I’m refreshing a couple of my favorite tech blogs every few minutes to glean the movie-related news from today’s MacWorld keynote. Here’s what I’m learning, in real time. Keep refreshing for new stuff.

12:21: It looks like watching video will become more feasible on the new version of the iPhone, which is set to ship in late February. From TUAW: “New features rolling out! Maps with location for iPhone. Webclips. Customize home screens. SMS multiple recipients. Chapters for video. Karaoke mode! (Lyrics displayable)”

12:29: The IPhone video updates, including subtitle options will be “available today as a free update for all iPhones.” [TUAW again]

12:32: ITunes sold 7 million movies last year — better than every other movie download service, but still below expectations.

12:33: “We think there’s a better way to deliver movie content through iTunes. So today, we’re introducing iTunes Movie Rentals.” [Engadget]

12:34: “We have every major studio.” Including Fox, WB, Paramount, Universal and Sony. “All first run films,” says TUAW. Not sure what that means in this case–as in, not catalogue titles, but new releases?

12:36: Again from TUAW: “1000 films at launch in February, 30 day countdown after DVD release. Movies will be watchable immediately on streaming. 30 days to start watching, 24 hours to finish. Transfer to iPod while watching.”

12:37: Engadget names Red October and The Matrix as two of the catalogue titles that will be available right away. Mostly, it’ll be “new” films, recently released on DVD, available on iTunes after a 30 day window.

12:39: AppleTV news, I hope? From Engadget: “It launches today! Free software update for iTunes, iPods, iPhones to support rentals. Rolling it out in the US today, we’re dying to get this out internationally. But what about this? What about the flat screen TV? I’d like to watch the movies there too.”

12:40: Yup: “I’d like to say all of us have tried. We have, MSFT, Amazon, TiVo, VuDu, Netflix, Blockbuster — we’ve all tried to figure out how to get movies over the net onto the TV. We’ve ALL missed. No one’s succeeded yet. We tried with Apple TV — it was designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer. But that’s not what people wanted.”

“We learned what people wanted was about movies. Movies. Movies. We weren’t delivering that — we’re back with Apple TV Take 2 — It still syncs to your computer, but no computer is required.” Hrrmm? Keep talking, Steve.

12:41: Rent movies directly from your AppleTV! IN HD!!! Says TUAW: “That sound you heard was the HD-DVD coalition lead falling over and hitting his head.”

12:44: You’ll be able to access Flickr and .Mac on AppleTV, too. You’ll also be able to see who else rented the movie you’re interested in, and see what else they’ve rented–sounds like built-in recommendations, basically.

12:48: From MacRumorsLive: “Steve demoed starting a movie just after having rented it. Note he has an extremely fast connection. The movie was downloading at 1% per second.”

12:52: More from Engadget on teh incoming library: “Let’s go to genres… G, PG, romance, sci-fi, western… I just want to go ahead and show you search. We’re just populating the database, ingesting these movies from the studio and encoding them right now.”

12:56: From MacRumorsLive: “Apple TV price drop. Entry price drops from $299 to $229.”

12:59: I’d like to interject some personal commentary: My AppleTV rules my world, and I am so hot for updates.

1:03: Commentary from TUAW: “Clearly this is what AppleTV was meant to be all along. Awesome.”

1:04: Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos takes the stage–his studio was the first to sign the rental deal. “Make great movies, give it to people in as many was as you possibly can. When you talk to people about what they want, it’s the same thing: variety of choice, easy access, convenience, control over how they watch it, and portability.” Engadget’s Ryan Block responds: “Sure, so why the DRM.”

1:05: Speaking of DRM, Fox is going to start putting “iTunes compatible digital copies” on their hard copy DVDs. Says Gianopulos, live MacRumorsLive: “Of course, DVDs will still be with us for a while. Digital Copies will be on disks going forward. The first iteration is the Family Guy: Blue Harvest DVD, which contains an iTunes compatible digital copy.”

1:07: This is probably it for the movie news. Steve has moved on to what appears to be the fourth, final and biggest product announcement of the day, the superthin MacBook Air.