Apple Movie Junkie

The documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys is the $.99 movie of the week for 9-30-08.

iTunes SD Rentals New Release and Removals for 9-29-08.

If you’ve ever pondered the question, “What’s the meaning of life?” Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life, might hold that elusive answer!

Click on the link below to view today’s Removed Titles.

SD Rentals New Releases For 9-26-08

9 1/2 Weeks
Broken
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
Shaft (1971)
The Great Race
Touching the Void
(more…)

Below is the list of new HD Rentals that have been added to Apple TV.

Only 2 new additions today to the HD list, and at first glance they might not look like much, but checking out Barry Lyndon on Rotten Tomatoes I learned that it was directed by Stanley Kubrick and that it’s currently at 93% on the Tomato Meter. Might be worth checking out.

Barry Lyndon
Love in the Time of Cholera

Head on over to the HD Rentals page to see this weeks entire list of new titles.

Below is a list of confirmed rental and purchase titles, along with possible rental and/or purchase titles, to look for coming to the Apple TV this week.

This week we get our first true ‘08 summer blockbuster in Iron Man as a purchase title, all though, Forgetting Sarah Marshall was a pretty funny movie as well.

Confirmed Purchase Titles For This Week
Iron Man (Purchase Release Date 9-30-08)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Purchase Release Date 9-30-08)

Confirmed Rental Titles For This Week
And Then She Found Me (Rental Release Date 10-02-08)

Possible Rental/Purchase Titles For This Week
Bigger, Stronger, Faster (Purchase Release Date 9-30-08)

I would say my use of Apple TV is about 50% audio. We tend to talk a lot about TV and movies for Apple TV but one of the main reasons I got one was to be able to play my iTunes music collection on my home theater system. I have it hooked up using the digital audio optical connection and I find the music quality to be excellent. Likely the biggest reason for getting the Apple TV for music was how well the user interface handles a large audio collection. I have a D-Link DSM320 media player and it is very painful to scroll through huge lists of artists or albums – the UI is slow and unresponsive. Needless to say, the D-Link is gathering dust in the basement now. I also have a dedicated iPod connector for my home receiver which uses an on-screen menu to select songs, it’s slower than the D-Link, now I don’t use that anymore  The slick way Apple products can let you scroll through long lists make them much more usable for any reasonable size music collection. The reason I bring this up is that given Apple’s benign neglect and rumors of Apple TV changes ahead – it’s still a very good digital audio player. There are still more expensive music only players on the market. Here’s hoping that Apple doesn’t mess with this aspect of the Apple TV.  Just in case anyone from Apple is listening, my audio wish list is:

• FLAC support
• Visualizers
• Internet radio
• Music streaming apps like Last.FM or Pandora
• Built in disc with CD ripping, sync back to iTunes (CD -> Apple TV -> iTunes)
• Music info (technical and artistic details) 

TUAW is reporting a rumor that, Apple, has sent retailers an E-mail telling them to take down all Apple TV displays. With a note saying there will be a webcast kick off on September 30th.  There has also been a rumor about the “brick“, a possible new Apple product. Could all of this be a run up to a Apple TV/Mac Mini hybrid? I hope so, stay tuned for more.

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