by Jason Snell
iTunes rentals extend to 48 hours
At last—at long, long, long last—Apple’s U.S. iTunes movie rental window has expanded from 24 to 48 hours in length, a feature offered by many of its competitors but, frustratingly, not Apple:
You have 30 days to start watching a movie after you rent it. After you start watching the movie, you have 48 hours to finish it. You can watch the movie as often as you like until it expires.
When my kids were of a certain age, my wife and I had maybe 90 minutes per night to watch TV together before we had to go to bed ourselves. There were almost no movies we could finish in that period. (And the ones that are that short are generally kids’ movies!) While watching a movie in two sittings is not ideal, it’s certainly better than never seeing any movies ever.
What I’m saying is, a 48-hour rental window is good and I don’t know why it took this long but I’m glad it’s finally here.