15
Jan
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Hands-On With RedBox Instant: Netflix Has Nothing To Be Worried About

Posted by in Features, News

At last, my collection is complete. Just the other day I received my invite to the beta of Redbox Instant. I was excited. The idea sounds great: it's like Netflix, but you also get four monthly credits at Redbox rental kiosks! Awesome, right? What's that? Verizon has something to do with it? Well, no matter. It's not exclusive to the carrier's handsets, so I'm sure it's nothing to worry about! I'm ready to get my hands all up on this thing.

Oh, how naïve I was.

I'm going to start by taking a look at the desktop site and the service as a whole, but don't worry, we'll get to the Android bit in its own section.

09
Jan
redboxinstanttiny

[CES 2013] Redbox Instant Set To Launch By March, According To Verizon CEO

Posted by in Applications, News

Hi, my name is Eric Ravenscraft and I'm an addict. I have a weakness for trying out new online media services. I've signed up and, where applicable, paid for Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, Pandora, Last.fm, Jamendo, Grooveshark, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Epix, Crackle, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, and virtually every other movie and music streaming service on the internet. So it bugs me that I haven't yet been invited to add Redbox Instant to my collection of collections. According to Verizon's CEO, though, people like me won't have to wait too much longer as the service will be going public 'before the end of the first quarter.'

What's most interesting is that the company is touting it has 7,500 "streaming and transactional movie titles" available so far.

07
Jan
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[New App] Blockbuster Launches New Disc Rental Android App To Complement 10 Streaming Apps

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Blockbuster probably has bigger problems than scattershot Android app development, but it's a problem nonetheless. On the surface any effort to clean things up seems like a great idea, but the way Blockbuster has gone about it is... well, bizarre. The company, which was acquired by Dish when everyone stopped renting discs, has released a new Android app. Can you guess what it's for? Yep, renting discs. Brilliant!

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Blockbuster's movie streaming apps appear to still be listed in the Play Store, but these are device specific. There is one app for HTC devices, one for LG devices, and so on.

06
Jan
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[CES 2013] NVIDIA's Project Shield Comes With Streaming PC Games And Steam's Big Picture Mode

Posted by in Games, News

If you've been following PC gaming, you know that Valve has big plans for its Steam platform. NVIDIA wants to leverage the new "Big Picture" mode (a TV user interface, designed to make a gaming PC work more like a game console) with the brand-spanking new Project Thor Shield mobile gaming device. At the CES press conference, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off the Shield Hardware streaming live PC games from a local machine running a high-end GTX 680 graphics card.

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The interface allows for launching both individual games and Steam itself, in a solution that doesn't look like it was built around Steam specifically.

06
Jan
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[CES 2013] NVIDIA GRID Will Power The Next OnLive (With Android Integration), If NVIDIA Has Anything To Say About It

Posted by in News, NVIDIA, Tablets

Okay, so sure, OnLive still exists, but given its financial woes and general instability, it's unlikely that the company will be investing in any new hardware or infrastructure. This is a shame, because NVIDIA just dropped some sweet-looking server racks on us at CES. While it bears more than a little resemblance to the GeForce GRID program, the NVIDIA GRID features the ability to support 24 concurrent users on a single node.

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In addition to providing businesses with huge, server-side processing power, the company is also touting a fully-integrated video game streaming system that includes an Android client.

31
Dec
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[Editorial] Play Store Wishlist: How We'd Like To See Google Improve Its Content Storefront In 2013

Posted by in Editorials, Google

Hey guys, have you heard that 2012 is almost over? Yep! The new millennium is about to be a teenager. It's exciting. (No, the year 2000 is not included, you mathematically remedial cur.) The past twelve months have been fantastic and we'll be hearing more about that later, but one of the things we felt the need to talk a bit more in-depth about is the Play Store. You know the one.

The last year has been hugely transformative for the Play Store. Most notably, it's now called the Play Store! Play Store Play Store Play Store. Let it sink in real deep, because you're gonna be stuck with it for a while, much to David's dismay.

19
Dec
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VUDU Releases Android App, Gives All Those 'Digital Copies' You Keep Getting With Your Blu-Rays A Tablet-y Home

Posted by in Applications, News

Chances are, even if you haven't heard of Vudu (though that's a little hard at this point), you might just own some piece of content that can be used with the service. Vudu is a digital movie locker that allows users to rent or buy movies online and have them streamed to their computers, or a number of set top boxes and Blu-Ray players with internet connectivity. This is all pretty standard fare. The standout feature, though, is Ultraviolet support, which happens to be one of the preferred methods of offering 'digital copies' for Blu-Ray multipacks.

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Once you sign in,  you'll have access to your entire library (if you have one), as well as the ability to shop around for anything you'd like to watch.

13
Dec
bbciplayertiny

BBC iPlayer Updated With Extra UI Polish, Jelly Bean 4.2 Support, And BBC Alba Channel

Posted by in Applications, News

Today, the UK's public broadcasting service, the BBC, upgraded its mobile app for Android. The update brings improvements to the UI to bring the interface a bit more in line with Android's Holo guidelines. The new version also adds support for Jelly Bean 4.2, improved video streaming over WiFi, and a new content channel.

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Here's the full changelog:

What's in this version:

Many thanks for all of your feedback on our last update. Here’s what’s new in this release:
- We’ve polished up the design of the app
- Video performance over Wi-Fi has been improved(with more improvements still to come)
- Added Android 4.2 Jelly Bean support
- You’ll find a new channel - BBC Alba
As ever, let us know what you think @bbciplayer

Of course, the BBC iPlayer isn't available outside the UK, so international users need not excite themselves too much.

12
Dec
redboxtiny

Redbox Instant By Verizon Details Announced: Unlimited Streaming & Four One-Night Disc Rentals Per Month

Posted by in News, Verizon Wireless

We've been hearing rumblings for a while now about Redbox partnering with Verizon for a streaming service. Today, the company announced the details of that arrangement: for $8/month you can get access to unlimited streaming of a selection of movies (including the EPIX library which, for those who don't know, is pretty impressive), as well as four monthly credits to rent a physical movie for one night from any Redbox kiosk.

The plan is clearly aimed to compete with Netflix directly. Customers may recall that the current leader in the streaming video world split off its DVD services from the Instant collection in an attempt to increase revenue.

11
Dec
huluplustiny

Hulu Plus App Update Brings A Special Section Just For Kids And Better Discovery Tools

Posted by in Applications, News

Today, the streaming service best known for completing the Netflix/YouTube trifecta, Hulu Plus, got an update to its mobile Android app. Among the new features are a special Hulu Kids section that showcases a bunch of ad-free content for the youngsters. Parents can even lock the app so that only child-friendly content can be viewed without a password (though this doesn't prevent them from accessing other apps on the device).

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In addition to the kids section, Hulu has also added new features for discovering more content. This largely seems to consist of additional sections on the main page of the app that you can slide through, so nothing unfamiliar, just more of it.

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