Thinking of getting in on the web TV craze? Roku may be your answer: the miniature Apple TV-alike TV box has just touched down in the UK for a very wallet-friendly price. Read more
Tagged ‘netflix’
This week sees the yearly Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It’s a cacophony of tablets, car speaker systems, iPhone cases, washing machines, corpulent analysts in blazers and network infrastructure, but because the mainstream media has only so many column inches to spare, this vast show typically becomes a reductionist competition where hacks attempt to boil it down into as few sweeping trends as possible.
Two years ago, it was 3D TV. Last year, it was still 3D TV. This year, it’s all about smart TVs, hooked up to the internet for on-demand content.
Typically, what’s shown at CES eventually trickles into shops at some point in the summer, but this year it’s different. We’re being shown what we already have. Many of us have smart TV technology in our living rooms already, and we don’t even realise it: case in point, Netflix.
Amazon’s movie streaming and rental service Lovefilm has come out fighting. Today might see the launch of American rival Netflix on British shores, but the UK’s most famous film provider isn’t shrinking away from the competition. It’s just unleashed its final stats for 2011, announcing two million subscribers driven by a record number of sign-ups. Your move, Netflix.
It’s here. Netflix UK has launched, positioning itself as the only real subscription movie service to challenge Lovefilm thus far. The launch sees the movie streamer land on a myriad web-enabled devices as of today. Read more
Netflix has announced that it’ll be stocking a variety of BBC shows when it launches in the UK, marking the first time that non-commercial beeb content has been available to stream outside of the BBC iPlayer. Read more
This week Spotify tried to reposition itself in the market by moving from being an app to an app platform in itself. It’s a change that signals the company’s intention to stick extra pegs in the ground and secure itself as a destination for music lovers. It’s done a fairly good job of that for me so far, even though secretly I’m terrified of it. Read more