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Posts Tagged ‘netflix’

TechCrunch50 2008 DemoPit company Shorthand Mobile (formerly Smart Touch) aims to help consumers who don’t use mobile data plans to access SMS and web content. Upon launch in 2008, the startup had developed a suite of basic widgets for mobile phones that visualize SMS services, allowing users to navigate through an intuitive menu. Today, Shorthand Mobile is launching TextApps, a new category of apps that deliver content from websites via SMS in a rich, interactive interface, aiming to expand the capabilities of non-smartphones and provide access to web content for mobile users without data plans.

Launching in beta today on select Motorola and Nokia handsets on AT&T and on Windows Mobile phones, Shorthand TextApps use SMS to expand access to top brands and mobile content including social networks, local search, sports scores, weather forecasts, movie times, news and entertainment. TextApps is an app you download which then creates a more intuitive UI for text-based apps.

Once you download Shorthand, it uses your SMS text messaging plan to connect you to the web content you want. Apps in the TextApps library include CitySearch, Netflix, Facebook Mobile, Twitter, The New York Times and Yelp. Of course, Facebook, Twitter and others have independently integrate with SMS for their sites but Shorthand claims to add more functionality by almost recreating a basic smartphone app. Shorthand is also now available in India on all major carriers and will launch in Brazil this spring. The starup will offer localized TextApps for these countries. Shorthand is free to download, but you will be charged for SMS messages via your SMS plan with your carrier.

As we wrote in our initial review, year, the technology behind is very basic so users shouldn’t expect to see a iPhone like Facebook-app on their phone with TextApps. That being said, the fact that Shorthand has struck deals with Nokia and Motorola to include its offering on their phones and could become a useful way to incorporate extra functionality into basic mobile phones.

Well, the lawyers have won again. Netflix settled the privacy lawsuit brought about by their last contest out of court, and canceled the next contest. Good thing we have outraged class action lawsuits to protect us! Netflix of course ran a contest to find a better algorithm to recommend movies

More here: 
Netflix settles lawsuit, cancels contest

Get it? Fast car, fast Internet connection? I’m trying, folks, believe me.

Read more: 
What would you even do with a 100 mbps Internet connection?

Thanks to some last-minute heroics, Cablevision customers here in the Northeast were able to watch the Oscars last night , which aired on WABC, the local ABC affiliate. Cynics have suggested that’s because WABC wasn’t prepared, no matter how cavalier its previous rhetoric, to give up the night’s ratings (and ad dollars) because it wanted to eek out a few more pennies from Cablevision. (WABC had wanted extra money from Cablevision per subscriber, sorta like that Fox-Time Warner Cable feud from a few weeks ago.) But until both sides came to an agreement, people were freaking out: how are we going to watch the Oscars?! Will it be on YouTube ?

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Cablevision subscribers: You do know that broadcast TV, like WABC, is totally free, right? You just need an indoor antenna.

There has never been a shortage or rumors that Netflix streaming is coming to the iPhone. It just makes sense that eventually, the hot device and the hot service will meet. And that may be happening sooner rather than later if a survey being sent out by Netflix is any indication.

As the site Hacking Netflix reports tonight, Netflix is asking certain users about their interest in streaming movies and television shows to the iPhone. Notably, this would apparently only work over WiFi, which is hardly surprising given AT&T’s reluctance to let stream-heavy fare on its network.

Here’s the full text of what’s being asked in the survey:

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?”

So that’s obviously very straightforward. Clearly, Netflix is thinking about providing an app that would do this on the iPhone, iPod touch, and the upcoming iPad as well, but recent remarks by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings suggests that none of this is a priority for the company.

Hastings has also noted in the past that eventually the service will likely be on the iPhone. But if they’re already gauging interest among users, hopefully it will be sooner than he’s let on in the past. As Hacking Netflix notes, earlier surveys from Netflix gauging interest in the Wii and PS3 consoles with Netflix were early indicators of the service on both of those devices.

Of course, you have to wonder if Apple would approve such an app that would compete directly with iTunes.

Short version: HP’s TouchSmart 600 isn’t the perfect solution for a touchscreen based home computer, but it comes pretty damn close. The TouchSmart system works well as an internet home appliance, but the thing that makes it special is also where it starts to show some problems

See the original post:
Review: HP TouchSmart 600

For at least the past hour, Netflix has been down. Normally, this wouldn’t be a huge deal since as they note, “Our shipping centers are continuing to send and receive DVDs , so your movies will be processed as usual.” But, increasingly, Netflix is becoming a streaming video service. And while that aspect is up and running on the third-party devices (such as the Xbox 360) that it works on, it’s obviously not working on the web. And given Netflix’s awesome customer service, I bet that means refunds are coming.

As we noted back in August, Netflix sent a message to its subscribers (who were connecting through Xboxes) noting some brief downtime for their streaming service. Along with the message, they were offering a 2% credit to be applied to your next monthly payment if you were affected. You simply had to click on a link to claim the refund (and you could actually do it even if you weren’t affected, if you didn’t mind lying). A couple weeks ago, Netflix sent out the same notice following a similar downtime.

It will be interesting to see what Netflix offers its customers for this downtime, which is obviously much more widespread. As they note on the site right now, “Our engineers are working hard to bring the site back up as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and, again, we apologize for the inconvenience. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-866-636-3079.”

Despite my strong disagreement with their decision to agree to Warner’s 28-day window for renting new DVDs, Netflix remains a company that seems to handle customer service exceptionally well (unlike others). Check out this internal presentation too; great stuff.

[thanks Jeff]

The web has no shortage of URL shorteners. In fact, there are so many that they’re all kind of blending together and I have no idea where to turn beyond the de-facto one Twitter uses, Bit.ly. But today, a new one has piqued my interest.

ShadyURL (made by Wonder-Tonic) is awesome because well, it creates shady URLs. Rather than focusing on making a URL as tiny as possible to spread on a site like Twitter, ShadyURL takes a regular web address and converts it into something that looks as sinister as possible.

For example, techcrunch.com becomes:

http://5z8.info/dicksonparade_k5f1f_hackwebcam

Facebook.com becomes:

http://5z8.info/myspace-of-sex_n2

Clicker, a comprehensive search engine for TV content on the web, has closed an $11 million Series B funding round led by JAFCO Ventures, with existing investors Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures also participating. JAFCO’s Joe Horowitz will join the Clicker board. The new funding brings Clicker’s total funding to $19 million, after an $8 million round the company closed in October 2008.

Clicker doesn’t actually store content on its servers, but instead makes it very easy to search through the vast amounts of content available online. Clicker’s index includes over 600,000 full length TV episodes spanning 10,000 shows. The service also allows users to search through premium content including Netflix’s Instant Streaming movies and Amazon Video on Demand (though you have to pay to watch them). The site also offers music videos, and has started teaming up with schools to index their lectures and other original content (UCLA is the first school to try the system out).

CEO Jim Lanzone says that the new funding wasn’t a case of the company needing more money (he says they have plenty left in the bank), but that the company was seeing a lot of inbound interest from VCs and decided to take advantage of the opportunity.  The company now has 32 employees.

Clicker made its debut at last year’s TechCrunch50 conference, and opened to the public in November.

As some of you know, I’ve been bitching up a storm about Netflix’s decision to give in to Warner Bros. demand that they not rent new release DVDs until after a 28-day window has expired. Today, Redbox, has announced they’ll do the exact same thing. Simply put, this is another blow to consumers and a big potential win for piracy.

Naturally, Warner is playing this up as a win for everybody. With this 28-day window, Warner now has the opportunity to try to sell more DVDs, while at the same time offering more video-on-demand options. Meanwhile Redbox ensures that it will be able to keep offering Warner content and be granted more access to it. In exchange, Redbox simply has to agree not to rent Warner movies until 28 days after they’re released — oh, and drop that pesky lawsuit again Warner for trying to prevent them access to their movies. Hugs all around, right? Wrong.

Make no mistake, Redbox did not want this deal. Their hand was forced by Warner. But really, what else were they going to do, just not offer Warner titles while their competitors did? From their perspective, a 28-day window is undoubtedly better than no window at all. But what this really is is another example of a movie studio shooting itself in the foot. Warner believes that these windows are going to allow them to sell more DVDs, long the bread-and-butter of the movie industry which is now in rapid decline. The thought is that people are no longer buying as many because it’s so easy to rent them. So if you make them harder to rent…

The problem with this is at the fundamental level. People aren’t buying fewer DVDs on a large scale because of rentals, they’re buying fewer ones because most DVDs aren’t simply worth owning. And consumers are finally waking up to that fact. Do I want to own Sherlock Holmes? No. Will I rent it? Yes.

The Netflix agreement with Redbox actually makes more sense since they’re all about getting more streaming titles from the studio. They want this because that’s the future of the business and from a business perspective, new releases make up only 30% of their rentals, with the other 70% coming from older catalog films, many of which they can now stream to customers. Of course, if other studios cut the same 28-day deal with Netflix, it’s going to decimate the top rental list. And while plenty are quick to say, so what? Make no mistake, this will lead to more piracy.

Further, while part of Netflix’s agreement with Warner was supposed to lead to better availability of these new releases after the 28-day window, the opposite appears to actually be happening. The first two movies that fell under this new rule, The Invention of Lying and Whiteout, were recently granted Netflix availability. So you can rent them right now, right? Nope. The Invention of Lying has a “Long wait” while Whiteout has a “Short wait.” It seems that there is some pent-up demand to rent these new releases that Netflix wasn’t expecting. Both movies, meanwhile, were immediately available to rent through iTunes a month ago, which didn’t cut this silly deal.

Here’s what Warner has to say:

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and redbox today announced a new multi-year distribution agreement that will make Warner Bros. new release DVD and Blu-ray titles available to redbox customers after a 28-day window. The agreement also marks the end of the lawsuit that redbox filed against Warner Home Video in August 2009.  Below is a copy of the press release with additional details.

Here’s the release:

WARNER BROS. HOME ENTERTAINMENT AND REDBOX ANNOUNCE A MULTI-YEAR DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT

Companies Agree to 28-Day Window for DVD and Blu-ray Titles

BURBANK, Calif. And OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill, February 16, 2010 – Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and redbox today announced a new multi-year distribution agreement that will make Warner Bros. new release DVD and Blu-ray titles available to redbox customers after a 28-day window. The agreement also marks the end of the lawsuit that redbox filed against Warner Home Video in August 2009.

“We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to sit down with redbox and negotiate an arrangement that benefits both parties and allows us to continue making our films available to redbox customers,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. “The 28-day window enables us to get the most from the sales potential of our titles and maximize VOD usage.”

The new arrangement provides redbox with reduced product costs, sufficient quantities of product and optimal stock levels four weeks after street date as well as extends redbox’s access to Blu-ray titles, which redbox is currently testing in select markets. The agreement also provides Warner Bros. the opportunity to maximize the sales of new release titles as well as video on demand and other forms of digital distribution.

“This agreement enables redbox to fulfill our commitment to providing consumers affordable and convenient home entertainment,” said Mitch Lowe, president, redbox. “By agreeing to a delayed release date, redbox can now acquire Warner Home Video titles at a reduced product cost, preserving value for our consumers and increasing customer access to Warner titles at redbox locations nationwide.”

Warner Home Video and redbox will be implementing delayed availability during the month of March and will reach a four-week window by March 23 with the release of The Blind Side. The new agreement will run through January 31, 2012. Redbox has also agreed to destroy Warner Home Video content following its lifespan in kiosks.

“The 28-day window for redbox balances the economics of our relationship while continuing to offer great value to their customers,” said Ron Sanders, president, Warner Home Video. “This accord establishes a mutually beneficial relationship that will foster an ongoing and productive partnership.”

Warner Bros. is currently a leader in many home video categories including total video (DVD and Blu-ray combined), Theatrical Catalog video, TV on DVD, and Blu-ray and will ensure the DVD rental company access to sufficient quantities of Warner Home Video titles including The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Box, The Informant!, Where the Wild Things Are, The Blind Side, and Sherlock Holmes.

About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group (WBHEG) brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment’s home video, digital distribution, interactive entertainment, technical operations and anti-piracy businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios. An industry leader since its inception, WBHEG oversees the global distribution of content through packaged goods (Blu-ray Disc and DVD) and digital media in the form of electronic sell-through and video-on-demand via cable, satellite, online and mobile channels, and is a significant developer and publisher for console and online video game titles worldwide. WBHEG distributes its product through third party retail partners and licensees, as well as directly to consumers through WBShop.com.

About Redbox
Redbox Automated Retail, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coinstar, Inc., offers new release DVD rentals through its network of conveniently located, self-service kiosks. Redbox has rented more than 500 million DVDs and is available at more than 20,200 locations nationwide, including select McDonald’s restaurants, leading grocery and convenience stores, and Walmart and Walgreens locations in select markets. For more information, visit www.redbox.com http://www.redbox.com.

[image: Warner Brothers - funny, yes]