Poor Apple fans...

Steve Jobs serves up a pile of steaming crap to his fans, and guess what they do? Get in line for seconds. Apple TV has apparently jumped on the streaming movie rental bandwagon. Except that "Once you’ve started watching a movie, you have 24 hours to finish it or it self-destructs. And it does the same if you don’t watch it within 30 days."

As I was reading this article to my wife she laughed and said, "What are they scared will happen?!" Indeed. What ARE they scared of? I can rent a movie from Blockbuster, rip it, and burn copies whenever I want. Ripping the poorer quality streamed copy from the "sealed white box" Apple TV gives me more hurdles to traverse for a less than desirable outcome. From a pirate perspective, that is. And yet, I'm sure loyal Apple fanboys and girls will stay up all night with glasses of champagne in hand, waiting for their Apple TV firmware to update so they can pay $5 for a movie they've got 24 hours to watch. Maybe they deserve what they get.

Netflix, on the other hand, is hitting closer to the mark with their competing service. You can now stream movies on demand from their catalog, with ZERO time limit, and there is no extra cost other than a regular subscription. I'm still pissed that their service is Windows-only, but then again, it's a Windows world and Netflix is still a pretty cool company. The rumor is that they are partnering with LG or Samsung to create a set-top box to deliver content directly to TV's. As long as the price is right, I think Netflix will continue to dominate this market...

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