Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

It is no secret that Blockbuster has been playing catch up with Netflix for the past few years.  Now, as Netflix has been offering streaming for the Roku for quite some time and HD streaming on newer Blu-Ray players and the Xbox 360, Blockbuster wants in.  Blockbuster quietly released its own set-top box for instant movie watching this past week.  However, instead of taking the Netflix route giving unlimited movies with a monthly fee, Blockbuster is taking a cue from Apple and the tv by charging $1.99 for every movie.

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TiVo is really making a push to have a good holiday season—first by offering better deals at Best Buy and now they have made a mobile website allowing cell phone users to browse TV shows and even schedule recordings. 

Let’s say you’re busy catching the train to come home from work and your favorite show is on, but no one is home to record it for you.  All you would have to do is take out your phone, navigate to m.tivo.com and then schedule a recording for that show.  This website works on any phone, on any network, from any carrier and you don’t even have to own a TiVo to use the site.  If you just want to check out the latest TV shows, you can easily do so on your phone.  Like all mobile websites, they are specifically designed to be viewed on a small screen, so the TiVo mobile site will probably look very nice and not be a strain on your eyes to read. 

Keep reading for more details and the full press release.

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Sections: Video, Content, DVD Players/DVRs, Portable Video, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Websites

TiVo was working the phones.  Staying up late, chain-smoking, downing coffee and Red Bull while forging big deals with partners to make it easy for Best Buy customers to leave the store with a Tivo HD for their newly purchased HDTV.  TiVo scored some deals with their partners in addition to getting Best Buy to knock $100 off the price.  More details after the break.

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Remember HD DVD, the now-dead next-gen format?  Well it turns out that Netflix is getting ready to bring those rentals to an end.  The news comes as little surprise as Netlfix announced way back in February that they decided to support the Blu-ray format. 

The original announcement was that they would phase out HD DVD rentals “by the end of 2008” and well, that time is just about here and the rentals will officially come to an end on December 15.  Which means that at that time, if you have any HD DVD titles in your queue, they will be replaced with a standard DVD.

Via [EngadgetHD]

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You’ve got to feel bad for YouTube.  After becoming the Internet’s darling for such fun gags, it wants to get a day job.  No longer content with just the clearing house for pranks and short clips, it wants to be in the full length movie business as well as the TV show business. 

YouTube served up this kind of content at one time but was forced to take most of it down over copyright claims.  Now YouTube is working with Hollywood to gain their trust and their content.

But it isn’t an easy road.  Sure YouTube has the traffic, 81 million folks in September but they also have the baggage.  And it’s more than just past indiscretions.

Find out what’s next for YouTube.

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Sections: Video, Content, Web, Websites, Online Music/Video

Netflix has recently announced they are planning to stop selling used DVDs on their website.  The last day for any subscribers to grab that used DVD will be November 30, 2008, after which all DVD sales will be passed off to a wholesaler in bulk.  Personally, I had no interest in purchasing those used DVDs, so this makes sense to me.  It will most likely save Netflix some time and money by getting rid of the movies in a large bunch, instead of shipping them out to customers a few at a time.

According to the Netflix Blog, this will allow the company to “spend the extra time focusing on continually improving our core rental business for you.“  They also made a nice point that “this is in no way an indicator of moving away from DVDs,“ claiming that they feel DVDs will be around for at least “the next five to ten years.“  Of course, it is hard to think that Netflix is not beginning to plan for that time when DVDs will no longer be a viable option, and for the time when the Watch Instantly feature will see more use than the USPS.

Read [Netflix Blog]

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In the wake of the Xbox 360 receiving Netflix streaming High Definition, Roku has announced, on their own forums, that they will have HD streaming on Roku boxes before the end of the year.  Roku boxes were, in fact, the first devices to offer the Netflix “Watch Now” functionality, straight to your TV. 

On the Roku Labs Forums, “RokuTim” (Tim Twerdahl, VP of Consumer Products at Roku) told the masses that “Roku will be delivering Netflix in HD by the end of the year.“  This is great news for everybody who hopped on the Roku bandwagon early, however he also mentioned that “Roku will be using Advanced Profile encodes which will deliver HD at substantially lower bit-rates than what Xbox is offering.“  Uh oh.  Looks like the Xbox 360 has the upper hand here, and that your Roku HD movies may be a tad on the choppy side. 

More after the break.

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Sections: Video, Content, HDTV, Web, Websites

Despite uneasy feelings on Wall Stre5et, electronic gadgets are predicted to gain in sales by 3.5 percent over last year’s Q4.  While overall spending is set to decline on holiday shopping, gadgets are somewhat immune.  According the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association), specific gadgets will still do extremely well this holiday season.

Smartphones

Any product that increases connectivity with friends and loved ones will be spent on more heavily according to the CEA report.  Consumers will forgo other luxury spending to get smartphones that can handle e-mail, texting, phoning and even Internet browsing.  Consumers can justify the expense easier as the phone becomes integral to daily life.

See what other electronics can withstand this economy after the break.

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According to a source, you can opt into the new Netflix Watch Instantly movie player.  The source is The Official Netflix Blog, so it’s probably accurate.  This brings Netflix’s movie player to OS X for the first time (without running Windows) by using Microsoft’s Silverlight.

If you’re a slider and you use both Mac and Windows machines, once you opt into the Silverlight experience, you’re locked into to it for both platforms.  If you’re a Windows-only user, you may wonder why bother with opting in at all?  Well, maybe you hate Internet Explorer and you’ve always wanted to watch Netflix in Firefox.  This is your chance.

However, there is no opting out yet.  If the experience sucks, you’re stuck.  It’s a beta, so you know what that means.  I’m using it now and have already been hit with some errors.  Some movies that used to work don’t play Silverlight yet (mostly Starz offerings). 

Go for it!  [Netflix opt-in link]
Read more at the [The Official Netflix Blog]

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Sections: Apple, Video, Accessories, Web, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Online Music/Video

Each year we are offered tricks and treats by tech companies.  Some products turn out better than we hope and some far worse than we ever imagined.  For this Halloween Who’s on Crack, let’s take a look at who has offered more treats than tricks.

As promised, I am not including Motorola in this list, though I think we all know they belong here.  With that, I give you my trick or treat list.

See who made my list by following me.

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