We find ourselves with a ton of news and only so many hours a day to read it all in. The reviews are flowing once more, we have a fresh fire lit under my can and a wonderful outlook for the holiday season. This show has some bad jokes some good laughs and some wonderful discussion. All in a nights work. You really owe it to yourself to make the live show. We do our best to throw down a good time!
As each year goes by, all the gadgets and gizmos get smaller and smaller. And more and more start to become obsolete. You would never think that the cable box could disappear. Well, think again.
The wonderful folks over at Microsoft has showed us that the process of elimination has begun. With the most recent update, the Xbox 360 will now be able to do more than just play video games, watching movies using Netflix. Besides Hulu Plus, there will be more selections of what you can watch now on your system. MSNBC’s The Today Show and Epix, cable movie channel, are a couple of the first channels to be added. More are expected to join, such as Youtube, DailyMotion, and HBO GO (coming sometime in 2012) are just some the the channels coming.
Of course, not all are free. You need an Xbox Live Gold membership to be able to use the new features, which is understandable. That is the easy part. There are, and will be some channels that you will need separate service accounts to use, such as Netflix and HBO GO. Now if you think you can get rid of you cable provider, hold on for now.Verizon FIOS and Comcast Xfinity will be bringing their services to Xbox, but not until later. Verizon will be using the gaming system as a limited set top box, which will start later this month. Comcast is hoping to have their system ready by early 2012. They will be offering ther “On-Demand” services, but not live television.
The other part of this update is for the Kinect. With advanced terchnology now at hand, you will now have the ability to search through your xbox using voice activation. The system uses Bing search engine to find what you are looking for. With everything squeezing into our Xbox 360, certain products like Boxee and Google TV might have some good competition.
About a month ago, I released a story about how Netflix was making big changes. This news did not sit well with just about every subscriber of Netflix. Comments came pouring in about splitting the company into 2 different services. The overall feeling was that it was the worst idea for Netflix to come up with. Well, that and raise in prices. It was a decision that would have devastated the company.
After all the complaining finally settled, Netflix finally realized what they were about to do. So, to make sure everything clears up, Netflix sent all the customers, like me, an email like this…
Dear Stephen,
It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.
This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.
While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.
We’re constantly improving our streaming selection. We’ve recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we’ve added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.
We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.
Respectfully,
The Netflix Team
For probably all of us, this was a sign of relief. The idea just seemed to complicated. And the company would have definitely lost a decent amount of customers.
When Netflix raised their prices, people were outraged. Many dropped the service, feeling it was too expensive to keep receiving DVDs in the mail. So, to try and get rid of the confusion, get back some old customers, and grab some new ones, Netflix is making some drastic changes.
One of the changes they did to infuriate customers, was splitting up the streaming movie service and DVD-by-mail service. So what they are going to do, is completley change the name of DVD-by-mail service, which will be called “Qwikster.” Netflix will still keep the name, however, it will only be for the streaming videos. Their will also be a change in your credit card statement, but the prices will stay the same.
For me, the best part is what they are adding to the service. Not too long ago, I wrote an article, Gamefly vs. Redbox, that talked about how Redbox started video game rentals. What will be known as Qwikster, will not only be using the DVD-by-mail service, but they will be giving into the video game rentals. Many customers having been wanting this service for years. At this time, there is no information as to when this will start and the price of the service. It is great to hear that they are going ahead and trying this out. Now that Netflix will be doing game rentals, it will be another company to add to the list of companies who give the same service. Since Netflix is a popular name, they might have a better chance of succeeding.
This comes to light after Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix, released a statement on the Netflix Blog , explaining the changes that have happened and that are coming. Many comments about this blog are showing disagreement on all the changes. Some explain the problems it will cause. Only time will tell how well this new system will work
If you have been paying attention you’ll know that I love me some comic books. It isn’t focused on one universe either. Marvel, DC, whatever if the story is interesting then I’m all for it. That being said, I am a huge fan of Batman. He’s a normal guy to Superman’s Uber-Human. Wealthy, yes, because if he was a poor kid he wouldn’t have all those wonderful toys.
The Dark Knight series of movies has been fantastic thus far, with a villainous cast overshadowing the Bat, and I’m fine with that. It keeps the series fresh from film to film. In the final installment of the trilogy We have a cavalcade of villains. Catwoman, Bane and Hugo Strange. While this isn’t the official trailer, it just fits perfectly.
And yes. Robin Williams will be Dr Hugo Strange. For a primer go see Insomnia and One Hour Photo, he can pull off villain, and it will be brilliant. Can’t wait to see the real trailer. 2011-2012 is shaping up to be a fun time to be a comic book fan.
I sifted through the tattered remains of my week to find bits of awesome content. Hopefully you enjoy steampunk, science fiction movies, coffee, t shirts and geekery as much as I do. But then again you ARE listening to the only place that has all of the above with any type of regularity! Enjoy the show.
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