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At Macworld, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed new iTunes movie rental service with 1,000 movies from all major studios. After download, user can watch it for 30 days. Pricing is $2.99 for older movies, $3.99 for new releases and $4.99 for new HD movies. The movies began playing 30 seconds after the download is initiated. The service will go live by the end of February.

(One day before this announcement, Netflix revealed that all of their subscriber would be able to stream as many movies and TV shows as they want from a library containing more than 6,000 titles.)
At the same Macworld event, Steve Jobs announced a cheaper version of AppleTV ($229) that will allow to downloading movies to the TV set, and the amazing ultralight laptop MacBook Air, which measures .76 inch think with the standard 80-gig hard drive, and only .16 inch thick with an optional flash memory drive. Here’s the demo.

In the same time another breakthrough at CES Computer Show in Las Vegas. A company called Eye-Fi has embedded WiFi functionality into a camera memory card, prized at $99.9. As you snap photos, this Eye-Fi card automatically uploads them to any of the 17 different photo and selected social networking site, including Flick and Faceboox.


CNNMoney launches its new video venture

CNNMoney.com has launched a new design with a big emphasis on original video, and aiming to create “a new way of digital journalism.” For that, they have hired a dozen people to produce an average of 15 clips a day to start. People of this video team can shoot, edit, publish, create graphics, and write scripts.

The goal of CNNMoney.com is to produce as many 35 clips a day with half of them related to content from CNNMoney’s magazine partners as Fortune and Money.


Comcast debuts Fancast.com

Comcast has launched, in beta, its online video service, Fancast.com, powered by Comcast-owned ThePlatform. Fancast.com looks similar to Hulu, with full shows available from NBC, CBS, Fox, Bravo, FX and more. Over 3,000 hours of streaming free, full-length content are offered.

”Fancast.com enables user to watch, manage and find entertainment content wherever it is available –on Fancast, on television online, on DVD or in theaters. On Fancast, users can view an expanding free library of full episodes and clips from top networks and movie partners, find the content they are looking for across multiple platforms and create a personalized entertainment experience,” Comcast says.

It has some additions, like a TiVo-like personalization feature that asks you a few questions and then suggests upcoming shows you might want to watch on you cable system. Coming soon you will be able to program your DVR via the site.

Another big announcement from Comcast is a new high-speed Internet service called “Wideband”, that promises that customers can download an entire high-definition movie in four minutes instead of as long as six hours with DSL. It will offer a huge menu of on-demand films, over 6,000, along with 1,000 clips of HDTV video –all available to consumers at the click of the remote without having to buy any additional equipment.


Super On Demand futuristic service

Comcast customers now are selecting On Demand 100 times per second, with 275 million views monthly. Comcast will support its plan, called Project Infinity, using its existing fiber network and national IP backbone. The company will create a system of library servers that will serve VOD content to consumers from several key locations across the country. This system would enable Comcast to offer exponentially more VOD content.



AP empowers their affiliate sites with a tool to upload local video

Associated Press Online Video Network has rolled out a new functionality for their affiliate news sites -1,900 newspaper, television and radio sites nationwide. This service, developed by Microsoft, will allow them to upload and monetize their own local video content.

This service is designed to attract local viewers and advertisers. Affiliates will have the option of selling local advertising against the content they upload, or allowing Microsoft to oversee the process.

Local online advertising is forecast to jump 48 % to $12.6 billion in 2008.