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Netflix Available For Android
supersloshy writes "Netflix has just announced the release of a Netflix Android application for streaming movies to Android-powered mobile devices. As streaming movies requires certain features and specifications, only a select number of devices are supported for now."
So out of hundreds of Android devices it runs on five, while Netflix runs on all iPhones and iPads. And who still says Android isn't fragmented?
What is with that URL? http://blog.netflix.com/2011/05/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html
Just announced yesterday... saw the news on facebook. Sucks that it isn't on my Droid 2 Global ... yet
Well, I have a Nexus S. Unfortunately I'm on 2.2.1 at the moment. As my employers are paying my phone bill, including data overages, I kinda have to follow the order not to root the phone.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Netflix refused to support Linux due to "Silverlight DRM issues". That, however, did not stop Roku from implementing Netflix client on a their linux-based system, and suddenly Android is not a problem as well. It seems to me that Silverlight is a lame excuse, and the real reason is that Netflix founder is on board at Microsoft.
Is Android basically modified Linux? If it is, does mean that I might be able to use a Linux + PC combination with Netflix someday?
It's such a sadness that people think they've seen a movie on their fucking telephone. Get real.
I was excited by this... my Nexus One is on the list! So I clicked the Market link... and... "This item cannot be installed in your device's country." ... damnit! Netflix is available in Canada, why can't they make the app available? I use the Boxee Netflix app just fine here... sigh...
Only available on these devices today:
1. HTC Incredible with Android 2.2
2. HTC Nexus One with Android 2.2, 2.3
3. HTC Evo 4G with Android 2.2
4. HTC G2 with Android 2.2
5. Samsung Nexus S with Android 2.3.
They plan more, but no tablets so far... am I the only one who thinks this is strange?
Load New Commander (Y/N)?
This has nothing to do with android fragmentation. The app runs fine if you lie to it about what phone you have. This is very clearly a business decision.
Enjoy your crippled devices, this android user is watching netflix on an unsupported device.
I miss the times when people though that DRM was bad.
As others have noted, it is possible to get this on any android device, so long as you have 2.3. I'm on a rooted Droid X 2.2.1, and the app crashes back to desktop after I've changed the build.prop. If I revert by build.prop to factory default, I get an error message that my device isn't supported, and it won't stream anything, but I can still look at my queue, suggestions, etc.
I believe that VZW has leaked many beta builds of 2.3. You can find them on a few droid enthusiast websites. If you're looking to get netflix on a droid device and you don't have 2.3, I wouldn't hold your breath. (I of course could be wrong).
Now, if they'll just make a cell phone with a 47 inch screen I can get rid of my TV.
Bab72 (Not my real name)
DRM was bad until it stopped being inconvenient.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
No worries, I'll be enjoying openness AND Netflix on my Nexus.
It's not the platform, it's a combination of device capabilities and provider reluctance. Movies don't come cheap in terms of bandwidth and most carriers are caught in a combination of NIMBY and underinvestment in capacity.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Once again the fragmentation of Android rears its ugly head.
How does Netflix intentionally not releasing their app for certain devices have anything to do with fragmentation? To spell it out, devices not on the approved list can run this app, Netflix just intentionally disallowed it. It's their choice and has nothing to do with Android. To wit, I have an OG Droid that is not on the supported devices list. Guess what? I installed the Netflix app and it works perfectly. The problem here lies solely at the feet of Netflix. Instead of blaming the victim, why don't you put your indignation to good use and shoot Netflix an email telling them how unhappy you are? Oh, that's right, because you are actually a troll. Now crawl back under your bridge.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
It's still inconvenient. The question is to what degree. Netflix's DRM is at best a joke, and at worst useless because no one gives a shit to rip low quality streams sent to a phone.
Yeah I can see Verizon or AT&T sitting still for this.
We saw this news late last night, so after we went to bed i installed the app on my phone and we watched the first ten minutes of Zombieland. Basic playback worked great (at least on WiFi) but i didn't actually try out the controls at all.
I was somewhat dismayed right after the download when i saw the app was around 20 megs in size (i'm on the original Nexus, so main memory app space is at a premium) but was rather relieved when the move to SD card option reduced the size down to about 800 kb. (For those who don't pay attention to such things that's a pretty amazing ratio. A lot of apps will only move half the data or less to the SD card.)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Having to root your phone and trick software into running on your device isn't crippled ?
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Considering the alternative, which is not being able too, yeah.
I don't have to root my phone, never did. I just flashed an already rooted rom on it as soon as I got it. The netflix software is crippled, but that is netflix's fault.
Considering I am running 2.3.3 on a droid 1 and have busybox, and many other tools installed I am pretty happy.
this android user is watching netflix
You:
your device isn't crippled ?
Obviously not!
P.S. Looks like Slashdot has hit a new low when people are scorned for using their devices the way they want and not at the whim of the corporate nanny. Truly a sad day.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
The netflix software is crippled, but that is netflix's fault.
Is it really Netflix fault though or is the Android platform's problem ? After all this is a free app and testing cost money so what are the alternatives :
- only a limited number the most popular devices get tested and approved because after that the cost/benefit ration drops
- you release for all phones but post a list of "minimum system requirements" and we're back in the Windows world of software running crapily or not at all on some systems because it was coded to some high end hardware. And ordinary joe's are screwed because they're expected to learn how much memory their phone has or what GPU chip.
Netflix has chosen the first option which is the most sensible right now on Android if you still want to do some quality assurance.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
I miss the times when people though that DRM was bad.
DRM is ideal for rentals. What you're talking about is DRM for movies/software you keep.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
How does Netflix intentionally not releasing their app for certain devices have anything to do with fragmentation? To spell it out, devices not on the approved list can run this app, Netflix just intentionally disallowed it. It's their choice and has nothing to do with Android.
Ok. So why did Netflix specify those particular phones?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
P.S. Looks like Slashdot has hit a new low when people are scorned for using their devices the way they want and not at the whim of the corporate nanny. Truly a sad day.
I think all users should be able to "root" or "jailbreak" any device they own if they so choose. The point was that he had to root it to do what he did, by your definition the iPhone isn't crippled either because it can be rooted to install unapproved apps or run another OS too.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Netflix has chosen the first option which is the most sensible right now on Android if you still want to do some quality assurance.
If that is true, then why are there so many applications in the Android market that do much more than stream video that work great on any device you put them on? I develop applications for Android and I haven't had any problems whatsoever with my software not running on someone's device. It's this simple:
<uses-sdk />
android:minSdkVersion="5"
android:targetSdkVersion="11"
and sticking to the official api's when writing your code. Surely Netflix with their bucketloads of cash can hire someone capable of that.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Ok. So why did Netflix specify those particular phones?
I haven't the slightest clue. What I do know is that every phone I've heard of so far that is running Gingerbread is capable of running this app. My Droid does and it is the slowest of the "second generation" Android phones out there so it can't be for performance or memory reasons. Obviously, they baked their own DRM in as my Droid doesn't have anything that they would likely be using so it can't be that. So, you tell me, why those phones?
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Seriously?? REALLY?? 5 Fucking phones are supported? WTF is the point?
Ok. So why did Netflix specify those particular phones?
I haven't the slightest clue. What I do know is that every phone I've heard of so far that is running Gingerbread is capable of running this app. My Droid does and it is the slowest of the "second generation" Android phones out there so it can't be for performance or memory reasons. Obviously, they baked their own DRM in as my Droid doesn't have anything that they would likely be using so it can't be that. So, you tell me, why those phones?
I don't know, either. One thing that is pretty clear, though, is that it doesn't make sense from a business perspective for Netflix to only support certain phones, especially when it's clear the rest of phones can run the app. There is something going on there.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Because too few developers know about mod_rewrite?
There's a reason for this. A lot of web developers learned their skills on shared web hosting, and shared web hosting often does not include mod_rewrite access.
Having to read a couple sentences means ordinary Joes are screwed?
You have one hell of a low expectation of those folks. As far as I can tell basically all of them made it through elementary school, reading is something they are quite clearly capable of.
I think all users should be able to "root" or "jailbreak" any device they own if they so choose. The point was that he had to root it to do what he did, by your definition the iPhone isn't crippled either because it can be rooted to install unapproved apps or run another OS too.
I can't really say whether the iPhone is crippled or not as I don't own one and never have. My comments are confined purely to Android in that regard. I will say this though; it is ridiculous to say that a device is "crippled" just because some big name dev shop decides they don't want to support it be that iPhone or Android. Google hasn't made a navigation app for the iPhone. Does that mean iOS is crippled? Of course not.
That's really all I have to say on that.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
So here we have several devices, all of which run Android, a wonderfully portable OS based on Linux, and yet Netflix can't be bothered to get their service to work on Linux desktops? Sure, they use Silverlight to run the thing in a browser, but why couldn't they just port this app and give us a desktop client to view our paid subscriptions from? Is the source to this available somewhere?
So this type of app runs fine on all devices (for now), a better example would be when Rovio could not support Angry Birds on all Android devices because of performance worries. And what if Netflix implements some feature or eye-candy in a future version that would cause problems for some phones ? Then their customers would feel cheated, like Netflix dropped them. A PR disaster waiting to happen and Netflix' brand is one of their most important assets, far better from their standpoint to err on the side of caution.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Having to read a couple sentences means ordinary Joes are screwed?
You have one hell of a low expectation of those folks. As far as I can tell basically all of them made it through elementary school, reading is something they are quite clearly capable of.
I'm sure they can read them, understanding them is another matter. Go hang out in a department store computer section, see how many ask "how much memory a pc has" when they mean HD-size or how many grasp what a GPU is. This isn't something I hold against them, I'm equally useless when it comes to cars but they just work and I'm not expected to fiddle with them to get them to run.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
I don't think I've been quite so floored by a piece of tech in a decade...this is almost as good as discovering the web for the first time in 1998 as a "the future is now" kind of moment. I don't care about the interface (yet). I don't care about functionality...I don't even care that it just crashed my phone. I just saw this /. article about five minutes ago, immediately ran to my incredible and then to my nook (rooted)...wasn't available on the nook market for some reason...haven't bothered to investigate yet as I got sucked right into the last Top Gear episode I was watching.
Quality was surprisingly good, no hiccups in the five minutes I watched before it crashed. Much higher quality than the CBS/Sprint Survivor app that lets you watch the shows. Anyway, the point being that this is super pimp and I'm excited as hell about it.
The app installs and works fine but says your device is not supported when you try to stream. Other than that I have full access to Netflix and it works well. Someone will crack it I'm sure and all of us will have Netflix on our Android phones in the near future. As for the 5 phones supported I bet there was a large payment made to Netflix for the right. They just don't want to admit it.
As streaming movies requires certain features and specifications
aka DRM? People are pointing at this as evidence of "fragmentation". Yes, android allows some phones to be *less* DRMed. Yes, Android allows you to have a smartphone that's not superpowered enough to run Netflix. Hey, some people don't want or need the Netflix app. I'll take this kind of "fragmentation" anyday over the One Holy Certified Applestolic iThing.
As streaming movies requires certain features and specifications, only a select number of devices are supported for now.
The Nexus One is supported, so it's certainly not hardware specs preventing the install on other Android devices.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
Tried it on two phones yesterday. Nexus S and Nexus 1. No issues whatsoever. When I put it on my cyan 7.x Nexus 7 is didnt recognize the device as supported. I'm sure there is some identifier in a file it is looking for and I'll probably be able to use it there too soon enough. I just didn't bother looking into it yet. Just an fyi... no good bad or uglies..
I don't care if Google wants to pursue the open and fragmented path or a more closed and cohesive one, but acting more closed while claiming to be open is B.S. yet Android/Google fans let them get away with it while railing against other companies that are atleast upfront about what there devices can and can't do.
For the record I do enjoy my device, alot, its one of the best things I've ever owned, and it lets me do what I want to without getting in the way or requiring extra effort. I think thats a good thing. So do most people.
better example would be when Rovio could not support Angry Birds on all Android devices
A better example of what? That technology marches on? Or should we just have stopped at the G1? If I write an iOS app that requires the iPad2's graphical prowess to run, does that reflect poorly on iOS that it runs like crap on the original iPad? They do still sell it so you can't use that as an excuse. Your arguments don't hold water, sir.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
The iPad being replaced by a newer version is completely different from not being able to run an application on all current devices. If you look at that list there are devices on there that are still being sold. Look at the comments, they speak for themselves :
"when officially compatible with Wildfire ?"
"I basically got the finger from Rovio. [...] I am not happy. I can download Seasons, play it once and it still self closes on launch. What next "Oh we're sorry because T&T won't allow you to upgrade to Eclair or Gingerbread you can't use our program". Bad Rovio"
"I have downloaded the original, Rio and Seasons. Rio works great while the original will not even load. Seasons will load but a lot of the graphics are whited out. I have a transform which is unsupported but will run some of them just fine.... just curious as to why this is?"
These are real problems real users are having.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
The iPad being replaced by a newer version is completely different from not being able to run an application on all current devices.
Not different at all when they are still selling them anyway so
Rovio
There are over 200,000 applications in the Android Marketplace. Of course, there will be some developers that will push the envelope and not be able to deliver a satisfactory experience on all devices. That is the exception as every single program I have installed on my G1 works on my Droid and my Xoom including some 3D games that require much more from my devices than Angry Birds which is a 2D sprite game consisting of shooting a projectile from one side of the screen to the other. Maybe Rovio is incompetent? They were practically bankrupt until they ripped these guys off so how much should I take from their example anyway?
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
HTC Evo, works. Finally all that Flying Car and access anything in any library from anywhere futuristic stuff is coming true. This is just amazing.
The iPad being replaced by a newer version is completely different from not being able to run an application on all current devices.
How is that different at all? The user who bought an iPad six months ago when it was the "current" device doesn't give one damn why it doesn't work, all they know is that not all iOS apps work on their device which means they have to start looking on the side of the box to see whether the specific app supports the specific iOS device they have. The idea that you can guarantee support of all apps by continuously upgrading to the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out is cold comfort for anyone without unlimited money to burn.
only a limited number the most popular devices get tested and approved because after that the cost/benefit ration drops
This argument doesn't hold water, because two out of five supported devices - namely, Nexus One and Nexus S - are very far from being the most popular.
For example, here are downloads of Google's own app Androidify from the Market as of March 13 this year. Note that there is no "Nexus" in the top 10 anywhere, yet the #3 phone is not supported.
Netflix has chosen the first option which is the most sensible right now on Android if you still want to do some quality assurance.
Numerous other applications, made by companies far smaller, manage to handle this right while retaining excellent app quality. If Netflix is having problems here, they should hire better devs or something.
From here:
Research is showing that the key piece needed (and why some OG Droids with GB builds are able to run it unmodified) is the Stagefright media framework. Stagefright is SUPPOSED to be included in 2.2, but it looks like most OEMs decided not to ship with it for whatever reason.
It looks like most GB builds out there have Stagefright installed (as they should), which would explain why they seem to work with nothing more than a quick tweak to build.prop.
What's interesting is that the only official mention of Stagefright I can find is in the high-level 2.2 changelog for developers, and even there only in passing. No API docs & no reference so far as I can see. Googling only gives me a bunch of posts on the forums asking where to get more info, with no answers. Closed APIs? on my 'droid? WTF.
Wonder why Netflix came up with this wonderful idea of using a media framework that is available on such a minuscule number of devices. Is it because it's the only one that has some hardware or at least OS-level DRM support, perhaps?
So with all the caps people have on their 3G/4G connection, streaming movies are the way to go!!!!
Be seeing you...
Very informative. Thank you.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
I don't want to watch tv on my phone. BUT, I've really gotten into some documentary shows like Gangland. I sometimes just listen to them at work. It would be nice if you could just listen to shows over the phone.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Stagefright was supposed to maximize audio performance while minimizing bandwidth usage. My guess is that their goal was to get the bandwidth down as far as possible. Unfortunately, a lot of people turned off stagefright when they got to 2.2 because it didn't perform well. Apps like pandora even had a setting to use the old library instead, because it caused a lot of skipping.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
Numerous other applications, made by companies far smaller, manage to handle this right while retaining excellent app quality. If Netflix is having problems here, they should hire better devs or something.
Smaller companies have much less reputation at risk. A company like Netflix has a brand image to protect. Look at the link I posted elsewhere in the thread to the reaction of customers that couldn't run Angry Birds properly, it damages your reputation as a company. Sure it might work, but you won't know if you don't test and if you want to assure the quality that people expect from your brand, you absolutely have to test.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Anyone know of a LoveFilm app for android?
Sid Vel
Mobile Apps Developer