iPhone and iPod touch enhanced features. Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Universal will include their pocket BLU application with Blu-ray versions of Bruno, Public Enemies, Funny People, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, and Inglourious Basterds.

Pocket BLU will further enhance your Blu-ray experience with the following features:

• Advanced Remote Control: A sleek, elegant new way to operate your Blu-ray player. Users can navigate through menus, playback and BD-Live functions with ease.
• Video Timeline: By turning the phone to landscape mode, users will bring up the video timeline, allowing them to instantly access any point in the movie.
• Mobile-To-Go: Users can unlock a selection of exclusive bonus content with their Blu-ray discs to save to their device or to stream from anywhere there’s a Wi-Fi network, enabling them to enjoy exclusive content on the go, anytime, anywhere.
• Browse Titles: Users will have access to a complete list of pocket BLU-enabled titles available and coming to Blu-ray Hi-Def. Free previews and more.
• Pop-Up Keyboard: Enter data into a Blu-ray player with this easy and intuitive keyboard that will facilitate such Blu-ray(TM) features as chatting with friends and sending messages via Facebook and Twitter.

The application will be a free download for your iPhone/iPod touch and should be available the day the Blu-ray titles are available. With the movie studios and Blu-Ray showing the iPhone and iPod touch some love, one would think Apple would give a little back…

[Via 9to5Mac]

Previously twice rumored and now recently made real during the WWDC 2009, iPhone 3.0 GM (gold master) sees the on-device iTunes app, which previously added the ability to download video podcasts in iPhone 2.2, round out its content with movies, TV shows, music videos, iTunes U, and audio books.

To make room, the tabs at the bottom lose Top Tens and Downloads and now include Videos (movies, TV, music video) and a standard More icon, which gives access to a screen offering Audio Books and iTunes U, as well as the displaced Downloads and relocated Redeem (for gift certificate codes).

Like with the iPod App, an Edit button lets you drag around tab icons to lay things out just the way you want them. Also, like with video podcasts, music, and App Store apps, 3G isn’t an option for anything over 10MB — which for video we imagine will be almost everything — so have your Wi-Fi standing by.

More pics after the break…

[Thanks to Muero for the screenshots!]

Following last week’s crazy screen rumor that iPhone 3.0 would add movie and TV show direct, on-device downloads to the current music and audio and video podcast downloads, Apple Insider reports that they have:

…learned from people familiar with Apple’s training program that new self-guided training materials being distributed to familiarize AppleCare agents with the features of iPhone 3.0 software “definitely covered” the ability to directly download movies and TV shows on the device itself, rather than just syncing video content through iTunes.

And points out that “Apple never puts out product training this far ahead of a product launch.”

So what’s going on with that? We figure it’ll be Wi-Fi only, but could there be anything else going on here?

Maybe, in that news of Disney joining up with Hulu to offer even more free, advertising supported television and movie content via the web, could reduce the amount of people in the US who choose to pay for that same content, ad-free for rental or purchase via iTunes. However, there are some other factors involved that Business Week isn’t addressing:

• Hulu is only currently available in the US. iTunes TV and movies are available in Canada, the UK, Australia, and most recently Germany.
• Streaming content such as Hulu is a great option, but not always the best option for every situation. Being able to download, store locally, and watch or take content on the go to watch is still important. (And will remain so until the Internet is as ubiquitous and transparent as electricity).

Most importantly, however:

• Apple has repeatedly stated that they operate the iTunes store at break-even levels just to get people to buy more iPods and now iPhones. Whether that’s semi-disingenuous or not, the iPhone will eventually be able to play Hulu content as well — either directly off the web like YouTube or via a 3rd party Hulu offering in the App Store. More reason to buy iPhones and iPod touches.

If nothing else, Apple has proven to have some small insight into where the “fat middle” of consumerism. They don’t blaze trails, they don’t bleed edges, but they wait and see and when they feel a market is mature, they offer their take on it.

Our bet is we see that Hulu app… whether AT&T allows it or not is another matter…

Looked at our iTunes and what did we see? Genius enabled for Movies and TV. For those playing along at home, Apple first pre-announced this feature before making iTunes 8.1 available for download, then removed it just moments before the download went live, then said it wasn’t quite ready, and now has unleashed it on the world.

Sorta. Not all iTunes-purchased videos seem to generate Genius results yet, and some produce… non-intuitive recommendations to say the least. Those of you who have ripped your own, legally purchased DVDs to your collection under the principles of fair use might have a particularly hard time finding matches if you haven’t undertaken the arduous task of entering all the meta data, and even then…

So, feel free to share your Genius Video results in the comments, the funnier, the better. Eagle Eye returning Coyote Ugly for you to?

The word has gone out: Apple is now allowing you to do more than just rent movies in HD, they’re letting you buy them. You’re looking at spending a bit extra for the HD version – $19.99 to be precise. They’re pushing preorders for a few movies (Quantum of Solace and Twilight) but there are also a few you can buy right now (Saw V, for example. Sadists rejoice!).

The movies also come with an SD version bundled in for your iPhone and iPod. Which is great and all, but how’s-about Apple provide us with an iPhone that doesn’t need such primitive down-scaled resolutions. iPhone HD looking more likely to anyone? If it comes, we’re still doubting it would be the 720p that these videos come in (our money’s on iPhone HD with 480p), but it would be a sight better. We’re still hoping against hope here, but maybe 2009 could be the true “Year of HD,” …4 years late, but still very welcome.

Even if we get a 32GB iPhone this year, that will still limit the amount of big, blobby iTunes movie content we can carry around with us. Sure, maybe 20 movies at 1GB each is doable, but as video and sound quality increase towards the HD, and collections grow and grow, the ability to stream content to mobile devices becomes key.

So it’s not too surprising Apple Insider reports iTunes Replay is looking to provide just such a streaming service:

iTunes Replay would arrive on the heels of last month’s report that Apple has shifted its online content delivery strategy to include a provider in Limelight Networks, joining longtime Apple partner Akamai Technologies. Having two different providers could help greatly optimize the delivery of streaming content to the millions of customers who use iTunes.

Personally, while I’d enjoy the ability to stream iTunes to my iPhone, I’d never buy anything that I couldn’t also store locally as a backup. Too many online media services have gone offline over the years, effectively stealing back the content their users had legally paid for. However, it’s definitely an option I’d like on-the-go. What I’d like even more? The ability to use a Back to My Mac-like connection to stream my own content to my iPhone, you know… like SlingMedia Player.

Anyone psyched for this?

Earlier this week, Macworld cried foul over some movies that appeared to be disappearing from the iTunes Store. There was no apparent pattern as the movies were all released by different studios. I checked a few of them in the Canadian Store, and they were still there…

So what was up?

CNet did some investigating, and it turns out we — once again — have big media to thank for our poor user experience:

Normally, release windows don’t affect retailers or video-rental services after they’ve begun selling or renting films. Warner Bros. doesn’t go into Best Buy and pull DVDs off the shelf when Comcast airs Casablanca. The corner Mom and Pop video store doesn’t surrender copies of Gladiator to Universal Studios when the film appears on ABC. But Internet stores are being treated differently. What this means for iTunes and Netflix customers is that movies will pop in and out of the services.

CNet notes that DVDs, of course, aren’t yanked off the shelves when TV wants to air a movie, so why are online stores like iTunes treated differently?

The answer, of course, is because broadcasters say they are.

Is that reasonable? Is the internet different than the brick-and-mortar? Should movies be yanked down from iTunes but still be for sale on a DVD at Walmart? Or have we evolved past those differences, and content should be available for us to buy when and how we want to buy it?

Apple has put up a special iTunes page showing off the top free and top paid apps of 2008. In addition to the overall standings, Apps are also broken out according to categories like Games, Entertainment, Music, Utilities, and Social Networks.

Koi Pond leads the paid apps while Facebook owns the free. To see the complete list, head on over to iTunes.

For more, also check out Top Music, Movies, Podcasts, and Audiobooks for iTunes 2008. (And while you’re at it, consider adding Phone different and iPhone Live! to your feeds for 2009 )

(via Macworld)

Well, according to Gizmodo, they’re back baby, and with free WiFi streaming movies and media to sweeten the deal — if only slightly:

It’s kind of crashy, could use a better navigation UI and takes too long for movie streams to get going (and then when they do it’s kind of finicky) but we definitely appreciate being to stream The Fifth Element over Wi-Fi in decent quality, when it actually gets going. More than anything though, it just makes us soak our pillow with even more drool dreaming of a Hulu app.

So, is the free-ness worth the — what might just be growing — pain? Think Joost has something here? If you try it out, let us know!

(Thanks Matthew for the tip!)

It’s late at night and you can’t sleep. Your significant other has already called it a night and you’re bored out of your mind.

In both scenarios above, you desperately want to catch up on your DVD backlog, but who has the time? Well, read on for this week’s Tip on how to turn your iPhone into your very own silver screen!

You are probably well aware of the ability to watch videos on your iPhone. You can connect to iTunes and rent movies, download to your iPhone, and enjoy. You may not know, however, that you can squeeze your own DVD collection (or at least several titles from your collection) onto your iPhone to watch whenever you wish.

In order to watch movies on your iPhone, the video file needs to be compressed. There are numerous applications out their on the web that you can purchase for a nominal fee and start “ripping”, or compressing, your movie collection. However, one app that I’m fond of that just so happens to be free of charge is Handbrake. 

Handbrake is easy to use. Just load your DVD, start up Handbrake, and it scans your DVD for the files it needs to compress. Just make sure you select the proper format for your movie; Handbrake will rip your DVD in the format you preset, i.e. iPhone or iPod Touch, iPod Classic, etc., depending on the screen size. Once the scan is done, you click “Start” and your movie file will be compressed in about an hour or so. Once compressed, just copy the file to the “Movies” section of your iTunes Library and then sync your movies to your iPhone. You are now ready to take your DVD library with you wherever you go!

Keep in mind that you should only compress movies that you OWN (ahem). Now you can plug in your headphones and watch a movie on your plane ride or with your head propped up on a pillow in bed without disturbing anyone. The sound quality is great with the headphones and the picture quality is surprisingly good too. Whether it’s your favorite movie or television series, try it out today!

That’s it for this week’s Tip. If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and please only watch movies on your iPhone when in a seated position — and NO, driving a car doesn’t count as a “seated position”). 

Long the [out-of-wedlock] stepchildren of the iTunes experience, Canada and the UK got some small measure of love a while back with the addition of TV shows, albeit primarily local and cable fare, like CBC and BBC respectively. But where were our movies? What about our (pricey) Apple Take 2 rentals?

Today Apple finally bestowed cinema on her Majesties loyal subjects, home and commonwealth alike:

Your favourite Hollywood movies are now available to download from the iTunes Store and watch instantly. Rent new releases for just $4.99 and other library titles for just $3.99, or buy movies and own them forever. Sit back and enjoy the show on your computer, take it on the road with your iPod—or view movies in stunning high definition with Apple TV.

In Canada, purchased movies seem to range from $9.99 to an expensive $19.99 for new releases (hey, studios, seen the power of le loonie lately?) while in the UK, rentals will fetch a premium £2.49 to £3.49, and purchases, £6.99 and £10.99.

Like the US, HD Movies are reserved exclusively for direct-to-Apple TV rental (thanks Big Media!), but it seems we might just get to enjoy them for 48 hrs. instead of the miserly 24 in the US.

One drawback? Canada already has steep data rates and stingy data caps (low end accounts offer a paltry 1-2GB a month, with high overage charges). Unlimited accounts can also be slower (low end toping out at 1.5 Mbps). Add to that the potential for cable and telecos to throttle what might seem to them to be competing offerings (to Rogers and Bell on-demand or PPV services, for example), and it will make for some interesting politics.

While the telcos may argue that the post office doesn’t deliver Netflix for free, it’s not like end users see the shipping charges either. It may end up that Apple has to deal with the Big Pipe devils same way they do with Hollywood and the carriers…

UPDATE: I had to reset the settings (not restore to factory, just reset) on the Apple TV in order to get it to offer up some movies, which meant reconnecting it to sync and stream from iTunes.

Windows pundit and out of the closet iPhone lover Paul Thurrott brings his usual brand of over-the-top Apple baiting and legitimate griping to bear on iTune’s recent announcement of “day and date” movie downloads, where iTunes will offer the latest from Hollywood for sale (not rental!) the same day as DVDs are released.

Thurrott rightly points out that $15 for no-extras, unilingual, often non-captioned, DRM-laden movies is just too pricey, and even (though in a later point) that Hollywood is charging apple a whopping $16 per film, meaning Apple is taking a $1 hit on every movie they sell (as a loss leader to drive iPhone and iPod sales).

And greedy, gluttonous movie studios wonder why people are willing to go through the hassle of pirating (JAR!) content?

He also tells us rental movies don’t get the “day and date” treatment, even though Hollywood grants that privilege to CinemaNow and Movielink (whom he makes sure to mention had “day-and-date” purchases before iTunes as well).

Although Apple link-bait to be sure, Thurrott does place some small blame on the movie industry. Please allow me to add massive quantities more. Like the record companies, terrified of Apple becoming the #1 seller of music (whoops! too late!), the movie industry wants to give competitors some competitive advantage, with apparently no consideration for consumers who, 70% of whom, according to US market share, have iPods, including the iPhone, and would benefit from this content being made available under the same terms (if not more fairly priced with fairer terms of use) via iTunes.

But the movie industry is afraid of Apple “ruining” their business the way Apple “ruined” music. It couldn’t possibly be that the advent of the internet allowed creators to connect with consumers without the usury and distribution oligopoly of old media?

What says Thurrot?

I’d point out two things: That the ongoing migration from physical media (VHS, DVD) in the entertainment world mirrors a similar migration in software delivery, from physical media (floppy, CD, DVD) to subscription services and cloud computing. More pertinent to this story however, is the notion that anyone who is buying digital movies from iTunes (or any other service) is simply wasting their money. The future is anywhere, anytime on-demand delivery of content, delivered as subscription service. The very notion that someone needs to “own” a movie is outdated, especially when that movie is an intangible and demonstrably inflexible DRM-encoded digital file.

Fairly priced, DRM-free content, let’s say new movie rentals for $2 and purchases for $4, and there would be no casual piracy (and greatly reduced piracy in general). Volume pricing, given the economy of moving around nearly-free bits via legitimate p2p within a network may not be a working business model for the movie industry, but then again, it could just make them a fortune…

At that point it becomes, like iTunes music, an impulse buy, and I know I would spend more per month on that than I do now on physical media that costs them much more to produce and distribute.

What do you think?