So I just picked up a Sharp 42″ 720P HDTV(kick ass black friday deal), but I don’t want to buy a HD-DVD or BluRay DVD player because of the price and ongoing format war(although it looks like BluRay is about to put the nail in the coffin for HDTV). Apple just announced at MacWorld that you can now rent HD movies through the service at $4.99 a pop, or TV shows at $1.99 a pop. So instead of paying $300-$500 for a BluRay player and then driving to BlockBuster and picking out a movie, I can basically buy the AppleTV for $229, hook it up to my wireless network, pick out almost any movie I want and start watching it instantly. In addition to movies, they also offer podcasts, youtube, and photos. Pretty kick ass. Definitely on the wish list. I’m becoming more of an Apple fanboy/nerd every day.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/features.html#movies