We received word from a tipster that Amazon, practically confirmed to be entering the tablet market in the near future, isn’t planning just one device, but is planning on releasing at least two before the end of the year. Information is light, but we have been told that the “entry” level tablet, codenamed “Coyote” will be based on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform. The big boy? That’s codenamed “Hollywood” and will be based on the NVIDIA T30 “Kal-El” which will bring a screaming quad-core processor with a 500% performance increase over the dual-core Tegra 2. No word on screen sizes at this point, and we’re digging for more information, so stay tuned!

Gleacher & Company analyst Brain Marshall claims that Apple’s digital video rental service available through iTunes is less than one tenth the size of Netflix’s rental business. Netflix, according to Marshall’s note on Wednesday, serves over 5 million daily rentals while Apple sells only about 475,000 rentals through iTunes each day. Apple has apparently not yet been able to translate strong Apple TV sales into significant revenue. Marshall believes that approximately 90% of Apple’s daily iTunes TV purchases are 99¢ rentals. He also believes rentals, which average $2.99, make up approximately 75% of movie viewings bought through iTunes. Apple’s revenue from iTunes rentals is estimated at approximately $60 million per quarter, however, while Netflix reported $553 million in revenue in the third quarter of 2010.

Read

After making an announcement ages ago, Blockbuster has finally launched its movie rental service via set-top boxes. Since word got out about the box and service, the only other option was to have DVDs delivered to your home, Netflix style, or to download movies and TV shows online. Now, with Blockbuster’s set-top box, you can snag movies with its OnDemand service whenever you want. The box is free if you pre-pay for 25 movies at the cost of $99, and while that sounds expensive, you wouldn’t be getting the box and service if you weren’t going to be watching a ton of movies, anyway – right? The set-top box works wirelessly and manages to deliver DVD quality to your screen, so if HD is an absolute must you’re pretty much out of luck with this one for now. If you’re a movie fiend and you have to have the latest hits from Hollywood, you’re still better off with the Blockbuster service as Netflix seems to be having a shortage of those movies lately. Anyone going to pick one of these up for the holidays?

Read