San Francisco - On Monday, the first day of the Macworld trade show that highlights Apple (NASD: AAPL) products, Google (NASD: GOOG) introduced a new user interface for owners of Apple's iPhone. The upgrade includes speeder Gmail that doesn't require users to refresh inboxes, and a new month view for the iPhone version of Google's Calendar application. Users can now also access their iGoogle applications -- such as weather, stocks and news feeds -- on their iPhones.

It is rumored that Steve Jobs will announce a video rental service for iTunes in his much-anticipated MacWorld keynote on Tuesday. Adding fuel to the fire of speculation, Netflix has preempted Apple's announcement saying it will offer unlimited access to its streaming video library to most customers. To lend context to the announcements, I wanted to profile Netflix and Blockbuster, the two biggest players in online movie rental.

San Francisco - Apple on Tuesday unveiled its long-awaited iPhone, a touch-screen mobile phone with music, video and Internet capabilities, as well as a device that wirelessly transmits video and other content from a computer to a television.