Happy New Year for 2008

The title says it all!

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iTunes Movie Rentals

And so it begins..... The Financial Times is reporting that Apple and Fox have signed a Movie rental deal. This pretty much confirms that although 2007 was the year of the iPhone, 2008 will be the year of the Apple TV. I'm more convinced than ever that one of the primary consumer announcements scheduled for this years keynote in a few short weeks, will be the launch of a new version of the Apple TV and iTunes. Apple have got to "beef up" the Apple TV to allow direct interaction with the iTunes Music Store from the Apple TV itself. The fact that you'll now be able to rent movies makes this a no brainer. Movie Rentals may just be the mechanism that pushes the Apple TV past the tipping point to make it the must have Apple device for 2008. If Apple make the Movie rentals High Definition (720p is just fine thanks!), then all those people craving for HD content would have immediate access to a hopefully large collection of movies for immediate consumption. The sales model that Apple have been using with movies can't have been as successful as the music sales model. I just want to watch a movie once and discard, unlike music. I don't want to pay virtually the same amount as a DVD for a lower resolution version of a movie with no extras. It's just not feasible! Now have a low cost HD movie rental service and I'm there. I've watched plenty of movies on the Apple TV but the overhead of encoding to Apple TV format just won't wash with most people. The inclusion of either a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (or a hybrid) optical disk in the new Apple TV is made more likely by the fact that there is talk of special versions of movies on Studio produced DVDs. These special ipod/iPhone versions of the movies will be pre-encoded and protected by Apples DRM technology so it should just be a matter of inserting the disk into your Apple TV to play back the movie or have it automatically copy the iPod/iPhone version of the movie straight into iTunes for syncing onto your mobile device. Talking of the iPhone, I've been playing recently with an Airport Express and Remote Buddy software (see this weeks ScreenCastsOnline show to be published on Friday) and the ability to use the iPhone as a remote for iTunes is stunning. Wrap in this additional functionality to Apple TV and not only do you create a much enhanced experience, you also give people yet another reason to buy an iPhone or iPod Touch (as if they needed one). An Apple built remote client developed for the iPhone/iPod touch would be amazing! How about EyeTVs ability to stream content to the iPhone/iPod Touch from a local web server running on your Mac. Apple are never adverse to copying peoples ideas, so the inclusion of a streaming web server running on the new Apple TV should not be discounted! But never fear if you're an early adopter of the Apple TV, you can be sure that all the functionality I've described (minus the optical disc) should be able to be rolled out to the current Apple TV via a firmware update - sweet!

Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple TV, iPhone, iTunes

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Macworld 2008 and Leo Laporte Loves Me!

Well it looks like it's official and I'll be presenting at Macworld 2008 as part of Podangos Podcasting session. I'll be reprising the very warmly received session on ScreenCasting I did at the recent Podcasting and New Media Expo back in September. As of yet, I've not been given a time for the session, but it looks like it will be sometime on Friday 18th January, as part of the Market Symposium "Podcasting & Rich Media". The all day session is being put together by Scott Bourne of the Apple Phone show and he confirmed my inclusion on this weeks Macbreak Weekly (Episode 70). Mind you, a certain other comment by Leo Laporte did very nearly cause me to crash my car but luckily it only ended up with me taking a wrong turn. Serves me right for listening to Podcasts whilst driving. Listen to this 30 second clip to see what I mean : audio clip Thanks so much Leo! That made my day ;-)

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I figured as much!

80%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

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I've Given Up Arguing with Windows Users Too!

A nice article over on Apple Matters about the futility of arguing the case for Windows vs Mac. I too have given up trying to argue the case on the reasons behind getting a Mac over a PC. I really don't force the issue, I just say:

• I enjoy using a computer again
• I don't worry too much about virus and malware attacks (without being too blase)
• I don't have any performance issues
• Mac software is plentiful, beautiful, well designed and incredibly inexpensive.
• There's no problems sharing files with Windows users.
• I can run Windows if I really want too (but don't)

The main barrier to most people I believe is now the price premium of getting a Mac i.e. there is no entry level machine at a bargain basement price. Yes, I know there's the Mac mini but PC users still don't believe that such a small package can function as a really good desktop machine and it's still really not that cheap when you do a cursory comparison with a typical entry level machine from PC World. Yes, I know we're not comparing like for like but your average punter just sees a computer as a computer. The second barrier to your average joe is still the low penetration of Macs and the relatively low number of people who have them. Many (most?) people still rely on friends or family to support them in the vent a machine goes wrong. If they're the only one they know with a Mac, who can they turn to? This will hopefully become less of an issue as the power users start to turn to the Mac and word starts to spread. So should Apple introduce a cut down Mac to compete with the PC entry level machines.... No! When people eventually realise the benefits of a Mac and the fact the price premium is really a case of getting what you pay for, they'll see that the difference is worth it and they might just find that they actually start enjoying using a computer again. And yes, I too no longer support families and friends Windows machines - Been there, done that and bought the t-shirt. It feels great! OK - If someone is really hurting I'll try to help, if only to remind myself just how better things are now that I'm out of that environment.

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