Hulu is a terrific service. Who could argue with free, current episodes of primetime TV on your computer? But for months now, Netflix has been eating Hulu’s lunch. And Hulu’s plan to fight back sounds more like a swan song. More »
Netflix just released its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2010 and of no surprise to anyone who was paying attention last year it did quite well by passing 20 million subscribers, more than double its base at the start of 2009. However, per Biggie’s Law mo money = mo problems, and it took the opportunity to respond, surprisingly sharply, to potential threats from its Hollywood content providers and the ISPs its Watch Instantly service streams over. News of note going into 2011? A huge focus on personalization including new integration with Facebook and a mention that Apple TV has already surpassed the iPad in viewing hours. It also showed off the one-click Netflix button on an unspecified (looks like Toshiba to us) remote and compared the “consternation” over its success to the rise of Fox as a broadcast network two decades ago. We’ll hop on the earnings call in a few minutes for more details, check after the break for more of the details.
Netflix passes 20 million subscribers; focuses on ISP disputes, HBO, Facebook in Q4 results originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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South Korean carrier SK Telecom is billing its new Galaxy S Hoppin from Samsung as a “smartphone that can also serve as a set-top box,” but in reality, it’s basically an Android phone just like any other in Sammy’s stable with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display — the big difference is that it comes bundled with a dock that cables up to your home television and lets you watch streaming video off of the company’s new Hoppin entertainment service either on the road or in the comfort of your La-Z-Boy. Movies will run anywhere from 1,000 to 3,500 won — 89 cents to $3.12 — which isn’t bad, all things considered. The remainder of the phone’s specs are standard fare at this point: 1GHz Hummingbird processor, Android 2.2, a 5 megapixel cam, WiFi, and Bluetooth 3.0 round out the package. Look for it to launch this week.
Samsung Galaxy S Hoppin hops to South Korea, includes TV dock for big-screen fun originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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See this message? You no longer have to if you live in France, Germany, Italy or Spain, as Sony’s rolled out its Music Unlimited subscription streaming service in each aforementioned nation just yesterday. Basically, it’s the same deal that launched in the UK last month, but at a slightly cheaper price given the exchange rate: €3.99 a month buys you a virtual radio station that streams millions of songs to your Sony TVs, Blu-ray players or PS3 — with portable devices and phones on the way — while €9.99 upgrades to a premium plan that lets you select tunes on demand and generate playlists. Next stop: North America. PR after the break.
Sony’s Music Unlimited service infiltrates France, Germany, Italy and Spain, offers streaming tunes originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This one’s about as unofficial as it gets, but Linux users do now have a relatively easy way to receive and play video streamed to their PC via Apple’s AirPlay. To get things going, all you have to do is download a plug-in for the Totem media player (which ships with most popular Linux distributions), install it in the usual Linux fashion, and then start streaming video to your Linux PC with AirPlay just as if it were an Apple TV. That’s it. Hit up the link below to find the plug-in, along with some more detailed installation instructions if you need them.
AirPlay video support comes to Linux courtesy of Totem media player plug-in originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 09:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Just shy of a month after it launched on the PlayStation 3 and days after debuting on Boxee’s Box, the new Vudu 2.0 interface is live on most TVs and Blu-ray players with access to the service. Check out our earlier gallery if you’re not familiar with the new look, it should be identical across the lineup (sans-Move support of course) with recommendations, enhanced sharing options and optimized for HD. For now it looks like the Yahoo! Widgets based Samsung and Vizio versions are the only ones still lagging but they’re on deck for an update “soon.”
Vudu 2.0 interface moves beyond PS3 & Boxee Box, now available on most TVs, Blu-ray players originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Amazon has just announced it has agreed terms to buy up all the remaining shares of Lovefilm it didn’t already own. The British outfit operates a subscription-based movie rental and streaming service in its home market along with Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and should give Amazon a very solid base from which to build its presumably Netflix-besting ambitions. Lovefilm has been just about the closest thing Europe has had to the ridiculously successful North American movie distributor and Amazon is arguably getting in just in time, given Netflix’s overtures toward expanding into the UK. Customary closing conditions will need to be met before the final stamp of approval is applied, but the acquisition is expected to complete by the end of Q1 of this year. Amazon’s wading into yet more content distribution, who’d have thunk it?
Continue reading Amazon agrees deal to buy UK movie streaming and rental service Lovefilm
Amazon agrees deal to buy UK movie streaming and rental service Lovefilm originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Amazon has just announced it has agreed terms to buy up all the remaining shares of Lovefilm it didn’t already own. The British outfit operates a subscription-based movie rental and streaming service in its home market along with Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and should give Amazon a very solid base from which to build its presumably Netflix-besting ambitions. Lovefilm has been just about the closest thing Europe has had to the ridiculously successful North American movie distributor and Amazon is arguably getting in just in time, given Netflix’s overtures toward expanding into the UK. Customary closing conditions will need to be met before the final stamp of approval is applied, but the acquisition is expected to complete by the end of Q1 of this year. Amazon’s wading into yet more content distribution, who’d have thunk it?
Continue reading Amazon agrees to buy UK movie streaming and rental service Lovefilm
Amazon agrees to buy UK movie streaming and rental service Lovefilm originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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As you might have heard a little while back, Windows Phone 7 is the latest smartphone OS to have joined the SlingPlayer gang, meaning WP7 fanatics like Ballmer can be couch potatoes wherever they are. Well, assuming they have data connectivity — be it 3G or WiFi — and some battery juice on their phones. For better or for worse, the latest SlingPlayer Mobile app is very much like its other flavors — same easy preparation, a familiar interface, and a similarly tear-inducing $30 price tag. There is, however, one nice addition: a new “Zoom” button on the menu page, which actually chops away a good portion of the black border around the picture. Another noteworthy difference is the more stylish interface in comparison to the Android and iOS versions, but of course, some might think otherwise.
Also on the menu page is a “Quality” button for toggling between standard video quality and high video quality. Annoyingly, said switch is always set to standard at every launch. We can’t help but to think that this is for covering up the app’s shortfall — we noticed while high quality streaming does indeed have good picture quality, the frequency of buffering increased over time. Similarly, response time to our button and gesture inputs also got longer and longer — at one point it took about 20 seconds for us to change a channel on our Freeview box, and that’s with our HTC 7 Mozart sitting on the same network as our Slingbox Pro HD! Needless to say, it took even longer over 3G. We then double-checked using our iPhone and Nexus One but failed to reproduce the same bugs. Thankfully, a simple restart of the app eased our frustration, but we expect Sling Media to actually deliver a fix soon. Anyhow, there’s a video walkthrough after the break while you wait for the update.
Continue reading App review: SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Phone 7
App review: SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We just came across a neat little iOS app called AirView which, as you can probably tell from the name, transforms your iOS devices into AirPlay video receivers. And since iOS can also output video via AirPlay, this means you can use AirView to either grab AirPlay streams from your computer’s iTunes, or you can stream videos from one iOS device to another (provided that they are both running iOS 4.2 and above, of course). Theoretically, little work is required to get the ball rolling — just launch the app, then play your desired video clip from the source, and finally pick your client device using the AirPlay button.
We say theoretically, because it took us awhile to figure out that none of our purchased videos worked, even though AirPlay supports DRM content — the assumption is that AirView lacks the component for receiving authorization key. Alas, we stuck with our, ahem, homemade videos which actually worked very well over both iTunes-to-iOS and iOS-to-iOS connections, although sometimes we had to relaunch AirView and the iPod app to start a new stream. Perhaps some folks will have better luck than us, so feel free to give this app a go — it is free, after all. Video demo after the break.
Continue reading App review: AirView
App review: AirView originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Wired | iTunes | Email this | Comments
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