Netflix Player in Beta for Mac
This is a big deal…Netflix is moving from a DVD-based service to a streaming based service, and the lack of Mac support up until now has been a stumbling block. Now, though, there’s a beta of the Netflix player for Mac!
This could be big — if Netflix can figure out how to charge (and make money at) offering a fixed-rate streaming service that would give you access to high-quality movies and TV shows, it could be a strong competitor in this space. I’m already a huge fan of iTunes downloads, but just think if you could take it a step forward and download from a massive catalog at a monthly rate…if they can pull it off, I might just have to get the Rokr box instead of the Apple TV I’ve had my eye on.
To make it work, you need to visit http://www.netflix.com/silverlightoptin and opt in to the beta program. (This also means you’ll have to use Microsoft Silverlight for watching in Windows, apparently, so if you do often watch in Windows from your Netflix account, you might want to wait a while.)
Apple Posts Huge Numbers
On Wednesday, Apple reported one of its best quarters in its history, including the incredibly revelation that they’d sold more iPhone 3Gs in one quarter than they’d sold iPhones since their introduction.
Apple posted revenue of $7.9 billion and a profit of $1.14 billion, compared to $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million in the year ago quarter.
Sales of Mac units reached a record high, up 21 percent over a year ago (2.611 million units; which also compares favorably to the 2.45 million in previous quarter) and iPod sales were up 8 percent (that’s 11 million iPods, about the same last quarter).
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Now Apple TV has a Killer App
In what appears to be a direct response to my multiple blog entries on the topic, Apple announced yesterday that it will update Apple TV so that it can directly access the iTunes Store for rentals, videos and songs was music to my ears, since I’d been calling for that behavior for some time, as noted here and here.
Watch the guided tour and then sit back and realize something. You page through films, choose one to rent, then you rent it. Then you watch it. On your TV. That’s it. It works.
That, my friends, is a killer app.
Oh, plus, you can buy TV shows, play podcasts, play your music collection, buy more music…Apple TV just became the heart of your media center. (If you could rip movies to MPEG-4 from DVD that would take this thing even further. The drag-able movies from new DVDs will be the next best thing.) Apple TV can replace your music channels on digital cable or satellite — in fact, it can replace your CD player or iPod dock device altogether. Internet radio. It’s all there.
Once I’m allowed to buy an HDTV (ahem…Ms. D?) this will revolutionize how *I* watch TV. I imagine others will agree.
Now if only they would make it so that you can purchase football and baseball games without the damn commercials…
With Apple TV, Video Podcasts Now Make Sense
OK, so I haven’t been the most vocal supporter of the Apple TV given that (a.) it won’t download movies and TV shows directly from the iTunes Store, which remains a massive oversight IMHO and (b.) it doesn’t serve as a wifi base station on its own, instead requiring that you buy an AirPort base station.
Also, (c.) I don’t have a hi-def TV yet and it seems doubtful that Ms. D is going to let me get one anytime soon. So I’m being a bit snarky, perhaps.
Having said all that, just a few days ago I actually found myself doing something that I may *never* have done before; I watched an entire video podcast. It was an episode of MacBreak starring none other than Leo Laporte. I watched it probably because (a.) I’m utterly in awe of the amazing volume of content Leo Laporte manages to put on the Internet and (b.) because they were talking about the Apple TV, and like a sheep to the sheer, I’m an Apple-anything addict, in spite of myself.
WIRED Reports on iTV Features I Don’t Care About
So, according to WIRED Blogs: Gadget Lab, maybe it’ll be possible to add some sort of DVR capability to the Apple TV device so that the shows that you want to record using Apple TV as a DVR could be synced with your Mac for storage, since the Apple TV has such a small hard disk. I think I’m getting that right.
Who cares? 
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