Movie? Check. Popcorn? Check. Apple?
Nora and Cathi talk about Apple’s moves to get into the movie rental download business. What do you think? BTW, since we recorded this story, reports have surfaced that the movie studios are cool to the whole idea…especially the price point. Still, I’d bet that we haven’t seen the last of this conversation.
Meanwhile, Cathi finds this wild buzz device: the neural impulse actuator is a prototype for a brain-controlled computer system! Here’s the YouTube video of it in action in use for controlling a first person shooter video game.
June 24th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
the majority of my movie watching happens on my computer … i would like to be able to download, rather than waiting for zip.ca to send me a DVD (tho actually the randomness of the zip.ca delivery is quite nice, like getting a present in the mail).
June 25th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Hmm…. Interesting. For me, I might be more likely to want something like that if it also featured interesting recommender lists. I often don’t know what I want to rent until I get to my video store, which is ‘curated’ in an interesting way by people with really freaky tastes.
July 1st, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Hello ladies,
I don’t understand your hate-on for Apple’s foray into digital media. the iTunes store is about selling more iPods, NOT monopolizing digital downloads.
Case in point; the average iPod only has around 25 songs purchased on it, out of the devices thousands of songs! Apple barely makes any money per/song sold, potentially killing the anti-artist industry middle men in the near future … how is this not a good thing for musicians and music lovers ?
Movies are a different ball game, with many other players in the arena like you mentioned. The company ain’t perfect, but I’m disappointed by your Apple-centered paranoia.
July 5th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Hey Panamajack!
It’s not that I hate Apple (heck Nora is actually going to buy one and we both have iPods) it’s that I really dislike how proprietary Apple is. For instance, I got my wedding shots back yesterday. They were on a disc for PCs. My mother in law wanted to see a slide show. She couldn’t because it wouldn’t read them on her new Mac. (Which she totally loves other than this problem.) We could look at all 250 of them one at a time, which is very annoying let me tell you.
I know Apple machines are beautiful and beguiling. I know that they’re making tech infinitely more user friendly. I just wish that everything wasn’t so locked down. It annoys me that I can’t buy music on iTunes and burn a CD, even just one, to listen to in my car. It doesn’t seem fair. I paid a dollar for that song. It should me mine to use. And no I don’t mean give it to all of my friends, I just want to be able to use it wherever I want to myself.
I love the ease of trying out new tunes on iTunes, but I don’t think it’s fair that I have to go out and buy the disc if I want to have it for my car. I just don’t.
I think this will be a bigger and bigger issue in days to come with folks who allow sharing freely and those companies that don’t. I think Apple is a *great* company, but I don’t think their propietary business practices will fly in the future. But what do I know? I just think that free flowing information will win. But then again, I could be wrong.
Over and out
Cath
July 6th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Well, Apple, as one of our listeners points out on our facebook, is trying to get out of the DRM music game, and as you say Panamajack, why not? It cares about selling iPods, not music, and the DRM was to get buy-in from record labels. My point is partly just a bit of Apple ennui, and partly a larger frustration at the lack of transferability in general. Like, I’m supposed to want to rent movies with Apple’s DRM so that I can buy an Apple TV to watch it with if I don’t have a Mac? And, if more and more of the media we use is created by US, as in the case of Cathi’s wedding photos, it seems to me that frustration is going to be more acute. But it’s mostly because I’m a crank!
July 6th, 2007 at 11:08 am
No no honey. YOu’re no crank! HAH!
July 9th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Cathy:
What you are talking about photo CD’s is WINDOWS proprietary software at work !
I’m not against railing against Apple, but part of their mantra is to make things stupid simple for the AVERAGE USER!
There is plenty of software that allows you to convert (quite easily actually) non-Apple compatible media into something that works with your iPod or other Apple media device. Visual Hub is a great example.
July 10th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Yes, you’re quite right; that isn’t a very good example (sorry, Cath!). But to return to the podcast for a moment, it seems to me the relevant distinction is between Apple as a computer company, and Apple as a media/entertainment company…or at least media/entertainment distribution portal. So, whether that’s movie rentals, music distribution or content accessed via the iPhone, what interests us is the business model that governs the relationship between the device and the content, if you see what I mean. And I think it’s a relevant discussion both from the pov of the user’s experience, and the development of the digital entertainment world. Not that I feel bad if record labels, say, are ticked off at the deal they’ve got with Apple, far from it, but I think it’s an interesting conversation about the future of digital media and how these business models will play out. OK, haven’t had my coffee yet..I’m off!