netflix

Blockbuster OnDemand lands on TiVo

Broadband-connected TiVo DVR subscribers have access to Blockbuster's long-awaited OnDemand rental service, TiVo announced on Tuesday.

The service is available to owners of TiVo Series2 and TiVo Series3 digital-video recorders (including the TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL).

According to the company, users will be able to stream films ranging from new releases to classics. Users will be charged $2.99 for classic hits and $3.99 for new releases. Blockbuster will be adding more films over the coming weeks, including "select HD titles."

As part of the agreement, Blockbuster will also begin selling TiVo DVRs in &… Read more

HP ushers in third wave of TouchSmart desktop all-in-ones

HP just announced the third upgrade to of its line of TouchSmart PCs, and the first model we've laid hands on, the TouchSmart 600 (full review here), was good enough to earn an Editor's Choice award. The new TouchSmart 300 and TouchSmart 600 feature 20-inch and 23-inch screens, respectively, and both offer the same multitouch screen with either a 16:9 1080P HD or HD-ready display.

To coincide with this announcement, HP is also rolling out exclusive applications for the TouchSmart PCs that take advantage of its multitouch enabled screen and Windows 7, including, but not limited to:

Hulu Desktop: browse and watch your favorite TV shows Netflix: Instantly watch movies or browse and add films to your online queue Pandora Internet Radio: Discover new music based on your personalized taste TouchSmart Live TV: Watch and record your favorite television shows TouchSmart Canvas: organize your photos on a virtual canvas and use your fingers to make edits TouchSmart RecipeBox: Enjoy a hands-free cooking experience with recipes that respond to voice commands

Of those apps, the Recipe Box is the most impressive. Smart software lets you scrap and catalog recipes from a variety of popular recipe Web sites (Epicurious, Food Network, and Martha Stewart among them), and via voice recognition and text-to-speech you can navigate the recipes hands-free. It's the best kitchen-oriented PC solution we've seen.

The new 300 and 600 models also include a new swivel stand, a built-in wall mount support, in addition to a new tiltable web cam for group conferences and video chats. Both models are available in a variety of retail configurations with customizable configurations available at HP.com.

More photos after the jump.… Read more

The Digital Home 202: Which console is best?

This week's episode of The Digital Home Podcast takes a look at the value of video game consoles and determines which is best. We also give you this week's site of the week! Check it out.

Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | RSS (audio) Shownotes for EPISODE 202

RIM set to release Mac-syncing software

Apple App Store hits 2 billion downloads, 85,000 apps

Which console now provides the most value?

New Xbox 360 holiday bundle announced

This week's cool site: Twt.fm. Check out my hands-on look here.

And as always, follow me on Twitter!

Big surprise: People don't watch commercials

The availability of instant digital downloads from services like iTunes, Amazon, or Netflix has made it convenient for me watch TV shows on my time, without the commercials. Isn't it obvious? I choose when to watch a show and I save about 15 minutes worth of useless advertising.

Similarly, one might use a DVR to record shows and watch them at a later time, with the liberty of fast-forwarding through ads. Although there are those who don't mind commercials, most would probably skip them. So it's not surprising that TiVo reported "nearly all of the television … Read more

FeedFliks shows if you are a Netflix hog

FeedFliks' motto is "Get your money's worth from Netflix" and it comes with a variety of tracking tools to help you do just that. Josh Lowensohn covered this start-up a little more than a year ago, but since then FeedFliks has taken advantage of Netflix's API to build out an even more impressive set of features. FeedFliks allows you to see how long you have movies checked out, what your cost per movie is, as well as optimize your queue.

In its early days, FeedFliks used your Netflix RSS feed to pull its information, but the … Read more

The Digital Home 201: It's baaaaaack!

The Digital Home Podcast is back! After a looooong hiatus, Don Reisinger is ready to get back in the saddle and take on hot tech topics once more. Check it out! Oh, and sorry about the sound. That will be fixed next week.

Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | RSS (audio) EPISODE 201

Shownotes for episode 201

Report: New wireless adapter for Xbox 360 to cost $100

Netflix CEO hopes to stream to PS3, Wii, iPhone

Lessons learned: Switching to the TiVo HD

This week's cool site: Google Books. Check out my hands-on look here.

And as always, follow me on Twitter!… Read more

Netflix CEO hopes to stream to PS3, Wii, iPhone

Although it has no immediate plans to do so, online video rental service Netflix is hoping to bring its video-streaming service to Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, and Apple's iPhone, CEO Reed Hastings said in a recent interview with Reuters.

Hastings told Reuters that his hope is that Netflix's streaming service will eventually "be on all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, (and) all the Internet TVs." But as Hastings pointed out, his company has signed a deal with Microsoft to deliver Netflix streaming exclusively to the Xbox 360 in the video game … Read more

BOL 1068: You can't survive the stink!

AT&T lets you pay for its network holes, Chrysler puts auto manuals on DVD (and how are you supposed to use that in the car?), MySpace says its video portal is here now, USB 3.0 is here, Europe gives Google a green light to sell ads to the black marketers, and when you're dead on the Web, you're dead.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1068

AT&T breaks out its new 3G Microcell http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-10358045-85.html

3G MicroCells: Carriers … Read more

Netflix awards $1 million for outdoing Cinematch

Three years ago, Netflix announced that it would give $1 million to whoever could improve its recommendation algorithm, Cinematch, by 10 percent accuracy. Called the Netflix Prize, its difficulty had become infamous. Now, a team has finally accomplished the seemingly impossible feat--well, two teams actually.

After three years of competing, BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos submitted its winning algorithm only 24 minutes before another team, The Ensemble, submitted its own showing 10 percent improvement. In fact, the accuracy of the two submissions were identical, so BellKor was awarded the $1 million prize for being first. BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos is made … Read more