Positive Spin Media's media search tool, Pandora (formerly NetScrape) has been bumped up to version 2.3. The new version primarily fixes some issues that Pandora had with reading some pages with non-English languages or encoding. The update is free to registered users, and you can download the update today.
If you haven't seen Pandora before, it's worth a look. Pandora uses a plug-in architecture to wander the big image search engines (i.e., Google and Flickr) or your hard drive, and supports finding and fetching any type of media -- not just images. Once you've found the media, Pandora provides easy slide show creation so you can show it off. I like the fact that you can start off multiple searches simultaneously and have them run
The Pandora demo is limited to 50 image viewings, and if you love it you can buy it for $29.95.
If you find yourself looking at your Apple TV every Tuesday to learn what new releases Apple and the movie studios have blessed us with, then you might find Apple TV Junkie really useful. That's because Apple TV Junkie posts all of the new releases of High Definition rentals -- along with other important Apple TV news.
In one glance of the page you can find out:
The $.99 movie rental of the week
How many HD movies grace the iTunes shelves
Top 10 movie purchases
Top 10 movie rentals
So, if you're always looking for the hotest new movie rentals on the Apple TV and iTunes, you can make Apple TV Junkie your first stop.
UK readers aren't the only ones who can now purchase and rent movies via iTunes, Canadian readers will be happy to note they can get in on the fun as well. Interestingly the viewing period for rentals in Canada also lasts for 48 hours, which leads me to believe that the US window will also increase (though we have no information to confirm that).
The Canadian store has over 1,200 movies to buy, 200 of which you can rent. The pricing is as follows:
CAN$9.99 to purchase catalog titles
CAN$14.99 to get recently released movies
CAN$19.99 to purchase new movies
CAN$3.99 for renting a library title (a dollar more for HD)
CAN$4.99 for new release rental (a dollar more for HD)
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Update: I assumed you all knew I meant 'UK reader's when I said 'Japanese readers' in the first sentence. I blame the overwhelming excitement of this news. The error has been corrected.
The (in)famous Mac video game from Running With Scissors is coming to the big screen today, albeit a small number of big screens. Postal first gained notoriety in 1997 as a Mac-only 2D shooter, and is famed for being banned in Australia for a few minor reasons -- things like using a cat as a gun silencer, gratuitous violence, and, in later versions, sexual themes and use of drugs and alcohol. Sounds like fun, eh?
The Postal flick follows the story line and general bad taste of the old Mac game. Controversial director and Razzie Award Nominee (twice) Uwe Boll somehow bribed and wheedled his way into showings at a whopping 12 theaters nationwide. Be sure to go see this film tonight if you're a fan of Postal, since it will probably close at all 12 theaters today as well. Of course, that means it may be on DVD and in the iTunes Store next Tuesday.
Given the choice between buying a physical DVD and grabbing a downloadable iTunes version of the same movie, you might choose what's behind door #2 for convenience, iPod playability and speed; that is, if you're willing to wait it out while the DVD-only window ticks away. Up until now it's been about 30-45 days post-DVD release, with a few exceptions, before the iTunes version showed up. With a report from the NY Times yesterday that Warner Brothers was moving to "day-and-date" digital release, simultaneous with the disc ship, we expected to hear something from Apple promptly, and we have.
According to this morning's press release, it's bigger than just Warner Bros. Multiple studios' films -- 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and more -- will now be delivered to iTunes customers at the same time that DVD buyers can snag them in stores. "American Gangster" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" are two of the first movies available on the new ship schedule.
Does day-and-date change your attitude on buying movies from iTunes? Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted Mar 13th 2008 10:00AM by Michael Rose Filed under: iTS
Silicon Alley Insider noted that Disney CEO Bob Iger announced some numbers for video and movie sales via iTunes since the 2006 launch. With about 4 million movies delivered via the store, and another 40 to 50 million video/TV show sales, that's a lot of bits. SAI isn't impressed, though; writer Peter Kafka runs the math and comes up with a revenue number of about $123 million -- not a blip on the screen for the conglomerate that shelled out $7.4 billion for a renegade animation studio with a notoriously idiosyncratic part-time CEO.
What Kafka does acknowledge, and what makes digital delivery via iTunes worth Disney's while (other than the obvious "Steve told us to do it"), is that this is incremental revenue that Disney probably wouldn't have captured otherwise -- Netflix or Blockbuster would have gotten the rentals, and relatively few DVDs would have been purchased to make up the digital slack. What did the revenue numbers look like in the first years of the VCR, DVD or cable pay-per-view offerings? Probably also on the less-substantial side, and yet those businesses are gigantic today.
Following Fox's lead, Lionsgate is signing up to add a 'Digital Copy for iTunes' to their DVD releases. Owners of DVD's with the extra content will be able to pop them into their Mac (or PC), enter a code into iTunes and have an iPod/iPhone/Apple TV-compatible copy added to iTunes. The copy is only valid for a single iTunes library and the process does require an iTunes account.
Lionsgate is kicking off the program with "The Eye," and – I feel a palpable swell of collective anticipation – "Rambo." That's right, you get a supernatural thriller... and a Stallone sequel. Your iPod has never been so happy, right?
iTunes users who also happen to be fans of a goblin David Bowie, Gelflings, Skeksis, Mystics and/or Jim Henson have reason to celebrate: two of Henson's cult classic films are now available on iTunes. The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth are now available for purchase at the iTunes Store. This comes on the heels of the Farscape and Fraggle Rock iTunes releases in January.
If you've never been able to get the cry of the Skeksis or the image of a frighteningly glam Goblin King (with fantastic hair) out of your head, pop up iTunes and make some Jim Henson magic. While you're there, you can even grab the slightly watered-down musical numbers in the Labyrinth Soundtrack to go with it, as well as a copy of The Muppet Christmas Carol, just in case the kids need some lighter fare after The Dark Crystal. Can't beat that, right?
Five years ago, my wife and I often rented movies. "I think I'll get a movie on the way home from work," I'd think. It was spontaneous and simple. Then it happened.
We had children.
To say that parenthood is life-changing is like saying the sun is hot. While we were busily trying to keep a brand new human being alive (incidentally, there's no manual -- not even a supplement from Pogue -- the UI stinks and unexpected core dumps are frequent), anything as trivial as bringing home a copy of Dumb & Dumber fell off the radar completely.
I miss the simplicity of watching a movie minutes after realizing I'd like to, and being rid of it when I'm through. Since we abandoned the brick-and-mortar video store, that scenario has eluded us.
We got an interesting tip from "Jack", who noted that you could affect the time remaining on an iTunes movie rental by altering your system time. I gave it a shot to be sure. It's true, if you're willing to offset the date on your computer until you finally have time to watch that movie, you can get past the 30-day time limit.
It was also noted that if you fast-forward your calendar to the due date of a rental, iTunes will remove the movie from the library but apparently not from your drive. That seems odd to me, but that's the way it works, at least if you switch the date up yourself. And sure, you could get a little creative with a DVR and some streaming output, but the price isn't so bad to me that it warrants the extra effort. My movie-watching habits seem to be in line with Apple's plan: I generally watch a movie once no matter how good it is. Ultimately, it's just a matter of finding the time to do it.
Blockbuster and Netflix's stocks both took big hits based on what we just heard Steve say at Macworld. Blockbuster has dropped a handy 15%, and Netflix "tumbled 6 percent" already this afternoon (although it's jumped back a bit since then), according to CNN Money. Apparently investors are convinced that movie renters would rather fire up iTunes than run out to the video store or wait for a movie to come in on their Netflix queue.
Apple, however, isn't doing that well either after today's announcement. On the day, they've dropped almost $11 as of this writing. But while this Keynote may not quite have met expectations (lots of people were expecting Cinema upgrades, or something a little less traditional than the MacBook Air), this very likely isn't an actual downturn in the ol' Apple hype -- anyone can see that iTunes movie rentals will very likely make them a lot of money. Rather, it's probably* the result of Keynote investors selling off the stock they picked up before the event. In short, it'll take a lot more than an afternoon to see what effect today's announcements really have on stock prices.
*All of this commentary and analysis is given by someone who has little to no experience in stock trading, and should not be taken seriously by anyone.
iTunes 7.6 is out, and it finally has something we've been hearing about for a long time: movie rentals. As announced at the Macworld Keynote earlier today, Apple has made deals with all of the major studios to provide streaming, downloadable flicks for you to watch on your computer, iPod or iPhone. Library titles are $2.99, and new releases will be available 30 days after DVD release and will cost $3.99. Each movie will be available to download within 30 days, and once you start watching it, you'll have 24 hours to finish.
There is good news for HD viewers-- HD rentals will be available, but they'll cost an extra buck (so $3.99 and $4.99 for library titles and new releases. There'll be 100 HD titles starting today, and more all the time. And of course, movie rentals will be sync-able with the iPhone and iPod, or have the ability to be downloaded straight on to the revamped Apple TV. Unfortunately, we haven't heard an official resolution on the HD (720p is one of the numbers being tossed around, and that's not great for serious HD viewers), but if we get to see one of these flicks, we'll let you know.
Get out the popcorn-- it's time to rent some movies from iTunes!
We heard a while back that Apple and the movie studios were in negotiations over movie rentals, and there were mentions of iPod compatible movie files being shipped with DVDs. Of course, to be able to legitimately import DVDs (without resorting to Handbrake) has been a pipe dream for consumers. But not for much longer, it would appear -- that is, if you're a buyer of a particular Fox TV animated series on DVD.
Tipster Stewart sent us a note saying he'd received a Family Guy (Blue Harvest) DVD ahead of the January 15th release (coincidence?) and that an iPod-compatible version, branded as a "Fox Digital Copy file," was included on the disc. The only downside was that the disc "requires iTunes version 7.6." We were both sceptical and interested, naturally, and he was gracious enough to send over two shots of the offending article, possibly lifting the lid on some of the iTunes news we can expect next Tuesday.
Check the shots out after the jump, keeping your eyes peeled for the (over-zealous) "serial number" that appears to be required to access this digital copy as with existing Fox titles. Thanks Stewart!
Mac developer David Watanabe posts a very interesting picture to Flickr. Apparently the result of some kind of error in iTunes, the drop-down menu on the iTunes Store "Report a Problem" page disclosed some very revealing strings. They all seem to fall into the "RentalMovie" category (separate from the "Movie" Category that follows it) and include things like"DidNotReceive" and "WrongVersion." I find the "DidNotReceive" one kind of confusing; that would seem more appropriate for something like Netflix or Blockbuster than a download service. In any case, this should definitely add fuel to the iTunes Store movie rental rumors.
Bruno Fernandes of Twisted Melon software has an offer for you: get educated about the problems facing our world today, and get free software for it. He recently saw The 11th Hour, a film produced and narrated by Leonardo Dicaprio about global issues in 2007, and was so affected by it that, like the New York Times, he considers it "essential viewing."
And he wants to give his program, Mira, to the first 50 people who go see the movie and send him a scan of their tickets. Mira usually runs $15.95, so depending on the theater you go to, you'll probably be saving a few bucks on a pretty good Apple Remote application.
If you find yourself looking at your Apple TV every Tuesday to learn what new releases Apple and the movie studios have blessed us with, then you might find 
Move over, Lara Croft -- it's time to go 
Given the choice between buying a physical DVD and grabbing a downloadable 
Silicon Alley Insider noted
Following 
Five years ago, my wife and I often rented movies. "I think I'll get a movie on the way home from work," I'd think. It was spontaneous and simple. Then it happened.
We got an interesting tip from "Jack", who noted that you could affect the time remaining on an iTunes movie rental by altering your system time. I gave it a shot to be sure. It's true, if you're willing to offset the date on your computer until you finally have time to watch that movie, you can get past the 30-day time limit.
We heard a while back that Apple and the movie studios were in 
Bruno Fernandes of Twisted Melon software has 
