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TECHNOLOGY
Thin Is In at Macworld
Brian Braiker 1/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
Steve Jobs didn't introduce anything as revolutionary as the iPhone at Macworld on Tuesday, but he did manage to make a few announcements that are guaranteed to alter the landscape in at least two different markets: movie rentals and laptops. The two major announcements at the annual event were the introduction of iTunes Movie Rentals, a new feature of the iTunes Store, and the unveiling of the MacBook Air, which Jobs is calling "the world's thinnest notebook." "It just goes to show that even when Apple doesn't announce a tsunami of a product, it still makes waves," says Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at JupiterResearch.
Croal: End the Disc-O Madness!
N’Gai Croal
The Darwinian battle for the next generation of DVDs ended last month, as Toshiba admitted defeat and aborted its HD-DVD format, leaving Blu-ray technology the sole survivor. But few were heard rejoicing, other than a handful of manufacturers and movie studios. In fact, how many of you know—or care—what Blu-ray and HD-DVD are? As of January, a survey commissioned by the Blu-ray Disc Association found that 80 percent of consumers were aware of the new high-definition format, up from just 26 percent at the end of 2006. But apart from my most technophilic friends, colleagues and peers, I rarely hear anyone discussing it. I'm far more likely to hear people talking about renting DVDs from Netflix, downloading movies via iTunes, streaming television shows from network Web sites, watching YouTube clips on their iPhones or acquiring video files through other means of dubious legality.
BeliefWatch: GodTube
Lisa Miller
Download This

DVDs have changed the way we watch movies, but they're not perfect. To watch one, you have to plan ahead, drive to a store to pick up a copy or go online (and wait for the mail carrier) to rent it from Netflix. That will change, says Sony Pictures Digital president Yair Landau, as cinephiles begin downloading movies over broadband Internet connections, just as music lovers now download MP3s. He told NEWSWEEK's Daniel McGinn how the advent of online movies will change the film industry.
Just The Ticket

Given his fondness for movies, it's not surprising that Reed Hastings thinks about the future of home entertainment in terms that sound like they're drawn straight from "Star Wars." The story line, according to the founder of the DVDs-by-mail pioneer Netflix, goes something like this: as DVDs slowly give way to online movies, consumers will face a stark choice. Will they side with the "Forces of Control" or the "Forces of Freedom"? The Forces of Control are the cable and satellite companies, which offer 50 to 500 channels of content that's chosen by network programmers.
Movies In Your Mailbox