Are you a Netflix subscriber? Do you own a PS3? Well boy I have great news for you! Starting this Monday, October 18 you will be able to access, manage, and play Netflix content from your PS3 without the (until now) necessary instant streaming disc. Oh-ho-ho but there’s more. Netflix on PS3 will allow for full HD 1080p playback and 5.1-channel surround sound. Netflix has partnered with Dolby to support Dolby Digital Plus audio for selected content. In addition to all this, the Netflix user experience on the gaming console has undegone a redesign. Menu selection and browsing looks quick and intuitive, plus there’s the new option to search! Nabbing the new version of Netflix on Monday is a snap; scroll over to the Video icon in the XMB and it’ll be sitting there waiting to be downloaded. Look after the break for a brief video demonstration of the service.
Starting Monday, Netflix on PS3 will be the best way to stream Netflix on your TV. No other Netflix-enabled box supports Netflix 1080p + Dolby 5.1 surround sound content…yet.
OnLive, the gaming on-demand cloud-based service, is no longer requiring a monthy fee to access its features. This is really great news, so great in fact I’ll allow Founder & CEO Steve Perlman to explain the sudden change in philosophy.
Of course, we’ve had a promotion waiving the monthly fee for the first year, so this announcement is confirming what we had hoped—that we can continue without a monthly fee beyond the first year. Although we wish we could have confirmed no monthly fee from the get-go, pioneering a major new video game paradigm is hard: we had to first grow to a large base of regular users before we could understand usage patterns and operating costs. Now that we’ve reached that stage, we can confidently say a monthly fee is not needed, which deserves a double WOOT! WOOT!
Woot woot, indeed. The original plan was to waive the monthy fee for the first year, as Perlman explained, and then charge $4.95/month for the second year. All that’s been scrapped. Instant-play demos, massive spectating, brag clip videos, messaging, and friending are all absolutely free to access now. The only time you’ll need to whip out a credit card is if you decide to buy a 3-day or 5-day PlayPass to stream a full game. You may also decide to purchase a game for keeps. All in all this is an exciting move forward for OnLive. And coming this holiday season are the MicroConsole TV Adapters and OnLive Game Pad Controllers that promise to bring the games from the PC to the TV hassle-free. So watcha waiting for? Get your streamin’ on.
Today Boxee CEO Avner Ronen announced that the Boxee Box by D-Link will cost $199 when it releases this November. But what is the Boxee Box, you ask? Let me tell you.
The Internet is packed with tons of video. There’s YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and so on. All of these portals host all kinds of video ranging from movies, TV shows, and user-generated content. Some of these sites feature video in high definition (up to 1080p) and they look great on our desktop monitors and laptop displays. Boxee’s aim is to bring the abundance of video found all over the Internet from your small computer screen to your large HDTV. For years the Boxee software has been available to download for free on the PC, Mac, and Linux and for those who own Boxee-compatible hardware (ie. Apple TV). After years of development, Boxee is almost ready to release the Boxee Box into the wild. The hardware is collabortively made by Boxee and D-Link and the software is developed in-house by the Boxee team. With the Boxee Box, the company is going to bring the ultimate Boxee experience to the living room–they are going to tailor the Internet for the TV 1080p, 5.1 surround sound style (where available).
In essence, the Boxee software aggregates video content from all over the Internet into one place, making it extremely simple to find a TV show, movie, or really any kind of streaming video that is available on the web. The Boxee Box will feature a streamlined user interface to make accessing any streaming video on the ‘Net a snap. For example, let’s say you want to watch an episode of ABC’s Modern Family. You can search the keyboard “Modern Family” and Boxee will scour the Internet for all legal outlets that are streaming episodes from that show. Thanks to the Boxee Box’s built-in Mozilla-based Webkit browser with Flash & HTML5 support, you will have access to so much content you won’t know where to start. And the best part is that the Boxee service is f-r-e-e free! Once you pay for the hardware, there are no additional costs, no subscription fees, no nothing. Stream free video content from the Internet to your TV. That’s it. (Keep in mind that you can also stream Netflix, Hulu Plus, MLB.tv, and other paid content as long as you are a paying subscriber.)
Besides streaming video content from the Internet to your TV, the Boxee Box will also support social networking and all kinds of apps. You can attach your Facebook and Twitter accounts to the Box to keep a tab on what your friends are watching and give recommendations. (Boxee calls this the “first “social” media center”, get it?) In the app center, you can download Internet-streaming applications like Pandora and MLB.tv and run them straight from Boxee. You can take things one step further by wirelessly connecting the Boxee Box to your home network, enabling you to access “virtually any file type” from your computer (think pictures, music, video) to view on your HDTV. If you can view it on your computer, chances are you can view it on your TV if you have the Boxee Box–get it?
You’ve heard of UStream? Well Google is looking to add similar functionality to their popular video site. Today and tomorrow YouTube will be testing a live streaming platform with four content partners: Howcast, Next New Networks, Rocketboom and Young Hollywood. The platform seemlessly integrates live streaming into a YouTube channel page. All they require of selected broadcasters is a webcam or external USB/FireWire camera. Easy peesy, right? A “Live Comments” module sits to the right of the live video stream; this gives viewers and broadcasters the ability to communicate with one another. Remember this is only a two-day trial only for the specified content partners; Google promises to “evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to our partners worldwide” at an undisclosed date. So don’t think you can broadcast live your own keyboard cat doing his thing for the world to see…yet. Click the links provided above (or scrub through the interactive embedded YouTube TV-mabob) to catch live content before time runs out.
Netflix on the iPhone and iPod touch is no surprise; the free app was demoed at WWDC back in June and the iPad has been enjoying its company since launch. On August 26 the Netflix app was updated (to version 1.1.0) to support all iOS4 devices. The app will stream movies and TV shows over WiFi and 3G. Within the app you have access to your personal Instant Queue (which is managable right on the device) and you can search and add new content to your queue using a standard search method or viewing content by genre. You also have the ability to resume watching a show or movie right where you left off on your TV or computer. The app itself is free, but remember you must be signed up for a Netflix membership (which starts at $8.99/month) to login and start streaming. Download the app here and happy streaming! Look after the break for a brief video preview of the app in action.
Since its inception way back in 2005 YouTube limited video upload length to 10 minutes. After reviewing their most requested features, YouTube has decided to increase that limit by 50 percent to 15 minutes. Up to this point only revenue-sharing “parterns” have been allowed to upload video longer than 10 minutes, but now good ‘ol regular users can get in on the fun. I’m not so sure if I need to witness an extra 5 minutes of “double rainbow all the way” (OK, maybe I do), but this increase will definitely help out those users who upload lengthy tutorials; now you might notice a smaller amount of videos being broken up in “parts” thanks to the increase time limit. Take heed: “If you’re uploading a video that was previously rejected for being too long, you’ll have to go into “My Videos” and delete it before attempting to upload it again.”
In other YouTube news… do you remember the super simple but classic and highly addicting game called Snake? It was preloaded onto many early Nokia dumbphones back in the day. It’s the one where you take the form of a snake and your goal is to collect small food pellets the pop up in different areas on the screen; every time you eat a pellet the snake grows longer. You lose when you tie yourself up and make the snake’s head run into a part of its body or run into the edges of the screen. Anyway…YouTube has incorporated the game into all of its videos as an easter egg. While you’re waiting for a video to start streaming (or if it gets stuck buffering) start mashing the left arrow key on your keyboard to turn the video loading circle icon into a snake; play with the directional keys. If you want to give it a try but have fast Internet speeds, trying loading an intensive HD 1080p or better yet a 4K resolution video. Happy trails.
On July 14 Hulu Plus, the $9.99/month service that grants you access to boatloads of Hulu content on and beyond the PC, launched on the PlayStation 3. Currently only “a select group” of PlayStation Plus subscribers can gain access to Hulu Plus since it’s still in a preview phase. Remember, PlayStation Plus subscribers pay an additional $50/year for the recently launch Sony service that provides gamers with exclusive game demos, trials, and other content. If you’re a member of the PS Plus community you can download the free Hulu Plus application in the PlayStation Store and request an invitation to the preview. If you’re selected, good for you! If you’re not selected, and if you’re not a paying PS Plus subscriber, there’s no need to worry. “As Hulu Plus becomes generally available in the coming months”, all PS3 owners will have access to Hulu Plus. PlayStation 3 will be the only console-bound home for Hulu Plus through 2010. It is expected to land on Xbox 360 and Wii sometime next year. Full PR after the break.
OnLive is a gaming on-demand cloud-based service that’s able to stream video game titles from massive servers around the U.S. straight into your home. Man is that a packed sentence. Let me break it down for you. OnLive has three data centers in the country (east coast, central, and west coast) that house large servers; these servers act as hosts to a bunch of video games. If you sign up for the OnLive service and become a member of the community, the servers will pump video game content from the data center nearest you to your Internet-enabled PC or Mac. Again, it’s essentially gaming on-demand. After installing a plugin in your browser, you can launch OnLive and gain access to a growing library of video game titles. It’s that simple, really.
The OnLive interface is neat. There’s a game marketplace that allows you to choose from a wide selection of games. With a single click you can play a game; or you can find out more about the game before you dive in by watching game previews & trailers. You can even watch other OnLive members play the selected game in real time. The interface drags you into the action of other players, and this is a great way to get a glimpse of a game’s visuals and game style. Besides strictly being there for on-demand gaming, the service hopes to form a community of gamers with features like profiles, friends lists, and brag clips (you can record gameplay and share these moments with other OnLive members).
What’s most exciting about the OnLive service is that it does away with the need for over-the-top and expensive hardware requirements for games. Crysis, a game that is known to be hardware intensive, will play smoothly and look great playing off an old Macbook or PC laptop. The secret formula is OnLive’s proprietary video compression chips that pump out the games from the servers over the Internet and to your computer. As long as you have a 4-5 Mbps Internet connection you will have no problem playing what used to be hardware intensive games in HD (a 1.5 Mbps connection is recommended for SD quality). I really want to hit this point home as well: Since this is gaming on-demand, the service brings together games from all major game consoles (Xbox, PlayStation, PC) and enables you to play them right on your PC or Mac. No need for proprietary hardware and cables. All you need is an Internet connection, a computer, and a keyboard and/or Xbox-type USB controller.
There’s gotta be some lag, you’re thinking to yourself. I was skeptical at first, too. But I gotta say, after playing Just Cause 2 off an old Macbook over the OnLive service, I did not notice the slightest bit of latency between my controller button-mashing and the on-screen action. It truly felt as if I was playing the game locally off a computer or video games console. And what’s fascinating is that Just Cause 2 was running off a server more than 500 miles away in Santa Clara! Though there likely is some latency if you want to get all technical, I honestly did not pick up on it during my brief session of gameplay. I was told that as long as you are within a 1000 mile radius of an OnLive data center you should not experience noticeable latency.
Now let’s talk pricing and availability. OnLive is available to use today (in fact it was turned on a day after my interview took place). You sign up for the service at their website. The “OnLive Founding Members Program” is backed by AT&T and it offers the first year of use for free (!), followed by a $4.95/month fee for the second year. There’s no contract requirement which means if there’s a month you don’t feel like using the service just don’t for it that month. Right now it looks like the company is slowly opening the gates to the OnLive community; if you want to sign up to play you have to sit on a waiting list. Bummer, I know, but the service is still in its infancy and I’m sure the company does not want to overload its servers this early in the game.
And what about software partners? You will not be disappointed on this front. Just announced was partnerships with Sega, Capcom, Konami, and Square Enix. Popular publishers like EA, Ubisoft, THQ, Warner Bros. Interactive, and Disney Interactive are also bringing their titles to the service as well. I’m told new publishers are jumping on the OnLive bandwagon all the time, and this is great news for gamers.
Beside the addition of developer support, OnLive will be adding their MicroConsole to the mix later this year. Basically it’s a small (and I’m told inexpensive) piece of hardware that will allow members to play the streaming games on their HDTVs. It will support up to four wireless controllers, multiple Bluetooth headsets, and it packs two USB ports for wired controllers and keyboards.
Is OnLive the future of gaming? Though it’s too early to tell, you can definitely see the potential it brings to the table. With OnLive there’s no need for high-end graphics cards and to run to a store to purchase a game disc. No longer do you have to worry about upgrading hardware to play the latest and greatest games. If you’ve got the proper Internet connection and live within range of a data center, you are golden. I’ve experience it with my own two eyes and thumbs–the latency was non-existent on the show floor. Though my skepticism has been lowered down a notch, I’m still going to wait for a final verdict after I give the service a try on my own computer at home. Even if OnLive doesn’t catch on and become widely popular, replace game consoles and eliminate the graphics cards arms race, you can bet everyone from industry leaders to gamers will turn to this service as an example of how the next phase of video game distribution was imagined and first put into place.
When Sling released the $29.99 Slingplayer app for the iPhone back in May, AT&T restricted it from streaming live TV over its 3G service because they were worried the overload of data would bring its cell service to its knees. Poor AT&T. This week AT&T has come out and stated they have been working closely with Sling to optimize Slingplayer’s streaming capabilities so that it would not hurt AT&T’s customers. As soon as Apple approves it, a free update will allow Slingers to stream their content over 3G, in addition to WiFi. With news of AT&T approving VoIP calls and now Sling streaming over 3G, it seems as if AT&T at long last has come to accept the fact that restricting significant features on its most popular device is a major no-no.
According to the NY Times, Disney is in talks with Microsoft to bring ESPN to Xbox Live. Sure, Live subscribers already have access to the large Netflix library to rent the latest movies and TV shows, but streaming live sporting events takes things to a whole new level. ESPN on Xbox Live would be set up in a similar fashion to the ESPN 360 service that’s been widely available from a number of ISPs. The Times reports that it would be based on a per-subscriber fee and include access to live sporting events and interactive games labeled with the ESPN brand. Hulu on the PC, Netflix and ESPN on Xbox Live; this tidbit of news gives us yet another reason to cut the cord that is cable.
In a recent interview Nintendo President Satoru Iwata splilled the beans on what to expect from the successor of the Nintendo DS: “[It will have] highly detailed graphics…And it will be necessary to have a sensor with the ability to read the movements of people playing.” How interesting, Mr. Iwata. I can see an advanced accelerometer placed inside a new DS-like portable gaming device that will allow for motion control in Nintendo and third party games. As for the “highly detailed graphics,” this comment adds sparks to the fire about an NVIDIA Tegra chip being incorporated in the next DS.
In other Nintendo news, it was just announced that the Nintendo Wii will join the Xbox 360 and PS3 and finally support the Netflix service. Like the PS3, the Wii will require users to place an “instant-streaming” disc into the console in order to stream movies and TV shows. Obviously the Wii will not support HD content since its lowly graphics card can only handle 480p resolution. And per usual, there will be no additional fee to watch Netflix on top of Netflix’s monthly fees. If you’ve got a Wii and a Netflix subscription, head on over to Netflix to order your very own instant-streaming disc today. What are you waiting for?
Sony announced that it will be offering Netflix streaming movies and TV shows to its Playstation 3 console owners come this November, thereby throwing the Xbox 360-Netflix exclusitivity out the window. Initially PS3 owners will be forced to feed a Netflix CD into the console in order for streaming capabilities to function. Don’t fret too much; Sony plans on releasing a software update sometime in 2010 that will remove this annoying barrier to entry. PS3 owners can order a streaming CD directly from Netflix. Check out the official press release after the break.
It is worthy to note that streaming Netflix on the PS3 (on Sony’s end) is absolutely free. What you pay for is the Netflix service itself, which starts at $8.99/month and rises as you increase the number of rentals. The Xbox 306, on the other hand, requires you to pay to stream Netflix content; you must be an Xbox Live Gold member ($50/year subscription) to access the Netflix menus.
In much related news, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter foresees the Nintendo Wii also gaining the ability to stream video via the Netflix service sometime next year. Though will many be excited for Netflix capabilities on a non-HD device?
