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Netflix will be making a big announcement tomorrow, coincidentally one day before Apple will be making some [similar] big announcements of its own:

Starting Monday, January 14, 2008, Netflix subscribers will have unlimited access to movie viewing online. The company plans to do away with its quota/hours system it had in place before (viewing hours per month were based upon how much you paid for you mail-in DVD plan). The only group of Netflix subscribers to be left out of this unlimited plan: you who pay the minimum of $4.99 to rent just two DVDs per month.

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Just a few days after our coverage of DRM-free music options for 2008 comes news of Sony BMG now offering its music on Amazon restriction-free. Sony BMG represents artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Santana, and Justin Timberlake. And this makes Amazon the first online music store to offer DRM-free songs from all four major labels: Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, and Universal Music.

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TechConsumer News is a feature we started out of a hobby of tracking the latest happenings within the consumer related technology sphere. The goal is to provide a concise, compiled overview of the most intriguing stories from the last few days. Feel free to give us feedback or send us tips. If you like what you find, you can subscribe via email or RSS.

Today I thought I’d point out some of the best most recent compilation lists:

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Hot on the heels of news of Apple soon offering rental movies via iTunes, Amazon has some even better news (in my opinion). Another sign that DRM (Digital Rights Management, music with restrictions) is on its way out: Amazon MP3 now offers DRM-free MP3s from Warner Music Group’s catalog.

This makes Amazon’s MP3 download store the first to offer DRM-free music from Warner Music and brings Amazon’s library up to 2.9 million songs, all without restrictions. And Warner’s catalog includes some of the most popular artists: Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Madonna, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc.

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We here at TechConsumer are no strangers to trying new ways of getting quality entertainment onto our living room big screens. Regular old cable TV doesn’t cut it, what with frequent commercial breaks, horrible selection, and inopportune timing. Surprisingly (at least to us), though, cable TV is what most of the free world uses (the part of the free world with TVs, that is).

To recap, Logan reviewed using Amazon Unbox on TiVo without a computer, Paul reviewed using both CinemaNow and Vongo on the Xbox 360, and each of us took a turn at pointing out why Netflix is amazing. But each service has its disadvantage ranging from “too complicated” to “inconvenient” with “too expensive” and “too slow” somewhere in the middle.

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Nokia has partnered with Universal Music to offer unlimited music downloads for one year on phones bundled with its new Ovi Web-services platform. The two companies are the largest in their respective industries (in terms of sales) and plan to release this package in time for Christmas. The service is called “Come With Music” and, according to a statement by Nokia, “will allow users to keep the music after their yearly subscription charge expires.”

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The iPhone will go on sale next week in France. While the exclusive French carrier, Orange, has not disclosed any details, French law has already forced Apple to promise that consumers will have the option to buy a version of the iPhone without a long-term contract with Orange.

And now T-Mobile is in a similar situation in Germany. The unlocked iPhone is now officially available but for €999, around $1,478 even if normally available with contract at €399.

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A friend of mine asked me how to transfer his data from his old laptop to his new laptop. In particular, he was interested in the big three types of files on most personal computers these days: documents, music, and photos. “I know where I keep all my files, so I just copy them over to where I want them on the new computer, right?”

Well, he’s right for one of three categories of files: documents. But when I asked him if he was interested in preserving his iTunes playlists, song ratings, and album art or his Picasa photo albums (basically, any of his “metadata”), he gave me the “of course” look. Little did he know the headache that awaited him, none of that information moves when you simply copy or backup files.

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