Apple seems to have persuaded Twentieth Century Fox studios to offer digital movie rentals through the iTunes store, making it the first moviehouse to give Steve Jobs an entry into the rental business.
    
The service would let viewers download movies and play them back for a limited time in addition to the current model that lets users keep their downloads. 
    
While details on pricing haven’t emerged yet, the goal for Apple is to boost money from video on iTunes, which hasn’t taken off as quickly or to the same extent as its music downloads.
    
Apple will also let Fox use its copyright protection technology for new DVD releases, meaning they can be transferred, legally, to a PC and video iPod. Could Sony or Paramount be far behind? 
(Financial Times)  

Keep an eye on:

• Apple’s stock skyrocketed 135 percent in 2007, and its sleek retail gadget emporiums are a large part of that success. (NYTimes)
• In a move reminiscent of storylines developed during WWII, the UN is joining forces with Marvel Comics, creators of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, to create a comic book showing the international body working with superheroes to solve bloody conflicts. (Financial Times) 
• The Patriots-Giants football game, which was to be broadcast Saturday night to less than half the country by the NFL Network, will be available to fans throughout the nation under an agreement reached Wednesday by NBC and CBS to simulcast it. (NYTimes)
• Google-powered mobile phones to make a February debut? (APC)

(Photo: Reuters)