Hasta La Gadget!

Parents with small children who enjoy watching Netflix on the Xbox 360 will be glad to hear that the Xbox 360 Netflix app has been given a nice new feature. Netflix has announced that the Just for Kids channel has landed on the Xbox 360. The same feature came to the PS3 back in March of 2012.

The problem with turning kids loose on Netflix without limiting them to the Just for Kids section is that some films that have inappropriate content despite having innocent sounding names. With the new Just for Kids section now available on the Xbox 360, parents can rest assured that their children can choose any streaming items in the section, and the content is safe for kids to watch.

Just as on other platforms, the Just for Kids section on Xbox 360 has rows of TV shows and movies organized in a method that is easy for kids to understand. There are genres for things such as superheroes, princesses, dinosaurs, and girl power. Our pal SpongeBob SquarePants even gets his own section as does Nickelodeon’s iCarly and others.

The channel also provides a personalized experience based on what the kids watch. That means if, for instance, your daughter watches movies about horses, more content featuring horses will be shown. With the Just for Kids section coming to the Xbox 360, it’s now available on all major consoles, PCs, Macs, Apple TV, and some smart TVs and Blu-ray players. Netflix notes that this year the Just for Kids section will come the other devices, including tablets.

Netflix Just for Kids launches on Xbox 360 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s finally here! SiriusXM On Demand has launched, ushering the satellite radio service into the 21st century. The company’s promised library of 200 shows and 2,000 hours of programming are online and available for subscribers to stream at their leisure. Access is free for existing subscribers, and available through the web or the SiriusXM apps on iOS. App users can even download shows for offline playback (which we believe makes them podcasts). Now you’ll never need to miss another allegedly hilarious episode of Opie & Anthony again. Though, you might be a better person if you did. Check out the PR after the break for a few more details.

Continue reading SiriusXM launches On Demand radio, gives offline access to iOS apps

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Internet, Software

SiriusXM launches On Demand radio, gives offline access to iOS apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OUYA, the Android-based gaming console, has secured yet another high-profile app. The team behind the console has courted the XBMC development team, promising that early prototypes will be delivered that should enable XBMC to run on the platform smoothly and without any issues. According to the OUYA Kickstarter page, the team behind OUYA fully support XBMC, with “nearly a third” of the XBMC development team having backed the “open” console.

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise: the console is running Android after all, so anything that works on Android will work on OUYA without much issue, but it’s good to see that the experience will be customized for the OUYA interface as well as the specific hardware. OUYA has managed to promised backers that they’ll see a wealth of games, with this latest announcement covering the entertainment and media side of the equation.

In addition to the promise of XBMC support, OUYA has added radio support via a partnership with TuneIn. The service allows users to listen in on free radio stations across the world, plus on-demand content. The network is said to cover 70,000 stations and two million on-demand programs across 230 countries.

As of writing, there are 39 hours left until the Kickstarter project has finished. So far 52,173 members have backed the project, with OUYA accumulating over $6.9 million in funding. Backers will receive a small Android-based console with a customized interface and wireless hardware controller, all running on an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor for $99. The streaming game company OnLive will support OUYA at launch, and Square Enix has promised a Final Fantasy III port among other games.

[via The Verge]

OUYA promises XBMC support is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple’s decision to junk the iOS 6 YouTube app has prompted no small degree of surprise from iPhone and iPad owners, more used to platform upgrades adding functionality than removing it, but the multimedia outlook isn’t grim. Google is already working on a replacement app – which this time it will maintain and distribute itself – while Apple highlights that YouTube video playback already works within Safari and doesn’t demand the standalone software anyway. However, rather than just pushing Google’s services further to the periphery, there’s also the chance that Apple could move to fill the ensuing gap with a video offering of its own.

Those sticking with older versions of iOS – either by choice or because their Apple gadget won’t support the new OS – won’t have to worry. Phones and tablets on iOS 5 and earlier will keep the existing YouTube app, as Apple’s license with Google apparently continues to cover it; the player won’t be deleted remotely or disabled.

Meanwhile, as our own Chris Burns suggests, there’s the possibility of an altogether more interesting YouTube app from Google itself – and distributed through the App Store rather than as a pre-load – now that the game has changed. Meanwhile, Apple’s own rules about third-party apps not replicating standard functionality should now no longer affect other developers wanting to deliver YouTube content in more interesting ways.

Since Android’s arrival, the relationship between Apple and Google has been a tense one, and shifting the search giant’s wares from the core ROM and to a more optional status comes as little surprise. For the end-user, it means YouTube won’t be at their fingertips from the get-go, though it also means Google can update and improve the app more frequently.

What remains to be seen is whether Apple attempts to bite into YouTube’s market share with an iCloud-hosted video service of its own. We already know that iOS 6 will make sharing photos stored in the iCloud Photo Stream more straightforward, but a similar system for video sharing could significantly undermine how many people choose to upload straight to YouTube from their iPhone.

That would involve a significant server investment on Apple’s part, but then again the company is already including user-recorded video in among the iCloud backup (though not as part of Photo Stream). Making that available to share might be more a case of deciding how to monetize it so as to cover the bandwidth costs – something which Google has historically struggled with – than providing raw space to each iOS user.

iOS 6 YouTube loss opens door to iCloud video share rival is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The last time we spoke about streaming over-the-air TV service Aereo, they were having quite the legal battle with several major television networks – now they’re out of the haze and ready to bring on inexpensive service to the masses. It’s not easy being a company that offers up content from giant conglomerates and media-serving monsters, but at $8 per month, it appears that Aereo has found a way to do it rather cheaply. In addition to DVR space that changes based on the plan you purchase, you’ve got several selections for grabbing yourself a full range of channels – including an Annal plan that’s got the whole deal even cheaper than the new monthly sub-$10 cost.

What you’ve got here is a set of plans that includes access to live, local TV, DVR storage space, remote antennas, and the ability to pause and rewind content. That’s a service that’s ready to shake the industry up. In addition to having several pricing structures on hand here and now, Aereo also offers a “try for free” plan which includes one continuous hour a day of streaming content – no strings attached.

As it turns out, early reviewers of this service have noted how difficult it is to get going with live TV without an iPad – but if you’ve got a PC or an Apple TV with Airplay and a MacBook Pro – you’re just as much in business as you’d normally be with any other web-based solution. Now that the internet-connected television portal to the earth is wide open, the solutions are pouring in. With Aereo, you’ve got not just streaming on-demand shows, you’ve got the same live TV that you remember from when you were a kid – or if you’ve had cable all this time, silly you.

At the moment you’ll have to be a resident of New York City to make Aereo work for you. If you’re outside of the city, you’ll have to wait for the tantalizing price of free all the way up to $80 USD a year with “three extra months for free.” You’ve got 40 hours of DVR storage space on the top two tiers of plans with the $8 a month plan starting in at 20 hours of space. That’s one whole heck of a lot of episodes of The Office – as the press images suggest.

Aereo brings cheap streaming TV as it leaps the legal hump is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.