Hasta La Gadget!

Just a few days after we got an early peek at Amazon’s unlimited movie streaming setup, the LA Times reports “people familiar with the matter” say we could see an official launch by the end of this month. Amazon apparently pushed back its original date for technical reasons and while it tries to acquire more content to take on Netflix. Amazon reportedly has yet to lock up content from any of the six major Hollywood studios, which matches the selections seen in our screenshots, as the studios continue to evaluate the impact of streaming on their DVD sales. Amazon may not be the only one jumping in either as Hulu Plus could be looking to add more movies, though both are primarily looking at titles more than seven years old. That’s bad news if you were hoping to see a fresher selection than what Watch Instantly offers for your $7.99+ a month, but as always, any of these things could change before launch.

Rumor: Amazon could launch unlimited movie streaming in February, no major studios on board yet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Comcast announced live streaming to its iPad and (upcoming) Android Xfinity TV apps was not far off last month, and now it’s announced a new long term deal with Time Warner that brings more content to all of its TV Everywhere-related efforts. That means shows from TNT, TBS, CNN, HLN, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim on Xfinity TV.com, cable VOD and mobile apps and the addition of live streaming video later this year as part of a larger agreement between Time Warner and Comcast. The keen eyed will notice that window of “a few weeks” for the debut of live streaming to iPads has expanded to simply “later this year,” let’s hope this doesn’t slip while the company focuses on other balls in the air like its purchase of NBC, a potential new set-top box interface and apps for Smart TVs.

Continue reading Comcast, Time Warner deal ensures TNT, TBS shows for VOD & live streaming

Comcast, Time Warner deal ensures TNT, TBS shows for VOD & live streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We hoped Boxee would surprise us at the eleventh hour and announce it had finally added Netflix to the service — technically making good on its end of January deadline. Instead, the company’s blog is now reporting that the service is “anticipated soon.” Apparently, the service is running fine on the device in the company’s offices — which, mind you they said back in December too, — but it still failed to satisfy Netflix’s security requirements. While that sounds like a big thing to miss in our books, a comment by Boxee’s VP of Marketing, Andrew Kippen, suggests the company just discovered the issue only an hour before midnight. This marks the second time users have been asked to re-adjust their expectations for when the big red box might pop up on their favorite media manager, but to Boxee’s credit, we were glad to see the company come right out with the situation instead of leaving us all on pins and needles. Now, let’s just hope this whole incident gets sorted out pronto, so we don’t have to break bad news to our Watch Instantly lovin’ hearts ever again.

Boxee delays Netflix integration again, cites security requirements as the culprit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors of Amazon either purchasing Netflix or launching a competing option have been circling and now one of our readers says he’s seeing an unlimited video streaming section to complement the current Amazon VOD options. That’s a nice bonus for the $79 / year package that currently adds a few free shipping bonuses and it would be cheaper on a yearly basis than Netflix’s Watch Instantly ($95.88.) As seen above and in the gallery, it consists of “unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows” with selections that mirror the Watch Instantly catalog closely. Resolution is apparently limited to a “pretty solid” 480p SD, but there’s no word on audio or subtitle options. We’ll wait to hear if anyone else is seeing a similar page before assuming a wide rollout, but it certainly appears that there could finally be a viable competitor to the Netflix juggernaut.

Update: We weren’t able to pull up the option on any of our Prime-enabled accounts and from the comments it doesn’t appear any of you were either. According to our tipster, the option has disappeared from his page as well. One other interesting note came from commenter vfiz, who found that several variations of the primeinstantvideos.com domain name were registered by Amazon-owned DPReview January 5.

[Thanks, Pavel]

Amazon rolling out Netflix-like unlimited video streaming for Prime subscribers? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you live in the US or Canada then you can add the RDIO social music service to the long list of streaming music options available to your Sonos
whole-home wireless audio system. We’re talking eight million tracks that you can search, browse, and play on-demand with an RDIO bonus that lets you follow the musical tastes of your friends and idols for $9.99 per month. Get back to us in 46 years and let us know if your $5,514.48 was well spent, ok?

Continue reading Sonos adds RDIO to its streaming music repertoire

Sonos adds RDIO to its streaming music repertoire originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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