Monday’s Apple Rumors: Apple Streaming Video Still Not Ready

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Here are your daily Apple news items and rumors for Monday:

Streaming Video on Hold: Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) bid to take on Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) started to take shape in the form of iTunes Replay, a new service that would bring the current iTunes video rental model closer in line with that of the streaming video giant. A Monday report at CNET said Replay and a purely streaming video service from Apple still is a long way off, however. The problem is Apple has yet to secure agreements with four of the top six film studios for hosting Hollywood blockbusters on cloud servers. (The new iCloud service opening in the fall lets consumers store media like movies on Apple’s servers for access on any connected device, phone or PC.) The apparent sticking point is the so-called “HBO Window” — a period following the home release of a film distributed by News Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:NWS) 20th Century Fox, Time Warner‘s (NYSE:TWX) Warner Bros. or Comcast‘s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Universal, where digital retailers are blocked from selling the film during a period when HBO or another premium cable channel holds exclusive rights for airing it. Netflix has gotten around the problem of windows by partnering with premium channels like Starz and Showtime.

Educational Mac: Apple isn’t afraid of Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) low-cost Chromebook laptop. The company announced Monday that it has made an “education only” model of iMac desktop computer. Available through Apple’s Higher Education online store, the new machine runs $999 — $150 less than the bottom tier iMac already marketed toward students. The machine’s specifications are expectedly bare-bones with less memory and a less advanced graphics card, but it still is a competent machine. That it is priced the same as the new MacBook Air compact laptops might limit its appeal to the new collegiate class of 2015, however.

Skype HD on Lion: The Microsoft-owned (NASDAQ:MSFT) Internet phone service Skype is going high-definition on Apple laptops and desktop computers running the recently released operating system upgrade Lion. Mac OS X 10.7 users can download Skype version 5.3, which allows for HD-quality video calls provided the callers have HD-ready cameras made by companies like Logitech (NASDAQ:LOGI).

As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2011/08/apple-rumors-streaming-video/.

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