Apple News

Apple eliminated options for customers to rent TV shows on its iTunes and Apple TV services, as the company looks to refine the way it offers video content.

Apple is set to launch a cloud-based service that will let users stream purchased movies and TV shows from the cloud as opposed to downloading files, as the company gears up to expand its dominance of digital media beyond music.

Time Warner Cable is under pressure from TV networks to withdraw an iPad app that streams their content and threatens to disrupt their own streaming businesses, underscoring the uncertainty of an industry as it shifts further into online video.

Apple is considering expanding its AirPlay audio service to allow video streaming from an iPhone or iPad to TV sets, in a move that could bolster Apple's position in the burgeoning online TV market.

Apple TV now streams live basketball and baseball games as part of its iOS 4.3 update, foreshadowing more streaming services to come and making the device a contender in the growing connected-TV market.

A sampling of Russian films has been made available for download on iTunes without permission from copyright-holders.

Retail chains, which tried to make up for declining CD and DVD sales by buying up video and music download and streaming services, are finding it hard to compete with the companies that first debuted those services.

Cable-TV operators, fearing they might be left behind in the "smart-TV" race, are beginning to share content with makers of Internet-connected devices.

Comcast today said it will allow its customers to watch live-streaming television and movies on tablets, such as the iPad, as the company looks for Web alternatives to compete with Internet-connected rivals such as Neflix.

Television makers are ramping up efforts to build their own Internet apps and services, as they break away from Apple and Google as development partners in the emerging but uncertain Web-connected television market.

Television makers are looking to "smart TVs" to invigorate their businesses after 3D TV sets failed to seduce increasingly demanding consumers last year.

Apple today announced that sales of its redesigned Apple TV set-top box, which stream Internet content to high-definition televisions, have reached one million units.

Apple has sold a quarter-million of its Apple TV units in the first week of sales, the company announced Monday.

Apple today unveiled a smaller, cheaper version of its Apple TV device, which connects to high-definition televisions to show rented movies and TV programming, escalating the battle with rival Google for control of the digital living room.