Hasta La Gadget!

When we think of BBC iPlayer use on mobile devices, we most often picture someone catching up on dramas with their smartphone during the commute home. Not anymore: newly available March stats from the Beeb reveal that tablet viewing has overtaken phone viewing for the first time. The difference is slight — tablets are only 200,000 requests ahead, at 41 million — but it’s enough to suggest that many now prefer bigger screens when they’re away from a computer or TV. While the broadcaster hasn’t directly explained the change in demographics, it’s not hard to see a possible explanation based on viewer habits. The BBC notes that most tablet-bound iPlayer users watch TV, and most iPlayer TV time overlaps that of traditional viewing, when audiences are more likely to be at home with the larger devices at hand. If you’re one to curl up on the couch to watch Panorama on an iPad or Android slate, then, you may just be part of a growing trend.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD

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Source: BBC

We heard back in December that Amazon would be releasing a slew of pilot episodes for the company’s original series initiative in order to compete with Netflix. It turns out that there are 14 pilot episodes in total, and all of them are available now for streaming for free. Amazon will be accepting viewer feedback to narrow the pack down to just a handful of shows.

We’ve already heard about a couple of them in the past, one being a Zombieland original series, as well as a geek-oriented comedy called Betas. Both pilots of these shows are available now, as well as 12 other shows split between the comedy genre and children’s variety. The six children’s shows include Annebots, Creative Galaxy, Positively Ozitively, Sara Solves It, Teeny Tiny Dogs, and Tumbleaf.

As for the remaining comedies not already mentioned, there’s Alpha House, Browsers, Dark Minions, Onion News Empire, Supanatural, and Those Who Can’t. You can watch all 14 episodes right now, but you’ll need an Amazon Prime account if you don’t have one already. You’ll get free two-day shipping, as well as access to Amazon Instant Video.

As for how many shows Amazon wants to begin producing, it seems that the company’s goal is to get half of the 14 shows currently available ordered up for a full season of about 13 episodes each. However, there’s no set number that Amazon has decided on, and it could turn out that even less than seven shows end up getting picked, so be sure to submit your feedback if you want to see the episodes you like continue on.

Amazon releases all 14 original series pilots for free is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The celebrity-hawked Twitter Music app is finally here. And what’s good enough for Ryan Seacrest is good enough for us kind of. More »

The core of any good movie service is… good movies. We’re glad to hear, then, that Sky Movies has struck a years-long deal with UK outlet Entertainment Film Distributors to stream a large number of recent and back-catalog titles. The pact gives Sky access to Silver Linings Playbook and a slew of other notable movies during the initial pay-per-view and pay TV windows, which usually start six months after the releases leave theaters and last for over a year. The agreement isn’t so hot for those on rival services when Sky has an exclusive on subscription access, but its viewing is at least independent of both the platform and business model: customers can see the newly added flicks through a Now TV pass on their phones or rent them through the Sky Movies Box Office, for example. Older included titles like Gangs of New York are already available; if you’ve been waiting for Sky to get a healthier video selection before signing up, now’s as good a time as any to take a closer look.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Sky Movies

Spotify is expanding to more locations throughout the world today. The music streaming service announced today that users in Mexico, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Iceland, bringing Spotify’s reach to 28 markets around the world. The expansion should increase the service’s total number of users.

Currently, Spotify has over 25 million users, where free users can stream up to 40 hours of music per week, while unlimited subscribers obviously don’t have a limit, nor do they have to deal with ads. Currently, Spotify has over 6 million paid subscribers, and we’re sure that number will grow now that more markets have access to the streaming music service.

Spotify says that they aim to be available anywhere, but expanding to that point will take time. The company ultimately wants to be available in Asia completely, with today’s expansion in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore a good start. The continent is a hotbed for internet users, where many online services report having the most users.

Of course, today’s expansions are merely just stepping stones for Spotify in their quest to become available all around the world, but it seems they’re confident in getting to that point in the foreseeable future. The same features are available to international users, including both free and premium subscription options.

[via The Next Web]

Spotify launches in 8 new markets is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.