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The DVD Copy Control Association is soon expected to finalize changes that could allow iTunes customers to burn video downloads onto DVDs. The forthcoming technical and policy changes involve the association's proprietary technology called the "Content Scramble System," or CSS. The group licenses the encryption technology to makers of DVD players and other electronics firms, applying it to movies on DVDs to restrict illegal copying, according to a report from the Associated Press. The association said it will expand that licensing to digitally distributed movies on demand or a la carte in the near future, and is cooperating with disc...

ABI Research said Monday that Apple’s introduction of videos for sale through the iTunes Music Store last October triggered an “online video big bang.” “While the push to online video had started well before the launch of the video iPod … the online video ‘big bang’ started with Apple’s announcement,” said the company in a statement. That momentum was punctuated by new products and services introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month in Las Vegas, Nevada. “The flood of online content announcements from Google, Yahoo and others shows that after years of hesitation from the larger media...

A shadow shaped like an apple is looming behind many of the star-studded speeches and product announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Even though Apple Computer is likely saving its biggest news for its own Macworld conference in San Francisco next week, there's little doubt that the Silicon Valley tech pioneer is on the minds of many at CES. Apple's iPod has dominated the portable audio market so completely over the past few years that giants like Sony and Microsoft have been reduced to also-rans. Now, four years since the first iPod was introduced, the...

Apple's competitors are unlikely to make a dent in the iPod's market share, and the iPod will continue to dominate the market in 2006 according to one research firm. Investment research firm Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster today released a research note stating that he believes Apple's competitors are still lagging in terms of form factor, intuitive user interface, and "cool factor." The firm does not believe that new Nano- and Shuffle-like players SanDisk and Samsung, which surfaced today, will erode the iPod dominance and said that it is bewildered by Sony's offerings: "We continue to be shocked at...

NBC Universal and Apple on Tuesday announced a deal that brings NBC television content to Apple’s iTunes Music Store. iTunes now offers more than 300 episodes of 16 shows, according to the statement. Apple said that more than 3 million videos have been purchased and downloaded since the iTunes Music Store began selling them in October. Apple started with content including music videos, television shows from NBC competitor ABC and short subjects created by Pixar Animation Studios, Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ other company. Like those other shows, the NBC programs are available for US$1.99. And like ABC’s content, new NBC...

Shares of Apple Computer on Wednesday jumped to a record high as investors made bets on growth in its digital music and video businesses, analysts said. Shares of Apple, maker of the market-leading iPod digital music player and Macintosh computers, closed up $2.45 to $59.95 on the Nasdaq, a gain of more than 4 percent. Apple dominates the digital music business it helped establish, and its growth appears to be accelerating amid concern that industry sales are less than robust. "When everyone else is slowing and you're not, it means share gains," American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu told Reuters....

Apple on Monday announced that its customers at its iTunes Music Store has bought and downloaded more than one million videos in less than 20 days. Video content first appeared for purchase on October 12, 2005. Although videos have been available for viewing and have been bundled with music purchases, Apple first began offering video content for purchase in mid-October, with the introduction of new 30GB and 60GB “fifth generation” iPods that can play back video as well. Apple has over 2,000 music videos, short films from Pixar and TV shows available for purchase for US$1.99 each. Top draws at...

Apparently the porn industry is staying away from the video iPod--at least for now. The industry says the iPod has a young audience, and the government would crack down quickly on lots of new iPorn. So they'll stick to chat rooms, fake search results, and X-rated spam subject lines--no kids there, right?