WWDC surprise: Apple to announce iTunes movie rentals

With three weeks until Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, Think Secret has learned exclusively that CEO Steve Jobs will use his keynote address to announce the debut of movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store. While the announcement will undoubtedly be billed as a further extension of iTunes' dominance in digital media downloads, it represents a coup for the movie industry, which will have succeeded in standing its ground against Apple's pressures to offer consumers the option of owning movie downloads.......

Think Secret - WWDC surprise: Apple to announce iTunes movie rentals

Nah, Can't see it myself. Apple seem to have set patterns for announcing products at different types of events and the WWDC just doesn't seem like the sort of event they'd announce this. I'm expecting some Mac Pro and Cinema Display announcements and the usual progress statement. We'll see - less than 3 weeks to go.

Expect the rumour machine to go into overdrive any time now!

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Wordpress Tiger Administration Plugin

This was mentioned on the ScreenCastsOnline Forums a while ago but I've only just checked it out. It's a plugin that makes your Wordpress Admin Screens look like an OSX app. There's no extra functionality as far as I can see but the results are spectacular! Installation is a breeze and is just a matter of copying the plugin files to the wp-content/plugins folder (notes are in a pdf supplied) and activate the plugin. May be only for standalone WP installs mind you... Link

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Blu-ray or HD-DVD

The competition between the competing next-generation optical disk technologies of Blu-ray and HD DVD has entered a new phase, as optical drive makers start rolling out the first products based on the rival technologies. As products based on these formats begin to arrive in stores, one major question for Mac users is: When will Apple integrate this new technology into its computers?The question is more than just idle speculation. Apple enjoys a long track record of embracing emerging technologies—think FireWire, Bluetooth, and wireless networking, among others—and incorporating them into its offerings. Also consider that Apple is on the board of directors for the Blu-ray Disc Association, and it’s not hard to envision a future where Macs are sporting Blu-ray-based drives.As with any future product, Apple is keeping its plans for Blu-ray under wraps. But industry analysts don’t think we'll have long to wait before Apple puts a Blu-ray drive in an Intel-based Mac.The most likely candidate? The as-yet unreleased machine that will replace the Power Mac as Apple’s professional desktop offering.

Macworld: News: Analysts: Blu-ray looms in Apple's future

So if the speculation is right and Steve announces a new Mac Pro range of desktops at the WWDC in August (3 weeks to go!), will the new machines sport a new Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive?

Do we need either?

I would say yes and the driver will be consumer produced HD movies. Apple have included HD support in all their video products from high end in Final Cut Pro to consumer versions in iMovieHD and the missing piece is what to do with the final product.

iDVD does a fine job of compressing your HD movies into Standard Definition automatically (even supporting dual layer DVDs) but if you've gone to the trouble of creating a HD movie, you want to see it in HD. The only option at the minute is to link your mac up to the TV and play via FrontRow directly from the hard drive - which works remarkably well by the way!

But I want to archive my video to optical disk. Even just the data. My last HD project was a 2.5 hour movie at 1080i which came in at 25GB in Quicktime format.

So I think the answer will be yes but perhaps only as a build to order and not as a standard component purely on the cost issue. But which one?

Surely Blu-Ray must be the favourite with Apple being on the board of directors for the Blue-ray Disc Association or will Steve's new role at Disney have any bearings on future Apple strategy ... ooh hang on....

Disney's home video operation, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, said it will ship "popular new releases and classic pictures" on BD when suitable "hardware launches in the North America and Japan". This is expected to take place in a year or so.

Disney backs Blu-ray | The Register

Ah well, any bets on Blu-ray then!

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Backup, Backup, Backup

My Powermac G5 has 2 x 250GB hard disks. I use Superduper to backup the system drive overnight to make a bootable copy so if the disk crashes I can be running again in minutes.

I have 2 x 250GB USB2 drives attached to the G5, one primary and one backup. The primary disk holds all my data (well nearly all my data...read on) and is backed up overnight by Superduper to the backup drive.

Oh, and I have another USB2 drive attached to the G5 that holds my iTunes library - 120GB of music............

Guess which drive crashed today!

Sob!

Backup people, backup!!!

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EyeTV Coming To ScreenCastsOnline

EyeTV 2.2.2 software, the version that is bundled with the new EyeTV for DTT stick, introduces a new Full Screen Menu. This enables you to sit back and relax while you watch and record television on your Mac as well as browse Front Row. It will see wide release in the upcoming EyeTV 2.3 update, which is scheduled to be available later in July 2006.

digg - Full screen EyeTV and Front Row integration coming for all EyeTV 2 users

Now I'm not normally one to let slip future ScreenCastsOnline shows but this is in the pipeline. Elgato have promised to ship me one of the new EyeTV for DTT, in fact one of the very first production models to do a screencast on. EyeTV 2.3 with Front Row integration could be a killer app for the mac and might just tempt me into getting a new Intel Mac Mini to hook up to the TV permanently as a mac based media center. I've been playing with some of their other products and the EyeTv software is really good with simple editing to remove ad breaks and really simple integration with the iPod. Keep subscribed to ScreenCastsOnline and be one of the first to see this new hardware and software combination in action real soon. Subscribe in iTunes URL for Democracy Player, NetNewsWire or other

technorati tags:eyetv, screencast, Apple, pvr

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