Hasta La Gadget!

Netflix today announced the release of a new Netflix app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The new app would allow for streaming content over a wi-fi or 3G connection straight onto your very tiny screen.

The concept has been around for a while, going back to the wrist-watch TVs of the ’80s, but the experience of watching anything on a screen that small is never fully satisfying. At best, it can help make those long plane, train, and automobile rides more enjoyable. Sorta anyway.

If not used for streaming, the new Netflix app can also be used as a tidy queue management system complete with a search function (which, for some reason, Wii’s Netflix channel is sadly missing). Up until now, the queue-management app void was being filled by the likes of Phone Flicks, which I suppose will go hang out with the Dodo now.

The move into small screens does makes some branding sense for Netflix, which has faced increasing competition of late including a newly-announced streaming service from HBO, Verizon’s live TV app for the iPad, and who knows what exactly Apple will be throwing into the mix with their upcoming press conference.

The battle for your eyeballs is coming to your phone. (Imagine reading that sentence somewhere even ten years ago.)

via bits