netflixed

Amazon flicks on its streaming-video service

Amazon.com on Thursday made available to the general public its video-on-demand service, through which ad-free movies and TV shows can be streamed on Macs, PCs, and Sony Bravia flat-screen TVs.

The broader release of the Amazon Video on Demand service comes two months after the online-retailing giant began offering the service to a limited number of its users.

Amazon's service aims to enable users to instantly watch movies or TV shows via a Web browser on their Mac OS or Windows machine. The online retailer is also teaming up with Sony to enable users to purchase or rent … Read more

Feedflix visualizes your Netflix rental habits

If you've ever wondered how much you're costing Netflix when you go on those month-long movie binges, you should give Feedflix a go. It takes any one of your personal Netflix RSS feeds and figures out how many movies you're watching per month and what the cost comes out to for each DVD. It also breaks down your biggest return days and how long you tend to keep titles.

Ultimately, most of this information is useless, as with some simple math a Netflix membership tends to end up costing less per-rental after just four DVDs based on … Read more

Is it time for Netflix to invest in system upgrade?

Netflix has traced the causes of a lengthy system outage this month that prevented the online movie rental service from shipping for several days to a hardware glitch.

The good news for the company is that it received lots of help from vendors to determine that the cause of the outage, which hobbled the company's ability to ship DVDs from August 11 to August 15, was a "key faulty hardware component." Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, said the company's "strongest aspiration is to safeguard this from ever happening again."

The bad news for the … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: New details about last Netflix outage

Netflix now says it has traced the causes of a system outage earlier this month--its longest ever--to a hardware glitch. CNET News reporter Greg Sandoval talks about what that information portends for the soundness of the movie delivery system.

And yet another use for Google Earth--determining which direction cows face! Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Hewlett-Packard seals EDS deal

AT&T expands iPhone international data plans

'Tetris'-like iPhone app to be pulled

Drawings of Android phone revealed

Google launches free ad management tool

Google Earth shows cows point north

Buzz Out Loud 790: Netflix, FIOS, and a boyfriend

Natali Del Conte joins us today for a discussion of whether it's more difficult, these days, to get FIOS installed, get a Netflix disc delivered, or find a decent man in New York. No, she's not taking applications. Also, confirmation of iPhone 3G issues which Molly, stunningly, has not experienced.

--Molly Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 790 iPhone 3G Connectivity Affecting 2% of Customers? Software Fix Soon? http://www.macrumors.com/2008/08/18/iphone-3g-connectivity-affecting-2-of-customers-software-fix-soon/

GPhone On Its Way! FCC Approves HTC Dream, On Sale By Nov. 10? http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/gphone-on-its-way-fcc-approves-htc-dream http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/08/18/dream_fcc_test_results/ … Read more

Netflix computer problems continue

Isn't it always like this? Yesterday I wrote gushing nice comments about Netflix and today, I get sucked into their latest problem.

I'm a Netflix customer, but since I wasn't expecting a DVD delivery in the last few days, I didn't expect to be impacted by their recent shipping problems. At first, I wasn't. But, they just (Sunday August 17, 2008 around 8PM ET) sent an email (see below) that says they are about to re-send my most recent DVD again. This is a movie that I received a few days ago.

For Tue: The … Read more

Some companies you can trust, and some you can't

All companies have computer problems, how they deal with them separates the men from the boys.

Netflix

When I was away from home recently for an extended period of time, I tried to change the shipping address on my Netflix account. What should have been trivial became a problem because the Netflix web site made assumptions about the format of the address that didn't apply in my case. Every time I entered the address, their system reformatted it. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to enter the correct address, so I contacted someone at … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 789: We like the Moon, don't break it

Veronica's back with us today as we record from the New Media Expo in Las Vegas. We talk about the woes of the modern Web, and specifically Netflix's problems on the back-end. Also there's some news about Windows 7, or at least news about when more news will be coming. And thankfully the IOC backed down on the DMCA takedown notice. That and some more hilarious e-mails.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 789

Netflix may lose $1.8M to $3.6M in revenue per day over outage http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9676

10 … Read more

Netflix is shipping again

Netflix has fixed or patched whatever problem it had that shut down its 55 distribution centers this week, and has begun shipping DVDs again.

While the company has not disclosed the nature of the issue that prevented it from operating, it has announced its program to make up for its lapse of service. Netflix customers who were affected by the delay will get a 15 percent credit on the amount of their next monthly bill. New customers still in the free trial will get an additional week before their subscription becomes paid.

Fifteen percent is a token refund, but it … Read more