Live Coverage, 12th Sept 2006
TUAW has posted the agenda for today's special event. They're predicting a iTunes Movie Store, with movies from Disney and Pixar, and a new iPod nano with a brushed metal casing. They're also predicting the long awaited widescreen iPod, featuring a virtual touchwheel, which according to their sources won't have WiFi, but will have Bluetooth.
...and one more thing? The TubePort, with a USB dongle to connect to your Mac, and another dongle that connects to your TV via HD, or regular Component, cables. With your movies bought via the Movie Store being accessed on your Mac from remote storage, and streamed to the TV via the TubePort.
Their agenda almost sounds believable, but I'm unconvinced. The rumoured price plan; $9.99 for a movie in iPod format, $14.99 for a HD movie streamed to your TV via the TubePort, or $19.99 for for both bundled together, seems far too expensive. The TubePort sounds, well, something of a hack, and a very inelegant hack. Of course, at least in Europe, nobody cares about HDTV so maybe I'm biased.
If Apple are announcing an iTunes Movie Store later today, and everyone seems agreed that they are, they'd better have something better than this to show. With the launch of Amazon Unbox last week, and the trashing it almost immediately recieved by the great and the good, Apple's offering really needs to be better. They need their Movie Store to be simple, elegant, and above all free of poorly implemented DRM.
Finally, the leaking of the entire agenda would be a major break in Apple security, and as everyone knows Apple's security is air tight around these events. If its true, then it's going to be a first. I guess we'll have to wait and see..?
Update: The iTunes Store has just gone down in preparation for the special event, looks like we're getting that Movie Store after all...
Update: The Apple Store has also gone down, it looks like we're getting some new hardware as well...
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