Since its launch on the iPad, Netflix has been one of the top 10 most downloaded apps in Apple’s App Store, revealed Netflix CEO Reed Hastings today during the WWDC Keynote.  It’s also the #1 downloaded entertainment app.  Because of its success on the iPad, Netflix for the iPhone will be released this summer.  And for free!

Before Hastings stepped up to center stage, Steve Jobs told the crowd that Netflix was one app consistently requested.  In April, Apple and Netflix announced the streaming video service would be coming to the iPad.  This news upset many iPhone users who had been anxiously waiting for Netflix on their phones.  Now their wish has been fulfilled.  Will you be watching Netflix from the comfort of your iPhone this summer?

Photo courtesy of Engadget’s Live Blog

So how will Netflix actually work on the iPhone 4? The app is said to use HTTP adaptive streaming and be able to seamlessly switch between Wi-Fi and 3G networks. This streaming method should improve video quality during playback. As is the case on the iPad, computer or internet-capable televisions, Netflix subscribers can begin watching a movie or show on one device. If they pause it and, later, revisit their account from another device, it will resume at the same point at which they left off. Users will also be able to search their “Instant Queue” from within the app.

No exact date has been announced regarding its release, as of yet. Once it is, we’ll be sure and pass it on to readers. AT&T pricing for the device, which will be available in black and white, is set at $199 (16 GB) and $299 (32 GB). Preordering for the iPhone 4 will begin on June 15, 2010, for the United States, France, Germany, United Kingdom,  and Japan. The devices will begin shipping on June 24, 2010. The updated iPhone OS 4.0 will be available beginning on June 21, 2010. Supported devices, in addition to the iPhone 4, include the iPhone 3GS, 3G, and iPod Touch. The iPhone 3G and iPod Touch devices will be limited to certain features, which are unspecified, as of yet. First generation iPhones will not be supported at all by the new OS.

Sources:

Netflix is Indeed Coming To iPhone Says Steve Jobs [The Consumerist]
Live WWDC 2010 Keynote Coverage [gdgt live]
Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010 [Engadget LiveBlog]

Last week, Yahoo! announced it will begin expanding its Facebook-like news feed it calls Updates. Updates allow you to share information about your activities such as comments and ratings you leave on Yahoo!-based sites; Flickr and Picasa public photos; blog posts on Blogger, Tumbler and the like; music preferences on Pandora and Last.fm; YouTube activities; tweets from your Twitter account; Yelp reviews; and information from a handful of other sites like Goodreads.

Currently, Updates are only seen by your Yahoo! Connections, but Yahoo! is expanding it so that Updates will also be seen by your Messenger friends and anyone in your Yahoo! Mail contacts. Similar to the Google Buzz roll-out, as soon as this update is effective, everyone will automatically be able to see your Updates. Unlike the Google Buzz fiasco, though, all your contacts and Messenger buddies will remain private.

Even though Yahoo! is learning from Google’s mistake of revealing a person’s contacts, the expansion is still opt-out, meaning you will have to manually turn off this feature. The other major flaw, as pointed out by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is that you will never fully know who is following your updates. Since Yahoo! mail contact lists will not be revealed; if someone has you in their contact list, they will be able to view your Updates news feed without your knowledge whenever they log into Yahoo!.

While we agree that keeping contact lists private is the only way to go, a person should still be able to control who has access to their information. Some people will argue that shouldn’t matter since the information can easily be found publicly by searching in a few places. But in this case, Yahoo! has made it all-or-nothing. Users don’t have the ability to cherry-pick individual access to their Updates, only the ability to choose which information is displayed. The only way to ensure the wrong people aren’t looking at your information is to completely opt out of Updates. Or just not post anything publicly on Yahoo!.

After reading Yahoo!’s blog about the Updates expansion, it’s clear they are trying to avoid making the same mistakes Google did with Buzz and Facebook did with their privacy controls. One point they made clear was that anytime you’re about to share a piece of information on Yahoo!, you will be informed and a link to your settings will be readily displayed in case you want to change them. But if Yahoo! wants to roll this expansion out in the right way, they’re going to need options that reveal who is following you and options that allow blocking individual people as well groups of people (such as all email contacts). They should also make this expansion Opt-in.

Sources:
Your Privacy, Your Controls, Your Yahoo! Updates [Yahoo!]
Yahoo! Updates FAQ [Yahoo!]
Opt-Out Required to Prevent Your Yahoo! Mail Contacts From Being Used for Social Network [EFF]

Twitter is under way testing a new feature it calls “You Both Follow”. One of the site’s engineers, Nick Kallen, tweeted recently that the feature has been rolled out to 10% of users.

Presumably, the feature will work much like Facebook’s “Mutual Friends” where you can see the people you have in common with any other Tweeters. As the name suggests, it matches who you’re both following, not who is following you.

What the "You Both Follow" feature might look like.

CNET’s Caroline McCarthy points out, “if you follow lots of people or companies or news outlets in common, presumably you might have something in common with that user as well and might want to follow him or her in turn.”

The advantage Twitter’s “You Both Follow” feature has over Facebook’s “Mutual Friends” is that it compares everyone and everything you’re interested in, rather than just your “friends”.  Twitter’s simpler model gives them an edge since all accounts are created equal whether you’re a real person, a news outlet, a gaming website, or an interest group.  People will be able to make more robust choices about who they want to follow.  If fully implemented, it will definitely make #FollowFriday a lot more interesting.

Sources:

• Nick Kallen’s Status Update [Twitter]
• Twitter test feature shows fellow Ashton-stalkers [CNET]

Pre-E3 rumors are flying around the internet like crazy.  One of our favorites comes from Hulu and Microsoft.  According to sources at GearLive, Microsoft plans to reveal Hulu as one of its new Xbox LIVE services.  Unlike Netflix, Hulu has maintained a no-devices policy meaning that you can only watch Hulu directly on your computer. There are ways around this, such as using intermediary software like PlayOn, but there are no Hulu-approved alternatives.

So far, there appear to be two downsides to this partnership. First, according to 1UP, while Microsoft already has the necessary software to implement a Hulu interface on the Xbox360, getting rights to Hulu programming hasn’t been negotiated fully. Also, it appears viewers will have to fork over a subscription fee for the service in addition to their Xbox LIVE Gold fee. It’s unclear how much the subscription will cost and how Microsoft will go about charging for it.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo begins mid-June.  Hopefully, Microsoft proves this rumor to be true.

Sources:

• Exclusive: Hulu coming to Xbox Live at E3 [GearLive]
• Hulu on Xbox 360 Exists, but Tied Up by Rights Issues [1UP]

TidySongs (Cloudbrain, LLC) is an organizational tool for your iTunes music collection.  It uses data already associated with your songs to look up and identify any incorrect or missing information.  As long as the song contains at least one correctly spelled word from the artist and song fields, TidySongs attempts to correct any mistakes in the artist name, song title, album title, track number, release year, genre and even add artwork if it’s missing.

TidySongs returns a confidence number (the “99%” seen above) that let’s you know how accurate it thinks the returned information is.  A number of 99% means the information is most likely correct, whereas a number of under 10% means the guess is most likely incorrect.  Manually changing or adding to any of the information could lead to a better search result.

Some other nice features of TidySongs include:

• Finding and removing duplicate songs
• Combining or renaming genres
• Adding album art
• Choosing which details get updated and which remain unchanged
• Auto-skipping songs based on user-defined words
• Fixing songs in a certain playlist
• Fixing songs one-by-one or all-at-a-time

The TidySongs UI is clean and easy to read.  Navigation is simple, but can sometimes be a little awkward.  While fixing songs, there is no “Back” feature allowing you to return to previously fixed songs.  Also, if you decide to change the album art, returning from that screen without choosing an album cover is impossible.

The speed at which it fixes a song can vary.  For the most part, information was returned in a just a few seconds.  However, there were some genres (such as classical music) that took 30 seconds or more to return song information.  After going through several hundred songs, the more well-known an artist or genre, the faster the search.

TidySongs claims 85% success rate when fixing songs.  During a session fixing approximately 50 songs, almost all them were identified.  The list included well-known Top 40 songs and some more obscure songs from video games or imports.  Small manual changes were needed for about half the songs in the list, but TidySongs identified all the popular music. Some of the rarer songs were fixed; but for the most part, most of those remained unidentified even with several manual changes.

A much larger test was done with over 900 songs.  Very little to no manual changes were made to any of the songs and TidySongs came out with about a 50% success rate.  The biggest problems encountered were situations were an album contained both an explicit version and a clean version.  TidySongs always defaulted to the clean version, unless the album name was manually changed to reflect the explicit version.  It also had some trouble identifying classical music, video game songs, and some soundtrack listings.  TidySong’s identification server contains over 4 million songs and is still growing.  So it’s likely some of the songs it couldn’t identify will be added in the future.

The are a couple advantages to using TidySongs over fixing your songs directly in iTunes.  First of all, it looks up your songs for you which iTunes doesn’t do.  Secondly, all the information you’re changing is on one tab, rather than several tabs.  TidySongs also has a direct link to the amazon.com page which you can use to make sure it’s chosen the right album and song.  Plus, the link to amazon is very helpful when TidySongs gets the information almost correct.  Since amazon links to CDs similar to the one you’re looking it, it’s easy to look through those to find the correct one and to manually update the information in TidySongs.

While the software is very handy and nice to have, there are some problems that will hopefully be remedied in future releases.  While fixing a song, you can link to an image URL and update the album art.  However, if the image URL is not from amazon.com, an unspecified error occurs and the song doesn’t get updated.  And unfortunately, you won’t know until you search back through the playlist in iTunes.  The best thing to do in this case is to change your artwork manually through iTunes itself.

The other major problem involved working with a large amount of music files.  During the 900-song session, only about 50 of the songs actually reflected the changes in iTunes.  The remaining songs, while fixed properly or skipped in TidySongs, did not get updated in the iTunes library.  No errors occurred during the process, so it’s unclear as to what happened.  Since this can be incredibly frustrating if it happens, the best idea is to fix songs in smaller subsets and check your iTunes library frequently to ensure changes are updated.

TidySongs is currently US$39.00 and can be downloaded directly from TidySongs.com.  It works on Windows and Mac OS.  It requires Adobe Air and a zip program for installation.  Since it links directly with iTunes, you will also need iTunes installed.  During runtime, iTunes should be open and idle so TidySongs can access the playlist and library information.

Overall, TidySongs is a helpful tool for music aficionados who will settle for nothing less than a clean and organized music library. For more information, visit the TidySongs’ Official Website, where you can download a free trial version of the software and try it yourself. (Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows versions available)

For the purposes of this review, TidySongs was tested on Mac OSX Snow Leopard.

Facebook’s privacy settings have been a topic of heated debate recently.  The social networking site is being heavily criticized for its seemingly blatant disregard for its users’ privacy by making security settings “Opt-Out” rather than “Opt-In” as well as being incredibly difficult and convoluted to find and change to a more preferable setup.  If you’ve been reluctant to delete your Facebook account but still want things more secure, you are well aware Facebook does not keep all security and privacy information in one easy-to-find location.   So if you want to change anything, you’ve got a lot of clicking to do.

Most of the articles and blog posts floating around right now talk about what steps you need to take to change your Privacy and Application Settings, opting out of Instant Personalization (or you can have Al Franken take you through the steps), and even permanently delete your account. but I’ve yet to see an article discussing the Account Settings portion of your profile.  So get ready for yet another round of clicking to protect your privacy…

From the Account drop down menu on the top bar, click Account Settings.

There are several sections in Account Settings that contain options related to privacy & security.

Settings. This is the all-purpose account settings tab that allows you to set up your name and username, change your password and email, and deactivate your account (this is not the same thing as deleting your account).  But this section also has two other options you should be aware of:

This option is extremely important if you’re trying to deactivate or delete your account.  For some reason, Facebook takes 14 days to actually delete/deactivate.  If you log in within that 14 days, your account is auto-magically restored.  If you are going the deactivate/delete route, or you just don’t want any accounts linked to Facebook, be sure to remove any you have listed here.

This seems to be one of the few ways Facebook is showing concern for its users.  However, the default for this option is “No”.  If you want these notifications, be sure to click “Yes”.

Networks. If you are a part of any network and depending on how your Privacy Settings are set, any person in that network, regardless if they are your friend or not, can view your information.  If you don’t want that, you can either remove yourself from all networks, or check your Privacy Settings to ensure “Only Friends” or “Only Me” are set for each option.

Mobile. Facebook allows you to connect your cell phone to account and receive SMS notifications.  If you are not actively using this feature, it’s a good idea to disconnect your phone from Facebook.  There are no indications that Facebook is using your cell phone information, but why take that chance if you’re not receiving texts?

Payments. Given Facebook’s sheer lack of respect for privacy, it’s probably a good idea not to store any of your credit card, bank or paypal information with them.  I would recommend removing any information from this section.

Facebook Ads. The final section deals with what I now consider the most controversial topic regarding Facebook: advertising.  Notice how the disclaimer for the rights to use your name and photos in ads is currently not allowed by Facebook?  But then it goes on to say that should it be allowed in future…  Given the way Facebook’s been behaving lately, it’s probably a safe bet that they will allow this in future.  Of course, the default option is “Only my friends”, meaning you’ll need to take the responsibility to ensure this doesn’t happen.  Be sure to opt out of both the “Ads shown by third party applications” and “Ads shown by Facebook”.

Facebook truly has made privacy “Opt Out”.   I think the service Facebook provides is invaluable, but it’s not necessary.  If they continue down this path, there will be a lot people “Opting Out” of Facebook altogether.

I recently installed the Linux distribution Fedora 12 on my desktop and was curious if Netflix would play on my setup. As you might have guessed, it doesn’t. While searching around for a fix, I came across a 20-page thread on Netflix’s community forum hashing out the issue. After sifting through the OS flame wars, it became apparent the only reason Netflix Instant Watch isn’t available for Linux users is Microsoft.

Netflix streams in a browser using Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin, essentially a beefed-up version of the Flash player with Microsoft’s PlayReady Digital Rights Management. An open-source version of Silverlight is available for Linux called Moonlight which is developed by Novell in collaboration with Microsoft. Microsoft even acknowledges Silverlight support for Linux through the use of Moonlight. However, the major difference between Silverlight and Moonlight is the PlayReady DRM. Without the DRM, Netflix movies won’t stream.

Moonlight’s project site lists PlayReady a feature, but the status is unsupported meaning that Microsoft has not yet licensed PlayReady for third-party use. Since Netflix relies on external resources to provide its streaming capabilities, the onus lies on Microsoft to release their DRM library for third-party use.

My question is why doesn’t Microsoft do so? Releasing the DRM library would be advantageous for all parties involved: Netflix, Microsoft and Linux. First of all, it’s easy to see why this would be advantageous for Linux users. They would have the option to stream Netflix! But how is it beneficial for Netflix and Microsoft?

Let’s assume that the number of Netflix subscribers using Linux closely resembles the number of Linux users surfing the web: 1.6%. Based on information from Netflix’s website, there are over 13 million subscribers, so that’s approximately 200,000 people. The minimum fee for unlimited streaming is $8.99/month. With 200,000 subscribers paying $8.99/month, that brings in almost $22 million in revenue per year. According to their 2009 Annual Report, Netflix brought in $1.67 billion in revenue last year. While $22 million seems like a drop in the bucket compared to $1.67 billion, it’s still a significant amount of money. Since they don’t provide the player themselves, Netflix wouldn’t have any extra overhead if Microsoft allows PlayReady DRM integration with Moonlight. Therefore, the benefit for Netflix is obvious: increased profits.

But what about Microsoft? While not as clear as the reasons for Netflix and Linux users, Microsoft can possibly benefit financially through their partnership with Netflix. The more revenue Netflix brings, the more resources they will have to pass along to Microsoft as the partnership develops. Another more subjective benefit for Microsoft is improved relationships with the Linux community. Improved relationships allows better collaboration and increased creativity. But based on Microsoft’s track record of failed promises for cross-platform support of other products, it seems unlikely that they will release a PlayReady DRM SDK for open-source projects.

The other option is for Netflix to put resources into a different streaming technology for Linux platforms or at least a technology that encompasses Linux distributions. They already provide support for a multitude of other platforms, such as the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, several Blu-ray disc players, some internet TVs, Apple’s iPad, PlayOn software, Boxee software, TiVo DVR and even the Linux-based DVR Roku. Most people argue that the market share for Linux isn’t large enough for Netflix to allocate resources in that direction, but Netflix is currently working on bringing streaming movies to iPhone users, which amount to only 0.8% of total web traffic. That’s half the number of Linux users. You do the math.

It’s been a pretty quiet week for new game releases.  Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction tops the list for big names, but there’s also been a Dark Void remake, Grand Theft Auto IV episode release and a few independent titles making an appearance.

Check out all the fun that awaits!

Splinter Cell: Conviction ~ Released April 13

Ubisoft’s latest in the Splinter Cell series.  If you’re a fan of Tom Clancy, FPS action and stealth-based games, you probably don’t want to miss this one.  It’s available on PC, Xbox 360 and, according its dedicated Wikipedia page, the iPhone.  But don’t forget about Ubisoft’s DRM.  You’ll have to have a continuous internet connection to play this title.

Dark Void Zero ~ (Re)Released April 12

Developed by Other Ocean Interactive and published by Capcom, Dark Void Zero is a remake of the original 8-bit Dark Void.  Released more than 20 years after the classic Dark Void, it’s sure to bring back some old memories for fans of the original.  It’s available on Steam, iPhone and DSiware.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City ~ Released April 13

This release is a compilation of DLC episodes from GTA IV.  It includes The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, but luckily it doesn’t require GTA IV to play.  It’s available on PC, Steam, Xbox 360 and PS3.  I don’t know about you, but using weapons like half a pool cue or a grenade launcher sound pretty fun.

Beat Hazard ~ Released April 15

Developed and published by indie game company Cold Beam Games, it’s an arcade shooter that uses your own music library to create the gameplay rhythm.  Sounds interesting, but what if you only have Justin Bieber or Barry Manilow? Or both!  Either way, it’s available for download from their website or on Steam.

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse ~ First episode released in April

Telltale games is releasing this comedic adventure game in several episodes.  The first episode, The Penal Code, is now available and the remaining 4 episodes are to be released over the next 4 months (which are included as part of your original purchase).  Who wouldn’t love a game where you get to wield psychic powers on both the Mac and the PC!?  Plus, if you buy the game from Steam before April 23, you get Team Fortress 2 goodies.

Fortix ~ Wider release April 14

Nemesys Team Studio’s Fortix has been out for about a year now on the PSP and PC, but this indie game company keeps making updates and improvements and has now released it through Steam.  The game sounds like a fun little strategy game of battling off dragons and other baddies to reclaim your land.  Plus it’s really cheap!

What are you gaming plans for the weekend?  Going to check out any of these new releases?

Here are a few of the latest tidbits traveling around the gaming community.  There was certainly a lot more going on this week, but I found these to be particularly interesting or fun.  Enjoy!

• Dr. Horrible goes 8-bit! I had to put this first since it’s just…well…awesome.  Doctor Octoroc turned Joss Whedon’s short into what he refers to as “an interpretation of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog as a theoretical Nintendo game.”  Even though you can’t actually play it, it is made of pure awesome and everyone should watch it.
• Kid racks up a $1400 bill on Farmville. While Zynga games are free to play, they do offer in-game items and boosts for real money.  Apparently, it is possible to spend $1400 in one month on all these digital wares as one UK 12-year-old proved after spending all of his savings then stealing his mother’s credit card. Scary.
• DRM troubles still abound at Ubisoft. After more than 2 weeks post-release, Ubisoft’s Settlers 7 gamers are still having problems accessing the DRM servers.  Because of Ubisoft’s always-online requirement, this means players can’t play if they can’t connect to the DRM server.  Hopefully, these issues will make Ubisoft and other game publishers rethink this DRM strategy.
• PlayStation 3 not-so-smooth mandatory update. Sony required PS3 owners to install a firmware update that increased security and removed the option to install an alternate OS.  However, as The Escapist reports, some consoles are not getting by unscathed.

• Live Support for Minesweeper?! According to The Escapist and Joystiq, there’s a rumor going around that Microsoft plans on adding Live Support for Solitaire, Minesweeper, Hearts… You know, the games that are shipped with Microsoft’s OS.  If true, that means all these little time-wasters (I say that endearingly) will have achievements, online chat and leaderboards.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Free Weekend! Interested in trying out CoD:MW2?  This is your lucky weekend.  Steam is offering a weekend of free multiplayer play.  Just install the game and go!
• New releases this week: First up, available on PC, Xbox360 and PlayStation 3, is a Western-style, team-based third-person shooter from Fatshark called Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West.  If Westerns aren’t your style, maybe you’d be interested in suicidal robots?  Indie developer Beatnik Games released Plain Sight, “a multiplayer arcade game about suicidal ninja robots.”  Available on the PC, has the tagline “Kill Yourself”, and it’s only ten bucks.  If you’re not quite in the suicide mood, try some games on the lighter side of life.  Reflexive Entertainment released Simplz: Zoo.  It’s simulation plus puzzle adventure and the website has the cutest music ever!  Available on Mac and PC at a super cheap $5 from Steam.  Or how about some racing fun with 2XL Games 2XL Supercross?  Still looking for something else?  Here’s a new action game from Tragnarion Studios called The Scourge Project. There’s definitely a variety to choose from this week and most of these titles are on sale over at Steam.
• GTA IRL?! Lots of videos today.  This one was done by Rooster Teeth.  They did a science “experiment” on what it would be like to drive a real-life car from a third-person view like you would in Grand Theft Auto…including the Yakuza.  There are a couple NSFW moments of swearing.

And finally, I leave you all with this really awesome video I found on GiantBomb:

After announcing in a New York Times article that Hulu has been profitable for two quarters, Jason Kilar, the company’s CEO also admitted they are “open to subscriptions as a complement to an ad-supported model.”  He stated, “Our mission is to help people discover the world’s premium content…”  And if bringing a subscription option to the the currently free service helps accomplish that goal, it is something the company seems willing to do.

The article also went on to say that Hulu’s interest in moving toward a subscription service “is coming under increasing pressure from the companies that supply its content.”  According to ComScore, the article states, “monthly video streams have more than tripled in a year.”  Kilar also indicated that by summer 2010, revenues could hit $100 million, the revenue for the whole of 2009.  Hulu’s suppliers want to start earning more money as the service becomes more popular and pushing for a subscription service on top of the ad-based service Hulu already offers, is another way to do just that.

Currently, Hulu is only available on computers, having refused to allow services like XBox Live to stream videos to viewers’ HDTVs. The reason being “because that would siphon away viewers from cable and satellite subscriptions, a steady revenue source for media companies.”  However, the article revealed that Hulu might move away from computer-only access to testing an iPad application, but there are still no indications if and when it would allow streaming to televisions.  Hulu hasn’t even released an iPhone app despite market demand.

A subscription service for Hulu would certainly be a nice addition, especially for those willing to pay to avoid advertisements.  But if Hulu is to compete with the widely popular Netflix, it will have to start supporting streaming directly to the living room and on a variety of platforms like Netflix.

Source: Successes (and Some Growing Pains) at Hulu [NY Times]