After a pile of product unveilings and trailer at a Tuesday press event , one thing became perfectly clear : Apple want to reign another room in your household .
Currently , the company has gage out a call to “ the den , ” a term Steve Jobs used during his Tuesday presentation to generically draw the elbow room centered around a computer . Now , Jobs says , Apple want to move into the life room . And the latest products from the company — specifically , the addition ofmovie downloads to the iTunes Storeand a new Front - run-in - powered cyclosis - sensitive Cartesian product , the iTV — are how Apple mean to do it .
Apple goes to Hollywood
The iTunes Store ’s Modern Movies Sir Frederick Handley Page
As ask , Apple announced that the iTunes Store — note that “ Music ” has been restfully dropped from the online outlet ’s name — now offers feature - length motion picture for leverage and download . And contrary to rumors around the Web , Apple ’s offerings include movies from more than one studio apartment . Sort of . The four studio involved — Walt Disney Pictures , Pixar , Touchstone , and Miramax — are all division of Disney .
Still , more than 75 films are available today , with more to be added over the next few month , including new releases such as Pixar’sCarsand Disney’sPirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man ’s Chest . ( Like all new expiration , those film will be usable from iTunes on the same day their DVD hit retail shelves . NeitherCarsnorPirateswill be useable at Amazon.com ’s competingUnbox Video Store , either — Disney is n’t among the studio participating in that speculation . )
Although Steve Jobs has long extolled the virtue of a solitary price point for euphony , the iTunes Store offers a multi - tiered pricing structure when it comes to movies . newfangled moving picture are $ 12.99 if pre - ordered or buy the first workweek after their videodisc release or $ 14.99 after , whereas “ Library ” titles — basically , older movies — cost $ 9.99 . ( picture show downloads are presently limited to the U.S. iTunes Store , although international backing is foretell for sometime in 2007 . Digital - right - direction restrictions are the same as for TV shows : you may view movie on up to five authorized computers , and unlimited iPods , but you ca n’t bite pic to disc . )
Although movie downloads have been look for quite a while , it ’s the detail of these film downloads that indicate to Apple ’s migration from the iPod ’s screen to your TV . Instead of the low - result , 320 - by-240 - pixel files antecedently offered , movie downloads are encoded at 640 - by-480 , still in H.264 format but now with Dolby Surround audio recording encryption . ( Some flick are provided in widescreen format . It will be interesting to see if Apple finally tender some film in a choice of full - covert or widescreen , as is the case with some videodisc . ) alas , Apple still does n’t extend HD - quality TV through the iTunes Store , but the higher - resolution 640 - by-480 videos do look much better in full - screen modality or on a television connected to your computer . ( Videos still meet back at a resolution of 320 - by-240 on the iPod itself . )
Apple has also increased the quality of TV show downloads , upping resolution to the same 640 - by-480 solving . In fact , the ship’s company has gone back and re - encoded older shows to the higher firmness — even the freeESPN TV commercialsare now usable in the new format . ( Although a few hours after Jobs ’ presentation , several older instalment of a bit of show were disappearing from the Store , only to re-emerge later — presumably because aged versions were step by step being replaced by good - quality data file . ) alas , it does n’t appear that you may re - download the new , gamy - resolution variation of antecedently - purchased 320 - by-240 show .
One of the obstacles to movie - download service has always been bandwidth — whereas a 4 - minute of arc music track can be download in less than a minute on even a slow DSL or cable - modem connexion , a 2 - 60 minutes movie is a unlike game all . regrettably , Apple ca n’t speed up the tobacco pipe between its host and your computer . On our 10Mb / s office LAN — admittedly , at a very busybodied metre just a few hours after the movie plane section of the iTunes Store opened — the 2 hr , 22 arcminute - Pirates of the Caribbean : The Curse of the Black Pearl , took 1 hour , 10 minute to download its 1.64 GB file . This was significantly long than Jobs ’ call of 30 instant per movie , although perhaps speed will be good in a workweek or two when the iTunes Store ’s traffic settle down to normal levels .
On the other hand , iniTunes 7 , you could start ascertain a video recording file soon after it begin to download , and the new Downloads view let you rearrange the download waiting line and interruption and re-start downloads . For exemplar , you’re able to purchase movies now but download them later when you ’re on a firm connexion .
i on the living room
iTV
The other half of Apple ’s attempt to take over more of your digital living was a rarefied pre - annunciation : the company talked about and demonstrated a ware , computer code - namediTV , that wo n’t be shipping until the first poop of 2007 . look very much like a half - heightMac mini , the $ 299 iTV will in many ways be a video version of the company ’s audio - cyclosis AirPort Express : It have you stream video , sound recording , and photo from your computer to a affiliated goggle box over an 802.11 wireless connection . But instead of “ hearing blind ” like you ’re forced to do with the AirPort Express , the iTV provide a Front - Row - like interface on your TV filmdom ; you sail that interface using an include Apple Remote .
The iTV will offer up a issue of option for connecting it to your plate entertainment organization : an HDMI association for HD - adequate to video and digital audio recording , as well as component part video , optical digital and analog left / right audio recording , and an Ethernet larboard ( which will presumptively work as an Ethernet bridge ) .
That Apple talked about the iTV well before its expiration was unusual , given the caller ’s illustrious secretiveness . But in the context of the event , it was likely a prudent move . First , it showed that Apple is take up the telecasting and living room seriously , rather than as an afterthought , at a time when more and more people are looking for ways to get their growing collection of digital content out of their computer and into the rest of their home .
But just as important in the viewing of Amazon ’s late raid into downloadable moving picture sales , the iTV — or whatever it will be yell when it get next twelvemonth — establish Apple a meaning stage up on other service by offering a means to enjoy purchased digital media in locations other than sit at your computer or star at a tiny portable screen . And it ’s likely that Apple ’s sneak peep was at least in part aimed at the movie studios — to convince them that getting their movies into the iTunes Store would be worthy .
expand the ecosystem
It stay to be seen if consumers will be uncoerced to pay $ 9.99 to $ 14.99 for lower - resolution variation of movies that betray for $ 15 to $ 30 on DVD . And when it comes to telecasting , iTunes is currently neglect a significant feature uncommitted for audio — the power to rip content you already own for use on your computer , your iPod , and ( soon ) your iTV . But with the most popular portable sound / video thespian in the world and the most pop ( effectual ) music- and television receiver - download service in the public , Apple is already a big player in the orbit of digital medium . More subject matter and better integration with your dwelling amusement system of rules should make the iTunes Store and the iPod ecosystem even more attractive to both consumer and subject providers .
[ Dan Frakes is Playlist ’s senior review editor . ]
