The LATimes and Wall Street Journal are both reporting that Apple is working to finalize deals with major movie studios that would allow iTunes customers to stream purchased movies to their devices.
Apple Inc. is negotiating with Hollywood studios for deals that would let people who buy movies from the iTunes Store watch streaming versions of those movies on Apple devices such as iPads or iPhones without manually transferring them, according to people familiar with the matter.
With the launch of iCloud and associated services, Apple has started allowing iTunes customers to freely redownload both music and TV shows to any of their devices.
Even in the weeks leading up to the original iCloud announcement, we'd heard reports that Apple had been in deep negotiations with movie studios to provide just that sort of service. One of the hurdles at the time was reported to be the special exclusivity deals that the studios have with HBO. Those agreements would prevent the sale or distribution of movies while they were being aired on HBO. It's not clear how that conflict will be resolved.
Friday November 6, 2026 3:27 pm PST by Juli Clover
When the iPhone Duo launched, we shared a list of some of the fun apps developers created for the new form factor. Two weeks out, developers are continuing to come up with fresh ideas, so we thought we'd share some of our favorites.
Games
Marbles Unhinged ($2.99) - Marbles Unhinged is a marble maze designed for the Duo. When you fold it, the floor turns into a ramp. If you stand the top...
Sunday November 8, 2026 7:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple has made a change to its development process for iOS 28, macOS 28, and corresponding software updates, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In his Power On newsletter today, he said Apple separates development of each year's new operating systems into three major stages. Typically, he said each stage consists of four weeks of coding followed by a four-week "convergence" period where...
Thursday November 5, 2026 12:59 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is launching five new products on Friday, November 6, following pre-orders that opened last week, including its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models.
The following new products will be available from today:
iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro chip
iMac with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen
16-inch MacBook Pro with OLED...
Can someone explain to me why Apple needs agreements with the production companies to stream movies from their servers to users who have purchased the content? Once purchased, is it not the user's right to consume the media however s/he wants, whether the file is stored locally or remotely and streamed?
This would definitely be awesome. I too would buy more movies from iTunes if this happened.
Royalty laws. And I'm not talking crowns here. Apple's licensing agreement with the aforementioned studios may limit the number of times a certain person is allowed to download a particular movie, or what devices they can view it on. They could also restrict the manner in which it's transmitted. I will admit that I'm only guessing here, but some sort of "fine print" type deal is probably the reason. I do agree that it's ridiculous though, but if you want to point the finger somewhere, point it firmly in the direction of royalties and copyrights.
Can someone explain to me why Apple needs agreements with the production companies to stream movies from their servers to users who have purchased the content? Once purchased, is it not the user's right to consume the media however s/he wants, whether the file is stored locally or remotely and streamed?
Streaming would be cool and all, but I would be perfectly happy with being able to re-download movies like I can re-download apps, music and TV shows. That provides a *great* peace of mind in event of data loss.
The LATimes and Wall Street Journal are both reporting that Apple is working to finalize deals with major movie studios that would allow iTunes customers to stream purchased movies to their devices.
