Hasta La Gadget!

Hulu Plus is cutting its subscription prices from $10 to $8/month, and PS3 users have another way to buy or rent high-def movies with Vudu. ‘Tis the season for internet video, and no streaming service or wired entertainment box will be left without its stocking stuffed.

There’s been speculation about a Hulu Plus price cut for a while. When you’re already paying for cable, Netflix, home internet, Xbox Live Gold, 3G voice and data plans — this list goes on and on — $10 for another monthly subscription is a tough sell when plain-vanilla Hulu is free. The new lower price and availability on a wider range of devices (where, crucially, regular Hulu isn’t available) makes Hulu Plus much more attractive.

The price didn’t drop quite as much as people thought it would — $5/month seems to be the sweet spot for users to say “what the heck, who cares how much I use it” — but Hulu has offered a one-week free trial for new subscribers and a price difference credit to early adopters who ponied up the $10. Not too shabby.

Playstation 3 owners were among the first to get Hulu Plus off their computers and onto their television sets, and now they have its rhyming cousin Vudu too. Vudu is Wal-Mart’s on-demand movie service, offering streaming rentals and purchases in 1080p, perfect for the PS3’s high-end media power (assuming you’ve got 4.5 Mbps internet).

The Vudu app itself is free; movies cost between about $15 to $20 to own and $4 and $6 to rent, depending on format (higher-definition movies with surround sound cost more).

Internet TV has been an amazing space to watch this year, as there’s been a perfect synergy between the services, who want to reach as many people’s television sets as possible, and the device manufacturers, who want to offer as many services to their users as possible. Content makers love it, too. The only people to feel sorry for are the broadband providers — but as they make moves to tier and cap and throttle data usage, they’re quickly adjusting to the new reality as well.

Hulu Plus™ Subscription Service Launches For $7.99 per month [Hulu/Press Release]
VUDU Comes to the PS3, Adding Another Choice for PSN Members to Experience Media Instantly [Playstation Blog]

See Also:

• Take That Dish Network: Hulu Plus Now For Everyone
• Hulu Plus For PlayStation 3, Invitation-Free
• More TV Coming to TiVo and Roku This Fall with Hulu Plus
• Walmart Buys Vudu, Jumping Into Online Movie Rentals
• Vudu Application Brings Remote Rentals to iPhone
• New Vudu Comes on The Scene With a Big Rack

The update wars continue, and call us crazy but it sure looks like Sony is on its heels. The PlayStation 3 firmware version 3.50 was supposed to be the one to really protect the console, forcibly installed with Medal of Honor and reportedly the cause of the latest (and last) Gran Turismo 5 delay. But, it was all for naught, with PS Jailbreak announcing downgrade support for firmware 3.42 and 3.50 “and beyond.” The only question now is: what’s the next firmware version going to be called? Maybe if Sony started naming these updates after delicious pastries we’d be a little less tired of applying them.

Update: To clarify, this will not let you play 3.42 or 3.50 games, but will let you downgrade your firmware from those versions to an earlier, more hackable release.

[Thanks, Mattias]

PS Jailbreak gets support for PS3 versions 3.42 and 3.5, is no firmware safe? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it Sony’s play against the Wiimote, or the Kinect… or both? Hard to say exactly, but there’s no question that the PS3 is no longer on the outside looking in when it comes to motion gaming. Now that it’s been on the market for a few months, we’re looking to hear from early adopters — have you enjoyed your time with the Move? Has it lived up to your expectations? Any quirks with gameplay that you’d iron out? Any particular games that you’d prefer to see play nice with the apparatus? Set yourself in the mindset of a SCEA designer for a tick and let us know how you’d do the Move differently down in comments below. And yeah, sticking with “Arc” is totally an acceptable suggestion to make.

How would you change Sony’s PlayStation Move? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We all know Sony likes to be a bit off the wall with its commercials, so this dystopian vision of a grown-up baby’s trudge through corporate monotony shouldn’t surprise us at all. And yet, somehow, it does. It’s part of a pair of new ads destined for Latin America, the second of which awaits you after the break.

Continue reading PlayStation Moves into creepy ad business

PlayStation Moves into creepy ad business originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In addition to an updated app for Boxee, the NHL just announced its GameCenter streaming app is coming to the PlayStation 3 and Roku players. Free to PlayStation Plus members ($9.99 for all others, free on Roku) gamers get access to the app with its highlights, stats and information, while subscribers to the $169 GameCenter Live service get the full package including streaming out-of-market games and some playoff matchups. It’s pretty similar to the MLB app that’s also available on PS3, but similarly the lack of locally blacked out games makes it more of an alternate way to catch more sports than a cord-cutters best friend. Additional details are in the press release after the break, or check for the app under the video section of the PlayStation Network store.

Continue reading NHL GameCenter streaming coming to Roku, PS3

NHL GameCenter streaming coming to Roku, PS3 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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