Weekend Watching: Arrested Development returns Sunday

It’s back, ladies and gents. Season 4 of Arrested Development will be releasing on Sunday, May 26 only on Netflix. Be sure to cancel all of your Sunday plans and get all your chores done on Saturday, because Sunday will be a busy day. Each episode of the new show will run around 30 minutes long and be entirely commercial free.

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The existing run of the show comprises of 53 episodes that are 22 minutes long each, so you’ll have to set aside around 19-and-a-half hours between now and Sunday to make sure that you’re caught up on all the happenings. The show was originally run from 2003 to 2006 before getting cancelled after three seasons due to low ratings.

However, fans have been dying to see a return of the show, and Netflix stepped in in 2011 to save the day. Season 4 will consist of 15 episodes, which is quite a full season, but beggars certainly can’t be choosers. Plus, Netflix doesn’t have plans to continue Arrested Development past the fourth season, so be sure to savor these 14 episodes while you can.

Alongside the original cast, there are also set to be several guest stars throughout the season, including Ben Stiller, Conan O’Brien, Adam DeVine, and Kristen Wiig. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that the original cast was “extremely difficult” to get together in the first place, so having guest stars is definitely an added treat.

This only a start for Netflix, however. The company plans to launch even more original series in the future, with content boss Ted Sarandos saying that the company wants to double original content in 2014. We’ve already seen several original shows this year, including House of Cards and Hemlock Grove, meaning that we should see an even bigger bevy of shows come next year.


Weekend Watching: Arrested Development returns Sunday is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Netflix to double original content next year

While we’re aware that Netflix is planning to up its game when it comes to original programming, we were never really given a solid number or when it would all occur. However, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos says that original content on Netflix will double in 2014 compared to this year, meaning we’ll get more House of Cards, as well as a few new shows tacked on.

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Netflix is wanting to change the way Hollywood views internet content, and they’re even looking to take on HBO to become the supreme when it comes to original ad-free content. Sarandos says that director David Fincher’s roll in House of Cards is changing the way people view internet streaming content, where it’s no longer a bunch B-list web shows, but actual TV series featuring A-list celebs.

House of Cards is a great example of how Netflix is changing the way people view streaming content. The series stars Kevin Spacey, who is best known for his numerous roles in tons of classic films, such as American Beauty, The Usual Suspects, Se7en, and Superman Returns. The first two episodes of the series were directed by David Fincher, who also directed movies like Fight Club, The Social Network, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

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This year already, Netflix has released two original series: House of Cards and Hemlock Grove, with several more original shows on the way: Arrested Development and a Hasbro-sponsored children’s show, as well as three more that we know of. That’s seven shows total that we know of, meaning that if Netflix kept their promise and doubled their original content in 2014, we’ll be getting at least 14 shows next year, but Sarandos says that’s merely a goal, not a promise.

Netflix accounts for a third of all traffic that makes its way through the internet, which is something quite impressive, and the service streams more content than YouTube even. Netflix also keeps adding on new users, claiming three million more customers during Q1 2013 to make a total of 37 million users paying for Netflix.

SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter


Netflix to double original content next year is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Rhapsody announces new iOS app, redesigned from the ground up

Rhapsody announces new iOS app, redesigned from the ground up

Not to be outdone by some of its music-streaming counterparts, Rhapsody’s releasing a revamped version of its iOS app today. Taking on a newly minted look, the service promises this version will make it simpler for subscribers to access and manage their tunes within the application. Rhapsody added features such as a “personalized” organization that, as you’d expect, organizes your jams under the My Music section and splits them into two different categories: Library and Downloads.

Much like on the Android flavor of the app, Rhapsody also updated the Album and Artist pages to display more useful info and tools, including reviews and additional music controls. In theory, these should pair nicely with the all-new fullscreen player and a pop-up menu that allows you to easily add songs to the download queue. Rhapsody tells us the update will be hitting the iOS devices soon, so keep an eye on the App Store if you’d like to be one of the First! first to test out the goods.

Update: It’s live now, and we’ve added the link below to help you get started with the download.

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Source: App Store

MediaFire promises streaming of stored music and video on its iOS and Android apps

MediaFire promises streaming of stored music and video on its iOS and Android apps

MediaFire says its cloud storage service now has 30 million users, but it seems that only a minority of those are using its Android or iOS interfaces — so far, the former has seen less than 500,000 downloads. One extra feature that might boost the utility of these is the forthcoming addition of media streaming, to help MediaFire compete with likes of Amazon Cloud Player — and with the added draw of 50GB free lifetime storage (or a time-limited offer of $24.99 annually for 100GB). There’s no sign of the app update on either platform just yet, but it’ll get there when it gets there.

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Source: Google Play, iTunes

Twitter #Music adds genre charts to aid your musical discovery

Twitter #Music adds additional music charts to aid your musical discovery

Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock, you’ve at least a passing familiarity with Twitter’s #Music service, and today the platform given us another reason to check it out, thanks to the addition of genre charts. When #Music launched a month ago, it provided the means to discover and hear tunes from popular, emerging and suggested artists along with those you and your friends follow. Now those discovery pages have been expanded to include ten musical genre charts (country, hip-hop, rock, etc.), plus five additional charts titled Superstars, Popular, Emerging, Unearthed and Hunted.

The Superstar and Popular charts display the most popular songs and new music that’s trending, while Emerging and Unearthed are two avenues for finding lesser-known songs and artists. Finally, the Hunted chart displays music that’s currently popular in the blogosphere. So, people of Twitter, go forth, use these new charts and find your musical bliss, but only on the web, ’cause the iOS app is without them… for now.

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Twitter #Music

Rdio for iOS update brings ‘Find People’ feature, design improvements to the UI

Rdio for iOS update brings 'Find People' feature, design improvements to the UI

Music streamers on Rdio for iOS are used to getting novel features quite often — but hey, as they say, the more the merrier, right? Keeping up with that tradition, Rdio announced earlier today it’s introducing a few new tidbits to the application with version 2.2. Most notably, the app will now allow users to quickly find friends and artists via a new feature dubbed — appropriately, no less — Find People. Building up on the search improvements, Rdio’s also added an option to easily discover a record label’s top musicians and albums, which is, in part, made possible by a number of UI enhancements (like a revamped navigation menu) that were also included in this release. All that sound good? Then you shall wait no more; the goods can be found at our source, or you could always download straight from your iOS device.

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Source: App Store

Pandora gets cozier with Facebook, makes it easier to share listening activities to Timeline

Pandora gets cozier with Facebook, makes it easier to share listening activities to Timeline

Looks like Pandora isn’t quite done making announcements this week. Hot on the heels of the introduction of its Premieres music strategy, the streaming service is now releasing a feature perfectly fitted for Facebook users. Starting today, folks will be able to easily share more of their Pandora activities (what you’re listening to, the artists you like, etc.) directly to the Timeline and newly minted music section. However, given the auto-share nature of the feature, Pandora is allowing you to tweak the privacy options — you know, in case you’re not interested in letting friends know you’re jamming out quietly listening to Justin Bieber’s Baby. Pandora’s one-click-share-to-Facebook is now available via the web and Android / iOS apps — and, because we know you’re going to inquire, there’s no word on when we can expect it to hit Windows Phone 8.

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Source: Pandora

Spotify Charts launch globally, showcase 50 most listened to and most viral tracks weekly

Spotify Charts launch, showcase 50 most listened to and most viral tracks each week

Taking a page out of Billboard’s playbook, Spotify is using its listener data to determine the most popular music in a particular country. Available on the website or as embeddable widgets, the weekly updated charts will reveal which tracks are most listened to for the Spotify 50. The Social 50 list will contain the tracks most often actively shared by the service’s users, including via Facebook and Twitter. Another new addition is the ability to see play counts for an artist’s top tracks, tracking global plays since October 2008. That’s rolling out to desktop clients first and will pop up elsewhere later, while the charts will update every week at noon ET. Hit the link below for this week’s list topped by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Daft Punk, although we’ll know if it’s really taking off when we see a green record on someone’s wall in a future episode of Cribs.

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Source: Spotify Top Tracks

Pandora Premieres will let you hear new albums up to a week prior to their release

Pandora Premieres will let you hear new albums up to a week prior to their release

It’s hardly a new tactic — teasing music lovers with a stream of a new album prior to its on-sale date — but Pandora’s getting into that business in an official way today. Not content with letting iTunes drink the whole of said milkshake, Pandora Premieres will allow users to preview upcoming album releases in their entirety before they go on sale. The new station will reportedly feature both mainstream and emerging artists, with albums to hit the Pandora airwaves “up to one week prior to the scheduled US launch date.” Listeners can enjoy these early album releases simply by adding the Pandora Premieres station, which will be updated weekly with new releases. Better still, users will be able to replay it as much as they’d like, or listen to bits of pieces of it as they choose. If you’d like to give it a look, head to your Pandora player and search for “Pandora Premieres.”

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Source: Pandora

Xbox One SmartGlass brings more control, content to companion devices

Xbox One SmartGlass brings more control, content to companion devices

Microsoft’s Xbox One is promising even more second-screen support than we saw on the Xbox 360. An improvement of the SmartGlass integration we’ve seen pop up on the Xbox 360, Microsoft says it can make your mobile device feel like it was “built” to work with your console. The current SmartGlass app has seen over 10 million downloads, and it looks like Microsoft is aiming for more this time around. It will also be able to screen scrape video, encode it to h.264 and send it over to your second screen, although what will work on which devices is still unknown. What is mentioned in the press release is that it will support multiple devices at once, for multiplayer and shared entertainment. It’s also promising exclusive experiences with its NFL partnership that attach to SmartGlass and Skype integration, so we’ll expect to see more about that in the future.

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