Hasta La Gadget!

If you watched anything on Netflix last month, then you helped the digital streaming giant reach a new milestone – a billion hours of streamed video served to users in one month. Company CEO Reed Hastings made the announcement in a Facebook post. It’s unclear how far over the billion-hour mark the site went last month, but it probably just barely crossed the finish line.

Still, there’s no discounting the magnitude of that kind of achievement. This means that the average Netflix user consumed an impressive 1.5 hours of content from their streaming account every day in the month of June. This comes after Netflix announced earlier this year that it streamed 2 billion hours of instant video in Q4 2011.

But that was over a three-month period. Hastings also posted high hopes for the site’s future, writing in a public note to chief content officer Ted Sarandos, “When ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Arrested Development’ debut, we’ll blow these records away. Keep going, Ted, we need even more!”

[via LA Times]

Netflix streamed a billion hours of content in June is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google unveiled the Nexus Q streaming device yesterday alongside the Nexus 7. Taking a look at the specs, you might see an all too familiar processor, with the device featuring a dual-core OMAP4460 CPU – the same chip that’s inside the Galaxy Nexus – along with PowerVR SGX540 graphics and 1GB of RAM. Google also hinted at the Q’s hackability thanks to the inclusion of a microUSB port, and it looks like developers are starting to see what the device can really do.

Christina Kelly, an Android app developer, has managed to get Swords and Soldiers to start on the device, although that’s apparently where the fun ends. The game won’t actually run, and even if it did, the lack of touch controls would put a damper on things pretty quickly. It does mean, however, that the Nexus Q is a flexible platform that developers can have some fun with.

The fact that the orb is running Android and has an architecture comparable to the Galaxy Nexus gives developers a lot of freedom, as well as the opportunity to explore the possibilities of the device. Kelly notes that while Google TV devices also run a version of Android, porting an app over to the platform is a difficult affair.

Google has dubbed the Nexus Q a social streaming media player. The orb can only be controlled using Android devices, with content streamed from Google’s content services via the cloud instead of across a local network. Users can also create social playlists, adding songs or videos to be queued up and played up the device. The Nexus Q doubles as a 25 watt amplifier that you can plug your speakers into, and plugs into your TV via HDMI.

Google Nexus Q hacked to run games is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

HTC is going on something of a certification tangent: it’s following its PlayStation Suite approval with its own program, HTC Connect. Home AV equipment with the label promises to lift the standards for streaming media to or from one of HTC’s devices. The rubber stamp will be limited at first to DLNA audio and video, but it should eventually include just about anything that doesn’t involve a wire, such as Bluetooth, in-car media, NFC and wireless speakers. There isn’t an immediate deluge of partners. HTC has scored a rather big ally, however: Pioneer’s DLNA-ready receivers and wireless speakers this year, and beyond, will flaunt the HTC Connect badge. Don’t brag about the media credentials of your One X just yet. Although the Connect seal of approval won’t be needed for media streaming anytime soon, it will only be coming to the One series through an upgrade in the months ahead.

Continue reading HTC Connect certifies AV gear for your One series phone, Pioneer lines up

HTC Connect certifies AV gear for your One series phone, Pioneer lines up originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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