Steve Jobs Dropping Bombs

[Wayde]

If all the new iPods werent enough for a press release Jobs added information about iTunes 7. According to Mr. Jobs- a host of new graphic navigational features promise to make browsing iTunes easier and more intuitive with Cover Flow a feature that lets you view album covers. Itll allow you to casually browse your existing titles in an effort to help rediscover old music.
The big news was the formal announcement that iTunes will now carry Hollywood movies in its inventory of downloadable bits. Apples online service will start with 75 movies from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone and Miramax. You can now download and watch movies on your computer or iPod. New release movies will sell on iTunes for $12.99 and $14.99 and library titles (older movies) will go for $9.99.
Its a meager start for movies with just 75 but its only a start. Dont forget Apple launched iTunes TV show downloads with only 5 shows now they make up to 220 available to customers. The pricing comes as a trade off for Apple who, rumor had it, was stubbornly sticking to one price fits all for movie downloads. This allegedly hampered Apples efforts to get the movies onto iTunes because Jobs wanted a $9.99 movie download price for all movies regardless of release date. Honestly, Jobs was probably right on that score. The 9.99 one price fits all movies would be a boon for those just wanting the latest release and the studios would be sacrificing a bit up front. But how many of those users would just go ahead and download Part 1 of the sequel they just downloaded? A price of $9.99 for the latest blockbuster to hit the download charts might seem cheap but its the tactic of the big box stores to lure you in with cheap hardware purchases and then pull you in with a vast inventory.
iTunes movies will include:
Pirates of the Caribbean
Shakespeare in Love
The Incredibles Editors Note: I Love that movie!
National Treasure
Toy Story
And if my math is right - at least seventy more.
Oh, and one more thing Columbo
If you were born less than 20 years ago Columbo probably means nothing to you. He was a goofy detective played by Peter Falk that used to lull targets of his investigations with absent minded and seemingly dopey behavior. Hed borrow your pen, hed forget to wipe his shoes when entering your livingroom and then apologize and walk back out. But he was really sharp as a tack and often was really testing you as a suspect hoping youll let your guard down thinking he is another idiot with the Police force. It was a great show, you should catch it on re-runs if youve never seen it. Jobs reminds me of Columbo saving the mind blowing announcement til last with the line - Oh, and one more thing
With that Jobs gave a quick preview of a new streaming media player it intends to sell for the Home Theater market. The new device is code named iTV and will be a set top box for your HDTV. The forthcoming iTV will be fully HD ready with component or HDMI ports and will connect to your Mac with Wi-Fi 802.11 (I would guess Wireless N when its ready for streaming HD and multi-channel sound). The set top box will be a bit bigger than a Mac Mini and by all accounts so far wont play video games so I dont suspect itll replace my Xbox360 as a media extender to my Windows Media Center PC. I realize there are still lots of you cute little Macies out there who probably feel this will be an excellent piece for your network, and youd probably be right. Although iTV will work with PCs too itll have to offer something unique to get PC users interested. Ill wait til it comes out before I pass judgment. But it is great that Mac users will have a set top media option that speaks directly with your Mac and iTunes.


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