Movies

Apple Releases HD Movie Purchases in iTunes

By Dieter Bohn, Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 a 5:56 pm

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!).

Want to Stream Your iTunes Videos Directly to Your iPhone? Enter iTunes Replay Rumor!

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009 a 2:15 pm

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:

TV Killed the iTunes Movie Catalog

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Dec 11, 2008 a 8:00 am

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:

Apple iTunes: Top Apps of 2008

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008 a 12:00 pm

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.

Joost: Want Free Streaming Movies and Media on Your iPhone?

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Dec 1, 2008 a 6:00 pm

Joost, from the P2P masters who brought us Skype and Kasaa, went from hyper-anticipated start-up to barely whispered almost-forgotten in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

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!

Tip o' the Week: iPhone Cinema

By Brian Hart, Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 a 4:00 pm

You are traveling and have a long flight ahead of you. You aren't feeling very social and the last thing you want is to get into a conversation with the person next to you who just happens to have a great multi-level marketing opportunity for you.

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!

iTunes Movies Come to Canada and the UK!

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Jun 4, 2008 a 4:55 pm

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:

Thurrott'ling Apple's "Day and Date" Movie Sales

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, May 6, 2008 a 8:55 am

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).