Unbox Video: Amazon's upcoming video download store
updated 12:40 pm EDT, Fri August 18, 2006
Amazon Unbox Video Store
Amazon has been shifting increasing amounts of attention to its video features: the company now regularly features video interviews and its Fishbowl Internet video show. Today, Internet users investigating the company's publically accessible browse nodes - the identifiers associated with every Amazon feature or product - and found pages confirming the existence of Unbox Video, the name of an upcoming direct-download video store from the Internet retailer. The service is still unfinished and could change, but the discovery reveals that Amazon's service should be both reasonably-priced and complete. Television programs will be available for $2 per episode, while movies will sell for approximately $10 each. Crucially, the early design tells users that they can watch their videos on both portable players and TV sets, which until now has been unheard of in the video download market. The likelihood of this service working fully with iTunes and the iPod is slim as the copy protection would very likely depend on the Windows Media Video format, which iPods currently cannot play.
