Adding a feature Apple junkies have been clamoring for, Netflix upgraded its App Store application to allow it to stream movies and TV shows for subscribers.
MacRumors reports Netflix keeps track of where you left off on our viewing escapades, so you can start streaming a video at home and then pick up where you left off on the iThing as you take the train into work.
Pocket Netflix streaming opens up a wild new frontier here. If you plan on using Netflix streaming on your iStuff, how will it change the way you operate?
Netflix App Now Supports iPhone and iPod Touch [MacRumors via PopURLs]
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They apparently just hired an Android video streaming guru type, so I’m hoping the Android version is next! (and hopefully a first party app to manage my queue while they’re at it!)
I’ve been using Netflix via my Ipad for the past day and I’m loving it. I can watch Dexter on my Xbox 360 and pick up right where I left off via my ipad on the train to work. I’m REALLY impressed with the video quality when streaming over 3G. Makes me glad I kept my unlimited data when Ipad decided to stop offering it (though we all know unlimited doesn’t mean unlimited). Between reading books on my Ipad and watching Netflix now, it really makes my train ride on the Long Island Railroad enjoyable!
Uh oh. I’ve been saying this is going to totally ruin my productivity when this happened. ; ) I’m happy about the streaming though.
I’m trying it out now, and it seems to be very sleek and easy to use. It has all the recommendations I’d see if I were logged into my account through my computer, and it even lets me resume streaming the movie I paused the other day. It’s a little sluggish, though that’s to be expected since I suspect a lot of people are trying it out right now.
My only gripe is that this is an app specifically for online streaming, and you can’t manage your physical DVD queue from the app. Instant streaming is great, but I would like a more well-rounded Netflix control panel.
Ditto about the managing your queue. Wonder what the hold-up is on that.
Is that a problem with just the iPhone app? I have the iPad app, and it’s just like the website – I already could watch streaming on the iPad, and could adjust both queues, etc. etc. etc.
Yea, Netflix lets you pick up where you left off I can watch something in the living room on my Wii and then finish watching in my bedroom on my Xbox if I want.
Doesn’t always work as advertised, but for the most part it’s a pretty solid feature.
Netflix on my iPhone and iPad? Yes, please! Oh, I own neither.. crap.
P.S. Why am I hungry for Oreo’s all of a sudden?
So glad I didnt opt out of the “unlimited” plan! Good bye productivity!
Yeah, I’ve held off on switching my data plan for precisely this reason. If in a few months I realize I still don’t use nearly as much data even with streaming, I’ll switch.
I never used much data up until about a month ago. I now listen to Pandora instead of the radio in my car and office and am now going over a gig a month.
In the future, we’re only going to use more and more data. Has AT&T commented on whether we’ll be able to keep unlimited data plans when we renew contracts?
My understanding is that you keep the unlimited data even with a renewal, although I’m sure they can figure out how to change that someday.
This Netflix access is getting ridiculous. Apple product users are quickly becoming the least productive geeks ever.
Don’t worry. Android users will be getting this at some point as well.
Love it! Thanks Netflix! FU, Hulu!
The quality is quite good on my home WiFi (on an iPod, so the screen size isn’t that big), slightly less good on 3G – mainly fine, but with a couple of skips.
Cool. This will be great for travelling. Now to download it….
And I agree with all the others wanting a queue feature to the app. Maybe Netflix is listening and is working on that.
I got it yesterday and wow the quality streaming over 3g is really good. Much MUCH better then youtube.
Man, Verizon & AT&T aren’t going to like this one, after they’ve already banned Torrents from their wireless networks – Netflix is going to take up a WHOLE lot more bandwidth than Torrents ever did.
(At least on Wireless Data Plans).
I forsee “Unlimited” data plans going to “Capped Plans” a whole lot sooner now.
They’ve already capped the plans, but anyone who is still on their unlimited plan can keep it. If AT&T were to completely do away with unlimited plans and force people to switch to the capped plan, I think that would constitute as a material change in contract and a lot of people would leave out of anger.
You’re right — and ya know what, I bet AT&T knew this was coming and is WHY they changed to a Capped plan.
Wouldn’t surprise me, anyway.
They knew it was part of the iphone 4 announcement and I would assume apple warned them before that as well.
Agree — this is a different platform and selection than the online queue, but it is the same as what we’ve been working with on Wii. At least you can manage that particular queue (on the iPhone and Wii) and it remembers what you have been watching. But yes, the two would work better if they synced up.
That said, I’m psyched about this!
Ack, sorry — that was a reply to pecan pi
I was pleased as punch when Pandora made its way to my BlackBerry, but now I’m sad again. Are we not smart phones? If you http, do we not connect? If you stream, do we not display?
Although an Android user, I do have an iTouch. I loaded the Netflix app yesterday morning and am sad to say spent about three hours watching Torchwood eps on that little screen when I had a perfectly good home theater computer setup in my living room. Works absolutely fabulously on my home wireless. Android better get on the ball and get their app out ASAP!
YAY Torchwood!
It is actually, genuinely, honestly smooth? This is a serious question. I have the Roku HD for Netflix at home and it is wonderful- there’s no sense that you’re watching anything out of the ordinary. Looks every bit as good as a DVD. However, when I use web browsers (including on a fairly recent Mac Mini), it doesn’t seem to matter what OS or processor speed, performance is like a really fast sequence of stills- it moves along but the choppiness is quite distracting. I have the fastest DSL our provider offers, I know that’s not the problem. Plus, the aforementioned Roku box. I really just can’t fathom 3G being any better. Is the magic in the A4 processor, or what?
The quality is way better than I expected on my iPhone 3G. I was expecting this to be WiFi only and am amazed that it even works over 3G, let alone works well.
Trying upping the cache in your browser settings.
In FireFox go to TOOLS => OPTIONS => ADVANCED => and then setting OFFLINE STORAGE to at least 50M.
For Internet Explorer go to TOOLS => INTERNET OPTIONS => GENERAL => click the SETTINGS button in the BROWSING HISTORY section, and increase the cache size to at least 50M.
Very smooth with a very good picture, there is upfront loading like any of the other way to stream from netflix. After that its really great.
FYI – I haven’t upgraded the operating system to 4.x yet on my iPod Touch (it’s running iOS version 3.1.3) but the App still installs and runs. There is one major drawback though, the audio plays while streaming but not the video – I get a bright green screen, that occasionally flickers like an old TV set. I expect there is some library or codec tweek that installs with iOS 4.x that’s required for the video, but isn’t needed to run the application.
For what it’s worth, the audio quality is great over Wifi.
I’m still running the old OS on my iPhone 3G and the streaming works fine. No problems with audio or video.
Hunh, it’s working today. Maybe I just needed to reboot the device. Picture quality is great too, for the screen size.
Android? Please? Pretty Please?
DITTO!!
Over 3G! Yaaaay, it’s the best thing EVER!
Installed this last night, I’m in love!
I only wish you could save it (temporarily) to the ipod for viewing purposes… but it will be nice when I want to watch something in bed and not keep the wife awake with the TV on. Best news of the day!!
YAY!
… last knife in Blockbuster’s back…
I have question:
Any other Netflix streaming users out there notice that there tends to be small, like 5 second, pieces of movies and tv shows MISSING????
I noticed this on Torchwood: Childeren of the Earth and then again on Far from Heaven.
I watched a clip from COE on Youtube and noticed a line was missing from the Netflix version. On Far from Heaven I noticed a kiss in a scene is missing. I had caught the scene watching on TV and started watching the movie from the beginning (I’d missed) on Netflix.
Conspiracy?
One possible explanation is that Netflix takes its streaming distribution from the distribution of the DVDs. Sometimes shows have an exclusive scene that doesn’t get placed in the DVD version of that episode.
I could see if it was a whole scene. That would make sense. These are both literally a line or a few seconds. It’s just soooo odd. Maybe it’s a tv cut versus a DVD versus a director cut. Whatever it is, it’s sort-of messing up the films.
Reminds me of this version of “The Shining” that was missing a very important line/few seconds of a scene. Also, the times I’ve seen a film the first day it’s out and gone again a week/two later and you can tell the cinema had to splice a scene because the same thing has happened. (not sure about the kosherness of that)
YES! *happy dance* Yes yes!
Now if they would just fix the software on the damned idiotPhone, all would be well.
Hey Steve, you broke it, now fix it!!!
Agreed iOS 4.x sux. I had said I wouldn’t jailbreak the phone because I never had a reason to do so. Well, “multi-tasking” was THE reason. So, I jailbroke it and turned it OFF and now I’m happy.
This is not new and I’m wondering why it’s getting play now. In any case I got my ipad about 3 weeks ago and it was streaming netflix then. I think it’s been ipad app for quite a while now. In For me netflix was a major selling point and it was the first question I asked out of the box at the apple store.
Regarding the netflix app knowing where you left off. This works great once you’ve selected the correct episode however the app doesn’t seem to keep track of which episode I last watched and often I have to fish around to find the the right episode. Once I’ve found it then it will absolutely start in the correct place.
Regarding the netflix app knowing where you left off. This works great once you’ve selected the correct episode however the app doesn’t seem to keep track of which episode I last watched and often I have to fish around to find the the right episode. Once I’ve found it then it will absolutely start in the correct place.
My experience: 2-3 hours of Netflix streaming for 5 days is about 3 GB of bandwidth.
If you don’t have unlimited data for your device, be very careful. If you do have unlimited data, still be careful they don’t dump you for “abuse” of the network. If you are using wifi, then you probably are in an area where you could just use an actual laptop or desktop instead of a regular sized or giant smart phone that may or may not have the phone calling feature…
YES! Finally!