'Purple Violets' Offered Exclusively on iTunes

There's this new movie called 'Purple Violets' that is sort of a dramatic comedy that was written, directed, and produced by independent filmmaker Ed Burns. I watched it this weekend - and it was great! It is the first feature film to premiere exclusively on iTunes - which I think is amazing.

It stars Selma Blair, Debra Messing, Patrick Wilson, and Ed Burns. You can download it for $12.99 and Apple says you can "play it on Apple TV, watch it in iTunes on a Mac or PC, or enjoy it “to go” on iPod or iPhone". I personally watched it on my iPod while I was at a relative's house for the Thanksgiving weekend to keep myself occupied.

Here is the trailer for Purple Violets - Enjoy! If you've watched the movie, post a comment and let me know what you thought about it.

Top 10 Movies on iTunes

If you haven't yet, you should definitely try the movie downloads from iTunes that are available. I recently had a 5 hour car ride with my daughters and they watched Ratatouille and a few other kids movies from my iPod. We don't have a dvd player in our car yet, so it was the next best thing! If you need a few suggestions on where to start, the Top 10 Movie downloads from iTunes this week are:

1. Ratatouille

2. Jackass 2

3. An Inconvenient Truth

4. Meet The Robinsons

5. Wild Hogs

6. We Were Soldiers

7. Zoolander

8. The Princess Bride

9. Mean Girls

10. The Invisible

What are you downloading on your iPod? Post a comment to let us know!

Select Starbucks Offering Free iTunes Access

It looks like Apple and Starbucks are partnering up to offer access to iTunes via free wireless internet in select Starbucks locations all over the San Francisco Bay area. Of course, the free wireless interent only applies to people accessing iTunes - if you are surfing the internet, you are still going to have to use the pay service offered by the T-Mobile network. The cool thing is, every Starbucks is configured separately so that the song playing through the store's speakers is the same song that appears on the front page of the user's iTunes. I think that is very innovative.

An article I read said that Apple and Starbucks have been talking about this for at least three years, because Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, continues to push iTunes as a mainstream music source. It seems like the perfect combination since music is a large part of Starbuck's business. They have been offering CD's for purchase at the register for quite some time now. The article pointed out that Starbucks just sold 24,000 copies of Feist's new CD which includes a cute song called ' 1 2 3 4 ' - and it was a song that was used in one of Apple's iPod commercials recently.

Nothing that I have heard so far seems to indicate this program will be rolled out nationwide - but if any of you hear any differently - please post a comment to let us know!

Best Inventions of the Year

I found Time's 'Best Inventions of the Year' list online today, and of course the iPod Touch and Apple iPhone top the list. Aside from the iPod Touch having the normal iTunes capabilities, this Apple iPod, a lot like the iPhone, has built-in wi-fi that lets you get online while on the go. It boasts a 3.5 inch wide screen with the patented touch feature that lets you immediately download iTunes music with your fingertips. These are both very cool inventions.

As far as portable music players go, also on the list was:

The Creative Zen Zone Plus, a 2GB matchbox-sized mp3 player that holds about 500 songs.

The Samsung P2, a music player for mp3 and wma files with a 3 inch screen for viewing videos. It has Bluetooth capabilities so you can beam music to Bluetooth speakers or headset and pretty soon should have the ability to take calls from a Bluetooth cell phone.

You can see the rest of the 'Best Inventions of the Year' here. There are some very interesting gadgets to see.

Don't forget to register for your free iPod at iPodSweepstakes where you can get a free iPod Touch or a free iPhone. Good luck!