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20th May 2009
Queued is Adobe AIR App I’ve been using lately that has brought the Netflix browsing experience straight to my desktop because quite honestly I’ve never been enticed with the one offered on the actual site. At times the site seems to convoluted to navigate where my only interest lies in viewing, adding and organizing my queue and nothing else.
The application models itself along the same concept of the actual site where you can quickly perform all the functions I described and more. There’s also the capability to launch instant Watch It Now along with offline access that subsequently syncs your information back to Netflix when you regain online connectivity.
Why install an app that emulates the online experience? Because it’s about finding what works for you and not conceding with default settings that don’t add anything to a service you use recurrently. Tweetie gives me what Twitter website doesn’t. Case and point.
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24th February 2009
Netflix considers plan to go streaming only by 2010With services like iTunes, Amazon Video and even Hulu, it’s apparent that the act of streaming content is gaining momentum onto the coattails of the conventional task of taking a trip to the video store. So much that the company that began with the “we’ll mail you a movie and you mail it back” model has the CEO Reed Hastings already alluding that by 2010, DVDS will take a backseat on the Netflix service:
We recognize at some point in the long term, the streaming will be good enough that an appreciable number of people will find streaming is all they need.
In her latest book, Secrets of Simplicity, author Mary Carlomagno offers some advice that I believe is pivotal for anyone that is reluctant to embrace change by technology, especially when it involves the primitive act of watching a movie:- Any technology you choose should save you time, not take more of your time.
- Everyone’s work flow and life priorities are different, so choose technology that will best help achieve your unique goals.
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3rd November 2008
Netflix Viewing on the Mac
Over the weekend Netflix made their service of streaming movies on the Web for Intel based Mac users, something that was before just limited to Windows. I tested out the service and here’s some quick notes on my experience.
- As Joe mentioned, the quality isn’t as good as a DVD, but the convenience makes up for it.
- Microsoft’s Silverlight does an exceptional job in delivering simplistic interface to control the movie and managed to do it without incorporating cheesy ads that distraction the whole experience.
- HD viewing should have been standard used to introduce the service.
- From my understanding, as long as you have an account with Netflix, you’ll be able to stream a movie. Prior to watching The Pixar Story last night, I was expecting for a page to prompt me that a charge would be incurred on my account, which I was expecting to pay anyway but that wasn’t the case; unlike iTunes that charges you up front.
- I had momentary loss of internet connection at one point and the player was kindly enough to essentially pause where I left off until everything was back to normal without having to ruin my whole experience by restarting the movie from the beginning.
- Go get your movie viewing on without leaving your home.
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Article
22nd February 2008
No More HD-DVD
In case you weren’t aware, there was an ongoing battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray for about a year now and the question was which one would prevail. I say “was” because a winner has been declared and it’s Blue-ray disc. Toshiba announced this month that it’s pulling the plug on HD-DVD and along with that comes some changes.
Just over the weekend, we happen to be at Circuit City shopping for an HD-DVD player before the whole announcement had been made but we came short of buying it because the model we wanted wasn’t available. That same day, I received an email from Netflix informing me that they no longer will be supplying HD movies but rather just regular DVDs and Blue-ray of course. A Blu-ray player does come at a higher cost but I’m wiling to roll with the punches if that’s bound to be the standard in years to come.
Strange things happen for a reason. Before any of this, I was seriously considering purchasing Apple TV to enjoy HD movies. Apple has no choice but to go with Blu-ray now too. This should be interesting.
Jorge Quinteros © 2007 – Today About Archives Subscribe Back to top ↩
