Apple schemes mobile movie streams
As Netflix mulls iPhone app
Apple executives are shopping around the idea of enabling iTunes users to back up movies, music, and television on the company's servers and to access them from any internet-connected device.
Movie studio representatives have reportedly been approached by Apple over creating a possible free streaming service for iTunes, Cnet said, citing two anonymous insiders who are "familiar with the discussions."
Apple has supposedly been proposing a similar scheme to major music labels as well.
Cupertino's pitch to media overlords is that such a service would encourage owners of mobile devices with extremely limited storage space — viz: the iPhone, iPod, and iPad — to purchase more digital content without having to worry about filling up the hard drive.
But content moguls want to ensure that Cupertino doesn't try to wall-off the streaming delivery to only Apple-created devices and services, so as not to repeat the music industry's unease about Apple's control of digital tunes with the iTunes music store.
Netflix ready for iPhone?
Apple's cloudy plans continue to surface as movie rental outfit Netflix flirts with the notion of streaming movies to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The Hacking Netflix blog reports that a leaked company survey describes such a service in some detail. The claimed survey query bids users to "imagine" a subscriber-only feature allowing the company's selection of "some new releases, lots of classics, and TV episodes" on Apple devices at no additional charge.
It promises that movies would take less than 30 seconds to load, although unfortunately would only work over Wi-Fi. If the survey question is true, it's a promising indication that the app is on the way. Netflix sent out similar surveys for the Wii and Playstation 3 users before the console services were announced.
Neflix CEO Reed Hastings told Reuters last September that a partnership with Apple is "something that's likely to come over time. But nothing short term." He said the first goal is to get Netflix on Blu-Ray players and on the major video game consoles. With most of that accomplished, it would seem the mobile market is right down the pipe. ®
COMMENTS
nice idea
all we need is a network infrastructire able to handle 100's (maybe 1000's or more) people all streaming (im guessing high, if not full HD quality) content, at the same time.
and seriously, streaming a movie, to an iPhone over wifi? the battery would be dead before the end of the film
Now we know...
...why they are building that big data centre
the future
wow this could be very cool indeed, at last some forward thinking in the entertainment industry.
I would love to be able to access all my content any and everywhere I went without having to carry several huge ipods and put up with the associated quality reductions. Also I have always thought it crazy that entertainment content be it songs, movies or whatever was one of the only commodities thats price largely depended on the format it was sold in. Why should I have to buy several versions (or potentially break the law by ripping and reformatting) of the smae film to be able to watch it in the lounge, on my laptop, on my ipod, on my phone, on my console etc? I dont pay different amounts when I buy a tomato for a salad at home than when I buy one for a sandwich or picnic! I know they put 'extras' on but that with a few exceptions has always seemed to me to be an attempt at justification rather than a real difference or benefit.
Even better would be if all content was stored centrally and then we could access anything at any time, either by way of micropayments or for favourite items one off lifetime payments. Now that would be truelly great and I imagine would cut an awful lot of privacy. New artists could even wave initial micropayments to build interest and a following. No one would need to constantly upgrade their storage, and the cloud could optimise the stream for what ever the quality of the device it is you are enjoying the content on!
But I guess im just dreaming seeing how luddite the copyright holders seem to be!
