Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon isn’t one to provide a lot of specific numbers on the products and services it offers, but it has confirmed today that its $79 a year Prime service recently crossed a fairly significant milestone. The company says that more items are now shipped with Prime’s two-day shipping than with its standard Free Super Saver Shipping — which is, presumably, quite a lot. Of course, Prime has grown to become considerably more than just a premium shipping option since it launched in 2005, and Amazon has also taken the opportunity to divulge a few other details on the service. On Prime Instant Video, it says that it now offers 22,000 titles for streaming, a growth of 70 percent this year — it also notes, somewhat interestingly, that 96.4 percent of the Prime video catalog is viewed in any given week. As for the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, it now counts 180,000 titles, the most borrowed of which is The Hunger Games.

Continue reading Amazon says more items are now shipped with Prime than free shipping, dishes a few other stats

Filed under: Misc, Internet

Amazon says more items are now shipped with Prime than free shipping, dishes a few other stats originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hulu might be going through some big changes within the next month, Variety reports. According to an uncovered internal memo, Hulu may find itself without a CEO at some point September, and the company may end up with less content to offer its viewers. If all of this is true, it could potentially change the streaming service as we know it.

Apparently Hulu’s CEO woes are brought on by the buyout of one of its investors, Providence Equity Partners. That buyout is expected to close sometime next month, and when it does, Variety says that “any Hulu executive with a significant number of vested shares” will be able to cash out. Hulu CEO Jason Kilar obviously has a lot of shares, and stands to make as much as $100 million in the event that the Providence deal closes successfully. That significant sum has Hulu worried he may take his $100 million and resign from the company.

Despite the worries, sources say Hulu isn’t searching for a new CEO just yet. Apparently Hulu board members have been talking to Kilar about his future with the company first, but so far those talks have been “without resolution.” This Providence buyout could bring more problems aside from having to search for a new CEO, however, as the memo also signals an incoming change in Hulu’s licensing agreements. It may not be long before News Corp. and Disney pare back their next-day offerings in an attempt to bring more visitors to their own websites, for instance.

Also a possibility is the end of exclusive content on Hulu. It’s suggested that these upcoming changes – or at least the possibility of them – might help convince Kilar to exit the company, but at the moment, all we have is this memo and Variety’s sources to go on. We won’t know what sweeping changes this Providence buyout brings with it until the purchase is officially on the books, but if these rumors are true, get ready for a pretty big shakeup at Hulu’s offices.

Hulu CEO reportedly on the way out is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Viewdini streaming metasearch service launched a few months ago for Verizon’s 4G LTE-laden Android hardware, and now it’s finally available on iDevices. While the droid app is exclusive to those with a 4G plan on Big Red’s network, anything running iOS 4.3 and up can now make use of Viewdini, independently of carrier ties. As the screenshots above show, you’re also good to go on 3G, although you better watch that data allowance to avoid any nasty surprises. Interestingly, the iOS version currently only digs through the catalogues of 11 content providers compared with 18 on the Android version, but you’re still getting access to various big names like ABC, Crackle, Hulu Plus, Netflix and Verizon’s own video service. More providers should be added to the list soon, and if you’d like to give Viewdini a try, it’s available at the App Store now.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Wireless, Internet

Verizon’s Viewdini appears on iOS: works on any network, hunts video from 11 sources originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Were you so entranced by Aereo’s approach to over-the-air TV broadcasting that you signed up even while the legal battles were just getting started? You’re likely being rewarded for your trust. The company has confirmed with GigaOM that New Yorkers who subscribed in the “earliest days” will have their cloud DVR storage doubled to 80 hours — no limited period, no extra charge. There should likewise be some improved tools for overseeing all that extra space in the near future, although just what that might entail is left to the imagination. We won’t fret about it much: given the service’s still-tentative existence, any upgrades are icing on the cake for customers.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Aereo doubles DVR space to 80 hours for early adopters originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 22:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If your channel subscriptions were starting to get a little unwieldy, you might want to tinker with several new feed options rolling out to the site now. Accompanying bigger thumbnails with more detail, users can now hide individual updates, limit them to new uploads or just unsubscribe directly from their feed. Anything that you’ve already watched on YouTube is grayed out to avoid unnecessary replays, while a new highlight view should ensure over-zealous videomakers don’t squeeze out less prolific contributors — and make some room for the next wave of (heavily-marketed) YouTube channels.

Filed under: Internet

YouTube refines homepage feed, adds highlights option originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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