With the announcement that movies where going to be available to be rented online, I expected to see Apple all over the news. I was wrong! Two companies, Movielink and CinemaNow, beat Apple to this new method of renting movies, but I do not think Apple is concerned about not being first. It is a great idea, but you can see that a lot of "kinks" still have to be worked out of the idea. I mainly looked at CinemaNow's website, but it sounds like both companies have the same issues. First, the cost is still a little steep. You can rent a new video for a 24-hour period for $3.99. Older videos are $2.99. I can pay a similar price to that if I go down to a local Blockbuster, and get to keep the rental between 2 days and 1 week. The next thing that upset me is the technical requirements needed to use this service. The only operating system that can be used so far is Windows XP. This requirement kills all Apple users, and any windows user using Windows 2000 or older. The last thing that I really did not like is the limitations given to what you are allowed to do with the rental. You are not able download the videos onto a DVD/CD. This means that they only chance you will have to watch the rental on your TV is if you have an adapter to connect your computer to your TV, or an S-Video jack on your laptop. I think it would be awkward to have a couple people over to watch a movie on your computer screen...don't you? If you think you will be able to download the rental to your iPod or PSP and then watch it on there (or plug that into your TV), think again! Some good things about the service is the amount of movies you can rent, the relatively small sized files (comparing the compression to the original file) that you will download, and the idea of being able to rent a movie without going out of your house. Until they improve the issues I stated above, I will be more than happy to continue going to my local movie rental store!

Today's website: CinemaNow.com