SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- Hoping its success in the music business translates to television, Apple Computer today announced plans to make episodes of five different TV shows available through a new version of iTunes.
Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said that his company has cut a deal with the ABC television network to make five popular ABC shows--Desperate Housewives, Lost, Nightstalker, That's So Raven, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody--available for download on iTunes for $1.99 each the day after they are broadcast.
A broadband Internet connection is a necessity for using the new services, Jobs said. It will take about 15 to 20 minutes to download an episode of Desperate Housewives-- usually 1 hour long with commercials--over a broadband connection, he said.
Over 2000 music videos will be available for download on the new iTunes, along with six short films produced by Pixar. The video content is available only in the United States at present.
Jobs believes that the deal is the first to allow downloads of new TV programs to PCs or video players. ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company, and new Disney CEO Robert Iger joined Jobs on stage to announce the partnership.
The Numbers
When they become available next week, the 30GB version of the new video player iPod will cost $299 and the 60GB version will cost $399. The company said that the new iPods can hold up to 15,000 songs, 25,000 photos, or over 150 hours of video, depending on their capacity; cases for both models will be available in either black or white. You can find more details about the new players' specifications at Apple's Web site.
The specs for the new iPods as described on Apple's Web site indicate longer battery life than previous models. The site says the 30GB model has up to 14 hours of music playback; up to 3 hours of slideshows with music; and up to 2 hours of video playback. The 60GB is supposed to have up to 20 hours of music playback; up to 4 hours of slideshows with music; and up to 3 hours of video playback. The 30GB iPod is 30 percent thinner than the 20G-byte model it is replacing, but comes with more storage and the 2.5-inch screen, Apple said.
New iMacs
Apple also plans to introduce a new generation of iMac all-in-one desktop computers that will come with a built-in video camera and faster G5 processors. The new systems will feature a small remote control that activates media-organizing software called Front Row, which will be available in every new iMac.
Front Row is Apple's answer to Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system. Like Media Center, Front Row allows users to organize their music, photos, and videos from a central location; and the remote control is designed to be used from across a room, rather than directly in front of the screen.
But Front Row's remote is much smaller and simpler than those used by Media Center PCs, Jobs said. He showed pictures of two Media Center PC remote controls, one with 43 buttons and one with 45. The new iMac remote control has 6 buttons.
The new iMac costs $1299, the same as its thicker predecessor. At that price it comes configured with a 1.9-GHz PowerPC G5 processor, a 17-inch built-in display, 512 megabytes of DDR2 (double data rate 2) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM) running at 533 MHz, Apple's SuperDrive for burning DVDs and CDs, a 160GB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon X600 Pro graphics card with 128MB of video memory.
A more powerful version priced at $1699 has a 2.1-GHz PowerPC G5 processor, a 20-inch display, 512MB of DDR2 SDRAM running at 533 MHz, a SuperDrive, a 250GB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon X60 XT graphics card.
For additional on-the-spot coverage and perspective on today's announcements by Apple, read PCW Editor in Chief Harry McCracken's blog, TechLog.
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