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Remember that video of Amazon using drone technology to deliver your packages quickly? Netflix decided to poke fun at them for the project, producing their own parody of non-streaming delivery. Watch the video below and let us know what you think!
For Netflix users, you would think this would be a good thing. Comcast and Netflix have struck a deal that will allow faster streaming streams of Netflix content through the Broadband giant. Neither would discuss the details of the deal, however, money was definitely involved. This is great for us streamers right? Well, you would think.
However, it’s just the beginning of losing the neutrality that we have been fighting for.
You see, deals are normally struck between service providers to allow better service for all but normally, free. What this does is open the door for similar deals to be had between ISPs and other service providers and, say, websites to make streaming/surfing to their site faster while leaving the smaller, less wealthy sites with poor service.
The companies both emphasized that Netflix will not receive special treatment. Of course they did. However, how can they offer better and faster service to the streaming giant without special treatment? According to Mashable: “The difference between a network-connection arrangement and preferential network treatment is technical but important, particularly within the topic of net neutrality. The deal struck by Netflix and Comcast has to do with a process called “peering,” in which companies physically connect networks together to exchange data. This is distinct from the net-neutrality issue of simply favoring or throttling certain content in an attempt to solicit payment. The difference means Netflix and Comcast can claim to be abiding by net-neutrality rules (or, for right now, conventions) while still creating a system in which content providers pay for better speed.”
So yes, it’s a great thing for Netflix watchers, but in the future can prove to be a really bad thing for the internet and start-ups who don’t have the money to gain that extra “oomph” needed for their viewers.
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Were you a fan of Pushing Daisies, the 2007 ABC series that was canceled prematurely in part due to the 2007-2008 writers strike? If so, there may be some hope to rejoice.
Creator of Pushing Daisies Bryan Fuller announced that he is hoping to bring the entire cast back together for a couple of projects. Fuller states in his interview, “I’ve had conversations very recently with Barry Sonnenfeld about financing a film, and with Kristin Chenoweth and Warner Brothers about developing a stage musical.” In addition, he also spoke of a Pushing Daisies return of sorts, “We’re working on something that is definitely a Pushing Daisies revival, and the idea would be to have as many cast as we can to participate in it.”
Pushing Daisies only lasted two seasons before it’s early cancellation by ABC, but managed to be nominated for 17 Emmy Awards (winning seven) before it’s ultimate demise.
I was a fan of the series and hated how early it was cancelled. Rather than a return to TV or a film, I myself am hoping for maybe a Netflix series, not unlike what was done with Arrested Development. This would definitely allow more creative license and of course binge watching at it’s best.
Netflix is “expiring” many of it’s films and TV shows on January 1st, so if you wanted to see one of these titles on the list below, you better get to it. I know there are a few I will be watching in the next couple of days. Let us know in the comments below if you are unhappy to see any of these go. Hopefully they will be replacing these with some great ones, but no list is out yet on what’s to come.
Expiring Dec. 29, 2013
• Transformers Dark Of The Moon
Expiring Jan. 1, 2014
• The Rundown
• Brick
• Being John Malkovich
• Back To School
• Battle Of Britain
• Born On the Fourth Of July
• Braveheart
• Body Of Evidence
• Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
• Man On The Moon
• Lionheart
• 1492 Conquest Of Paradise
• Killer Klowns From Outer Space
• Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
• FX
• Do The Right Thing
• Desperado
• Up In Smoke
• Can’t Hardly Wait
• Capote
• Biloxi Blues
• Seed Of Chucky
• Jarhead
• As Good As It Gets
• In The Name Of The Father
• Inside Deep Throat (documentary)
• I’m Gonna Get You Sucka
• In Like Flint
• Hard Target
• Foxy Brown
• Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell
• Gallipoli
• Half Baked
• Flashdance
• 50 First Dates
• For The Love Of The Game
• The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas
• The Bad News Bears
• The Russia House
• The Secret Of Nimh
• Revenge OF The Ninja
• Roman Holiday
• Rob Roy
• Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back
• Remo Williams
• Requiem For A Dream
• Quigley Down Under
• Pumpkinhead
• Platoon
• Once Upon A Time In Mexico
• October Sky
• Mystery Men
• The Skulls
• Titanic
• Ronin
• Romeo And Juliet (1968)
• Tales From The Crypt: Bordello Of Blood
• Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight
• The Woman In Red
• Top Gun
• Street Fighter
• TNT Jackson
• Serpico
• Seed Of Chucky
• Scary Movie
• Running Scared
• Troll II
• True Grit (1969)
• War And Peace
• Talk Radio
• War Games
• We Were Soldiers
• What Dreams May Come
• Windtalkers
• World Trade Center
• The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes
• The Odd Couple (1968)
• The Mask Of Zorro
• The Great Train Robbery
• The Faculty
• The Dream Team
• Best Of Times
• Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
• Species
Expiring Jan. 4, 2014
• Alice In Wonderland (1951 Disney)
• Immortals
• Dynamite Warrior
Just in time to watch the doors shut for good on Blockbuster, Netflix is beginning it’s roll out on a brand new look for Netflix on your Television. The new look, that Netflix says is “The biggest update in Netflix history to our TV experience” will begin it’s debut today on some devices.
This update, which Netflix says has been in the works for over a year in a half, will work on Roku, newer gaming consoles and other devices such as Smart TV and Blu-Ray players. “Our members collectively watch more than a billion hours of Netflix a month, most of that is on a TV,” Netflix’s chief product officer Neil Hunt said in a statement. Netflix aims to make that content easier to find.
The new update, using Javascript, will allow more devices to use the new interface and allows Netflix to roll out updates easier in the future. Most devices will see the update on their device within a couple of weeks, however older devices make take a few months to get updated.
What do you think? Did you find it hard to find content you wanted to watch on Netflix? Looking forward to the new update? Let us know in the comments below!
Dish Network, who operates around 300 of the Blockbuster stores announced today that it will close all of the video rental chain’s remaining U.S. stores, as well as it’s DVD by mail business by early 2014 attributing the move to more consumers switching to streaming and other digital alternatives.
“This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment,” said Joseph P. Clayton, Dish president and CEO. “Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings.”
However, stores that operate as licensed franchises will be able to remain open and operate under the Blockbuster name. Blockbuster by mail will end in December.
This move probably makes Netflix, Amazon and Redbox very happy, and we suppose they will be offering specials soon to gather up as much of the old Blockbuster customers as they can. Were you a Blockbuster Subscriber, in store or by mail? Will you switch to another provider? If so, which one? Let us know in the comments below!
After the ratings surge “Breaking Bad” saw with it’s recent addition to Netflix, it was only a matter of time before some of the major broadcast networks experimented with this. Deadline is reporting that ABC will send three of it’s anticipated returning dramas to the online streaming site by the end of the month. It’s not so common to see such new dramas head to Netflix, but what does ABC have to lose with these three promising dramas? The seasons will be available to US subscribers just days before the shows are set to premiere.
September’s Premiere and Finale Calendar
“Once Upon a Time” and “Revenge” kick off their seasons on Sept. 30, while “Scandal” will kick off just a few days earlier on Sept. 27, following the premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy.” This isn’t typical of broadcast networks who like to keep their content exclusive, but this might just jump start other networks to make similar moves. We’ve already seen NBC and Fox preview a few of their fall fare online and On Demand for some select cable providers. This might push the other networks to follow similar suit in the future … maybe even sooner than we think. As you consider catching up on these shows before they kick off their second season, don’t forget to check out our own “Once Upon a Time” recaps from season 1 to get you ready for season 2.
Netflix has made some terrible mistakes in the past year. First it was the idea to separate the DVD service from the streaming (with a huge price hike), then the announcement they will be splitting out the DVD and streaming companies all together, then changing their mind on that, then relegating streaming users to only one stream at a time, then saying that it was an error on their end and they weren’t doing it, THEN actually (lately) rolling out the one stream at a time thing slowly without much fanfare thinking there would be less of an uproar that way. We reported on that last month here: Netflix: N8107-154-5006 Back to One Stream at a Time.
Their loss is another companies gain. Apparently, Amazon is real close to cutting a deal with Viacom for their programming as well as offering a stand alone streaming subscription for customers without Amazon Prime. The announcement and program may come as early as this week. Amazon has already cut some deals with some other major TV providers such as CBS Corp, Warner Bros, Fox, Sony Corp, NBC Universal and Walt Disney Co. Viacom is the last of their building block to offer the subscription service with likely more deals with networks to come.
Amazon, in addition to it’s Prime Video library (and soon to come subscription service) also has a rental library similar to iTunes already, which boasts some big name newer movies. The subscription service would round them out to be a huge player in the streaming world and most definitely provide the biggest competition to Netflix to date.
Verizon is also jumping into the streaming game. Just announced this week, Verizon will be teaming up with RedBox to offer streaming subscriptions for content as well. No word yet on what deals they have made with content providers. Verizon says they should be up and running with RedBox in the second half of this year.
What will Netflix do, if anything? Netflix has been on quite a bumpy road lately and appears to be making some very bad decisions, at least where customers are concerned. So bad that it almost seems as if they are trying to go out of business. Are they? Who knows. I will say for me, who has both Netflix and Amazon Prime as well as occasionally use Redbox, I am liking more choices stepping forward. Maybe we can have more deals floating around. Maybe Amazon will be able to offer their newer movie rentals for less… like the price of a RedBox rental perhaps? All the choices coming can only add up to a good thing for us consumers.
What do you think? Do you use Amazon Prime already? Do you like their service? Looking forward to more choices all around? Sound off below!
[singlepic id=720 w=320 h=240 float=left] You may remember back in September, many Netflix members were complaining about a new error code they were receiving, N8107-154-5006, which apparently is the error code for too many streams running at a time. (Which for subscribers of the “unlimited” streaming plan, says 1.) I say apparently because to put that code into Netflix.com help, you get no answer other than them telling you that you must have entered the code incorrectly. Back in September, amidst a customer uproar, Netflix responded that it was a mistake, that they do allow concurrent streams, and it was just an error on their part.
Not anymore.
Netflix in the last couple days has now decided the one single stream at the $7.99 price was a good idea. I had been receiving the error for the last two nights, and decided to call them up and ask if it’s an error again. A very nice gentleman named Thomas at their customer service desk tells me no, that the limit is now one stream at a time. I asked if there was another streaming plan that I could upgrade to that would allow me to have streaming on 2 or 3 devices at a time and was told that they do not have that option, however if I wanted to add a DVD plan, I could get more streams. Hence 2 DVDs at a time would give me two streams. 3 DVDs out, 3 streams… you get the picture.
Really Netflix? Is this a wise decision on your part? I personally think not. Type in Netflix in Google News and all you see nowadays is “Netflix drops in Customer satisfaction” and “Netflix paying for it’s mistakes” and “Netflix losing customers” and so on. So… were they sitting in the board room thinking “Hey, I know! Let’s limit the streams our customers get! That ought to raise the satisfaction levels!” Or were they thinking this move might get people back to pay their DVD subscriptions, just to get more streams? I have no idea what exactly they were thinking, but it seems they were more likely NOT thinking. Hey, maybe the CEO just doesn’t want the hassles of the daily grind anymore and is ready to run the business into the ground. Who knows. Maybe he is being bought off by the big boys to kill his own creation.
Whatever the case may be, doubling the price for the streaming/DVD plan, separating the streaming and DVD service, changing their mind on that separation, then limiting the streaming to one stream at a time pretty much killed it for me. Amazon has many of the same movies on their Prime Membership already, so I guess Netflix can do without my $7.99 per month.
What do you think about the new “One stream at a time” service? For those of you on just the streaming plan, will you keep Netflix?
It’s Tech Tuesday! Here are your quick little tech updates, all in one place!
Let’s begin with Netflix. As you may already know, Netflix is raising their prices for their streaming/DVD out plans. Well, this is our way of reminding those of you that wanted to switch their plans before the changes take affect, better get to it. The price change takes affect for current subscribers on September 1st. Time to get those DVD’s back you had sitting around for months! I myself am canceling the DVD Service, and will just stick to streaming. If something new comes to DVD that I just have to see, then I guess RedBox will be getting my business. In the meantime, for the geeks out there, check out the nifty PBS Documentaries Netflix has streaming. I can vouch for the FDR and Huey Long Docs as being pretty interesting.
Another Netflix note: Netflix is currently testing a “Just for Kids” interface that will allow kids to browse for streaming content by character. Users that were selected for this beta test will notice a new tab on the main menu of their accounts located between the “Watch Instantly” and “Browse DVDs” tabs. Clicking the characters will bring up choices that feature that character. Sounds pretty great for parents who have to shuffle the kids around on errands. No word when it will be available to all.
Starting in September, Readers Digest will launch it’s digital subscription just for iPad users. Print subscribers will be able to receive their first 6 months free, but thereafter, will have to pay the regular non-print subscriber rate of $1.99 per issue, or $14.99 for the year. I know, you younger set think Readers Digest is just so old school, but I still subscribe, if only for the short articles that you can read when, well, you know when. Is the iPad about to take over the bathroom magazine rack?
Speaking of the iPad, rumor has it the next iPad version, iPad 3, is scheduled for release around February, 2012. Yep, right after Christmas, just like the iPad 2. I’m not real sure why Apple keeps pushing the latest and greatest AFTER the holidays, but I am assuming it’s to try and get rid of it’s previous version inventory as quickly as possible. I won’t make that mistake again. (Damn you iPad original!)
Which leads us to Apple, again. Did you run out and grab the iPhone 4? Well, of course, here comes iPhone 5. It’s just a rumor for now, but a report stemming from a Japanese website puts September 8th as the next Apple Media Event Day, which they believe Apple will launch the iPhone 5. Although in the past, Apple traditionally released their newer version of iPhone at the summer Worldwide Developers Conference, they didn’t this year, leaving speculation that Apple will announce at the September Media Day, usually reserved for their new iPod releases.
Since Apple’s “Magic Mouse” has been released, it doesn’t seem like companies have been paying that close attention to that little gadget we use every day, until now. Two mice have hit the market recently, and both are very interesting, in their own very unique ways.
First the Microsoft Touch Mouse. Exclusive to Windows 7, this mouse scrolls like a dream. A three finger swipe will minimize all your windows, the two finger swipe will minimize the window you are in. The biggest difference between this mouse and the Apple version however is it’s feel. Testers say this mouse fits in your hand perfectly.
Our next mouse innovation is the USB Optical Mouse with Pocket Digital Scale. Yeah, you heard me. A mouse with a mini scale built in. The mouse offers a precise scale with a range of 0.1 to 500 grams allowing you to weigh small objects laying around on your desk. Perfect for the jewel thief or drug dealer on your Christmas List. http://usb.brando.com/usb-optical-mouse-with-pocket-digial-scale_p02420c037d15.html
Can you just see the informercial for these? Picture a man, tossing and turning dramatically in bed, trying to listen to music to sleep by. His ears aching for the dastardly large headphones he is wearing. Introducing Bedphones! The amazingly thin and tiny headphones designed to put you to sleep. That’s right, for only $29.95 you too can stop that horrible ear ache you get from those unsightly headphones you use when trying to sleep. They are less than 1/4″ thick and about as round as a penny. They ear hooks are made from moldable memory wire for all your comfort needs. The headphones are compatible with all devices that have a standard headphone jack, and come with a Satin eye mask and a travel case. Course if there were an infomercial for these, getting the eye mask and travel case would mean you would have to call within the next 15 mins… Aside from the corny infomercial we may see in the near future, these are pretty cool.
FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski, announced a plan last Wednesday to update the 911 technology to include texts, photos and videos, along with a way to track the location of such communication. 911 Operators think this is a great idea, but without a way to track where the text or video came from, it will be useless. The Chairman is trying to implement that feature first.
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That’s it for this week! Are you going to grab the iPhone 5 or the iPad 3? Are you cancelling Netflix because of the price hike? Let us know below!