Apple offers $0.99 movie rentals. Photo courtesy of Apple.com image:37532:0::0

Apple informed its customers via its weekly e-mail they will be offering a special discount for one movie per week at a price of $0.99. The original rate for renting a movie in iTunes is $3.99 in the U.S.

This special rate will be available from Thursday to Monday when it will revert back to normal pricing.

This week’s movie is “Hours” starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman. You can rent it here for $0.99. This will open iTunes in your computer and check for this special rate at the top window.

Once rented, you can watch this movie for up to 30 days.

The new update for iTunes 7.6.1 is available through Apple. The new release includes several bug fixes and improves compatibility with Apple TV 2.0, so you can seamlessly rent movies in iTunes and watch then on your big-screen TV through Apple TV.

If you don’t have Apple TV, you can still watch movies with DVD-like quality on your computer, iPhone or iPod. You can also hook your computer up to a TV screen if you prefer a larger screen.

Apple also offers American Idol songs from the latest show here.

I personally think this news is great and I hope they offer more movies for $0.99.