I never use Bing, except that ever since GOOG 411 was decommissioned, I have been "using" BING 411. And I can say it is also about 14% as good as GOOG 411. It is really a shame that GOOG 411 was shutdown because it was really great. BING 411 is a pale, pale imitation that about 70-86% of the time is near useless, it returns wrong results, it doesn't understand what is being asked, the UI is crap, getting into virtual endless loops of user frustration, etc.
"IF BB offered subscription streaming... Netflix has poor new release selection..."
You've answered your own question here... the REASON that BB doesn't offer subscription streaming is that it would have to GIVE UP good new release offerings. And the reason for that is that the STUDIOS will not allow cut rate, unlimited streaming of new releases at a cheap price. If BB offered subscription streaming WITH new releases, the cost would be easily $100/mo or MORE.
This is the choice... pretty much controlled by the studios, not BB or Netflix. Now maybe BB could do something clever, like old stuff for $10/mo and 4 new ones a month for an add'n $10/mo. Otherwise, this is why DVDs are still relevant, as they are the ONLY way that studios have let consumers view new stuff at the $1-2/view or $10/mo "unlimited" (actually 4-6/mo given mail delays). And Redbox fought a HUGE battle to keep the $1/day pricing (the studios sued), the compromise being, no truly new stuff, must wait 30 days.
The answer to your question, that which blocks what you want to happen, is at the studios and their revenue stream business models...
IF BB offered subscription streaming... Netflix has poor new release selection...
You've answered your own question here... the REASON that BB doesn't offer subscription streaming is that it would have to GIVE UP good new release offerings. And the reason for that is that the STUDIOS will not allow cut rate, unlimited streaming of new releases at a cheap price. If BB offered subscription streaming WITH new releases, the cost would be easily $100/mo or MORE.
This is the choice... pretty much controlled by the studios, not BB or Netflix. Now maybe BB could do something clever, like old stuff for $10/mo and 4 new ones a month for an add'n $10/mo. Otherwise, this is why DVDs are still relevant, as they are the ONLY way that studios have let consumers view new stuff at the $1-2/view or $10/mo "unlimited" (actually 4-6/mo given mail delays). And Redbox fought a HUGE battle to keep the $1/day pricing (the studios sued), the compromise being, no truly new stuff, must wait 30 days.
The answer to your question, that which blocks what you want to happen, is at the studios and their revenue stream business models...
big DIFF to Facebook/Google: the CONTENT holders... it is very unlikely that there will be a cheaper service to Netflix. On the contrary, it is nearly certain that ALL such streaming movie services will be MORE expensive than Netflix is now, INCLUDING Netflix itself. This is simply because, as Netflix and the like get MORe successful, then the other ways in which people watch movies will decrease. The studios want at least CONSTANT if not increasing revenue. Hence price increases for Netflix and the like.
If a studio makes a movie for $100mil... it expects a good chunk of the return to come from DVDs and other "secondary" sources (PayPerView, Netflix, TV, cable, etc). As DVDs go DOWN, other sources go down, prices must go up to compensate (so goes the thought process at the studios...)
so I checked again... nope Amazon Prime doesn't even rate... its movie selection is like 5% that of Netflix... forget it...
Amazon Prime is only a teaser bone thrown in to sweeten the whole "Prime" offering (shipping, etc).
BB's allows renting of new, new releases via mail, not wait for 30 days.
Also in my experience, BB really doesn't throttle and you can, if you time correctly, get true new releases and a cycle in less than a week (complete mail cycle from receipt to send to next receipt, sometimes even in 4 days.
What I hear of Netflix is that although it is good for depth, better than Blockbusters, it is often impossible to get the "new stuff" (new within the past couple months), and they throttle seriously, and of course no new releases (same timing as PayPerView).
BB of course also does in store exchanges, which I like a lot... the real main reason I do BB...
As an alternative, in some ways even better than Netflix, Blockbusters is a viable choice for DVDs by mail, particularly if you have a store that is (still) close to you (despite the massive store closures). But as a streaming service, no... BB streaming is still only a competitor to PayPerView, which is pretty much what BB's streaming service is... BB DOES NOT do streaming subscriptions, which is what Netflix is and really has no competition.
With Netflix you give up new releases for a subscription that gives you unlimited viewing of admittedly older content that also doesn't match DVDs in breadth, but the price is right-ish. With BB, you get new releases for streaming at the high (to consumers, not to studios) prices. BB *will* have to change to compete... but its really all in the hands of the studios...
I am definitely not in favor of this Tmo buyout, moreso since I'm both a Tmobile and Sprint customer, BUT...
DT, Tmo's parent company, has made it abundantly clear that it no longer wants Tmo. So Tmo WILL die, unless some unknown buyer swoops in to continue to operate it as an independent carrier. So far (DT has been taking bids for a while now), no such white knight has appeared.
This means that, Tmobile will almost certainly die, if not swallowed by AT&T, then merged with Sprint, or some other unknown fate. Therefore all the arguments made about the necessity of having Tmobile as an important fourth US national carrier are probably moot, as it is unlikely that that can be, even if the AT&T buyout is blocked. Nobody can force DT to continue to operate Tmo as is... sad about that, but that's the troothhhh....
"Simply not worth that much money, especially with competition from Amazon and Google in the works."
But the writing is on the wall that the content providers are going to be driving up the prices on ALL such online streaming services. Netflix just happens to be the first and biggest. As articles have said, Netflix USED BE just a "left overs" service, at least from the view point of the content providers (studios, etc). That is, the studios thought that MOST people bought DVDs and saw movies in theaters and Netflix was just there to "mop up" the small fraction of the market that didn't pay through the other channels. But now the studios see that Netflix is rapidly become a MAJOR if not THE predominant channel for customers to view content. So as revenues drop fro DVD sales, the studio EXPECT Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, Google, etc to raise prices to make up for the shortfall elsewhere. Point is, short of piracy, don't count on finding low cost channels for content from the studios to last forever.
Goodbye DSL. It will not exist any longer. And no, the government isn't going to decide to spend billions on putting fiber in to every home. Verizon is already doing it and Qwest is getting started. Unfortunately, they might stop or really slow down if there is no more revenue from landline service.
At least in our area (Upstate NY) Verizon has STOPPED deploying fiber... not economical... not enough profit... so no, it isn't necessarily going to happen commercially...
Many business (small stores) that I know ring up credit card purchases via simply CC readers that use PSTN to dial into CC verification centers. I don't think these stores are interested or can afford paying 4X for an Internet connection instead, even if they could get BB Internet (which many semi-rural or rural locations wouldn't be able to, for *any* reasonable price).
This would also be the death of FAX as most VOIP and NO cell services cannot do FAX well or at all. Yet many businesses still rely on FAXing...
ergo, I don't believe in this 2018 date... not at least until BB Internet is available EVERYWHERE that PSTN is, and I mean everywhere, not just 99% of the population (which is a meaningless statistic for public policy, even though it is what, from an economic standpoint what might may sense)...
Sprint will not survive this buyout... even Hesse admits this... Either Sprint will be bought by Verizon, or Sprint will die a slow death, then be bought for pennies on the dollar. Sprint will be strangled by 1) high roaming costs, or NO roaming, which means poor coverage for its customers, who will then leave, 2) handset freeze out, prime example being the iPhone which Sprint *still* cannot get, 3) price war: AT&T and Verizon can just decide to wage a price war for a couple of years and decimate Sprint, 4) landline/call termination obstruction and rate hikes, since between AT&T and Verizon, most of the landline are controlled by them, they can and will simply charge Sprint huge sums to allow Sprint consumers to call landlines. This is already a big cost for Sprint and it will get bigger.
In other news, book publishers have agreed upon standards for books and ebooks that only permit one reading. Spokesperson Page Turner explains, 'We allow a limited number of backward page turns so you *can* reread the last page if you need to, but multiple full reads or readers is a form of piracy and must be stopped. Children are the worse offenders.'
I specifically chose United over USAir for travel yesterday as I've had the most trouble with them. However United was also in poor shape yesterday. It was termed 'operational delays', with two hour delays across the board. Calls into United faced 25-30min wait times. And many overbooked flights.
Seems the whole industry is going down the tubes... and decreased competition from these mega-mergers are not helping.
no its a good way to easily slip in cameras, mikes, speakers, everywhere... electricity increase, at least at first, could be tiny... a few milliwatts...
this TW app (which works pretty well), is not any different than Slingbox (its more restrictive than Slingbox, both in channels and in tying you to your home network, unlike Slingbox). So its not even "place shifting" or time shifting.
it would be like the power company charging you separately for EACH device you've plugged into the wall. Moreover, rates would be dependent on WHAT the device was, not how many WATTs it uses. You enjoy your TV more than your 500watt toaster? the TV costs more. 3 ipods drawing 5 watts each will cost more than that 1500watt spaceheater...
actually the figure is 9:1... the ipad has 90% of the tablet market... so the priority is clearly ipad over (fragmented) Android table market for now...
the ipad app issue is certainly the same as Slingbox, which the content providers have begrudgingly accepted as ok... for now... indeed, Slingbox does a lot more than this ipad app does.
This ipad app is actually pretty cool and works well... modulo the slashing of channels available.
Chemical analysis of the meteorite shows it to be rich in ammonia and containing the element nitrogen.
So meteorites brought the life-critical element Nitrogen(!) to Earth... that truly is an astounding finding... no way that life could have evolved here without that contribution from space...
oh wait... doesn't the Earth already have "some" nitrogen? And ammonia? is that hard to make? (no don't think it is...)
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I never use Bing, except that ever since GOOG 411 was decommissioned, I have been "using" BING 411. And I can say it is also about 14% as good as GOOG 411. It is really a shame that GOOG 411 was shutdown because it was really great. BING 411 is a pale, pale imitation that about 70-86% of the time is near useless, it returns wrong results, it doesn't understand what is being asked, the UI is crap, getting into virtual endless loops of user frustration, etc.
"IF BB offered subscription streaming...
Netflix has poor new release selection..."
You've answered your own question here... the REASON that BB doesn't offer subscription streaming is that it would have to GIVE UP good new release offerings. And the reason for that is that the STUDIOS will not allow cut rate, unlimited streaming of new releases at a cheap price. If BB offered subscription streaming WITH new releases, the cost would be easily $100/mo or MORE.
This is the choice... pretty much controlled by the studios, not BB or Netflix. Now maybe BB could do something clever, like old stuff for $10/mo and 4 new ones a month for an add'n $10/mo. Otherwise, this is why DVDs are still relevant, as they are the ONLY way that studios have let consumers view new stuff at the $1-2/view or $10/mo "unlimited" (actually 4-6/mo given mail delays). And Redbox fought a HUGE battle to keep the $1/day pricing (the studios sued), the compromise being, no truly new stuff, must wait 30 days.
The answer to your question, that which blocks what you want to happen, is at the studios and their revenue stream business models...
IF BB offered subscription streaming...
Netflix has poor new release selection...
You've answered your own question here... the REASON that BB doesn't offer subscription streaming is that it would have to GIVE UP good new release offerings. And the reason for that is that the STUDIOS will not allow cut rate, unlimited streaming of new releases at a cheap price. If BB offered subscription streaming WITH new releases, the cost would be easily $100/mo or MORE.
This is the choice... pretty much controlled by the studios, not BB or Netflix. Now maybe BB could do something clever, like old stuff for $10/mo and 4 new ones a month for an add'n $10/mo. Otherwise, this is why DVDs are still relevant, as they are the ONLY way that studios have let consumers view new stuff at the $1-2/view or $10/mo "unlimited" (actually 4-6/mo given mail delays). And Redbox fought a HUGE battle to keep the $1/day pricing (the studios sued), the compromise being, no truly new stuff, must wait 30 days.
The answer to your question, that which blocks what you want to happen, is at the studios and their revenue stream business models...
big DIFF to Facebook/Google: the CONTENT holders... it is very unlikely that there will be a cheaper service to Netflix. On the contrary, it is nearly certain that ALL such streaming movie services will be MORE expensive than Netflix is now, INCLUDING Netflix itself. This is simply because, as Netflix and the like get MORe successful, then the other ways in which people watch movies will decrease. The studios want at least CONSTANT if not increasing revenue. Hence price increases for Netflix and the like. If a studio makes a movie for $100mil... it expects a good chunk of the return to come from DVDs and other "secondary" sources (PayPerView, Netflix, TV, cable, etc). As DVDs go DOWN, other sources go down, prices must go up to compensate (so goes the thought process at the studios...)
so I checked again... nope Amazon Prime doesn't even rate... its movie selection is like 5% that of Netflix... forget it... Amazon Prime is only a teaser bone thrown in to sweeten the whole "Prime" offering (shipping, etc).
my understanding is that Amazon is still FAR FAR FAR behind Netflix in title depth, in fact not even close to competing... I'll look again, but...
BB's allows renting of new, new releases via mail, not wait for 30 days. Also in my experience, BB really doesn't throttle and you can, if you time correctly, get true new releases and a cycle in less than a week (complete mail cycle from receipt to send to next receipt, sometimes even in 4 days. What I hear of Netflix is that although it is good for depth, better than Blockbusters, it is often impossible to get the "new stuff" (new within the past couple months), and they throttle seriously, and of course no new releases (same timing as PayPerView). BB of course also does in store exchanges, which I like a lot... the real main reason I do BB...
As an alternative, in some ways even better than Netflix, Blockbusters is a viable choice for DVDs by mail, particularly if you have a store that is (still) close to you (despite the massive store closures). But as a streaming service, no... BB streaming is still only a competitor to PayPerView, which is pretty much what BB's streaming service is... BB DOES NOT do streaming subscriptions, which is what Netflix is and really has no competition. With Netflix you give up new releases for a subscription that gives you unlimited viewing of admittedly older content that also doesn't match DVDs in breadth, but the price is right-ish. With BB, you get new releases for streaming at the high (to consumers, not to studios) prices. BB *will* have to change to compete... but its really all in the hands of the studios...
I am definitely not in favor of this Tmo buyout, moreso since I'm both a Tmobile and Sprint customer, BUT... DT, Tmo's parent company, has made it abundantly clear that it no longer wants Tmo. So Tmo WILL die, unless some unknown buyer swoops in to continue to operate it as an independent carrier. So far (DT has been taking bids for a while now), no such white knight has appeared. This means that, Tmobile will almost certainly die, if not swallowed by AT&T, then merged with Sprint, or some other unknown fate. Therefore all the arguments made about the necessity of having Tmobile as an important fourth US national carrier are probably moot, as it is unlikely that that can be, even if the AT&T buyout is blocked. Nobody can force DT to continue to operate Tmo as is... sad about that, but that's the troothhhh....
I thought with the new anything goes TLD rules Google could just buy and make a .google or .g TLD?
"Simply not worth that much money, especially with competition from Amazon and Google in the works." But the writing is on the wall that the content providers are going to be driving up the prices on ALL such online streaming services. Netflix just happens to be the first and biggest. As articles have said, Netflix USED BE just a "left overs" service, at least from the view point of the content providers (studios, etc). That is, the studios thought that MOST people bought DVDs and saw movies in theaters and Netflix was just there to "mop up" the small fraction of the market that didn't pay through the other channels. But now the studios see that Netflix is rapidly become a MAJOR if not THE predominant channel for customers to view content. So as revenues drop fro DVD sales, the studio EXPECT Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, Google, etc to raise prices to make up for the shortfall elsewhere. Point is, short of piracy, don't count on finding low cost channels for content from the studios to last forever.
At least in our area (Upstate NY) Verizon has STOPPED deploying fiber... not economical... not enough profit... so no, it isn't necessarily going to happen commercially...
Many business (small stores) that I know ring up credit card purchases via simply CC readers that use PSTN to dial into CC verification centers. I don't think these stores are interested or can afford paying 4X for an Internet connection instead, even if they could get BB Internet (which many semi-rural or rural locations wouldn't be able to, for *any* reasonable price).
This would also be the death of FAX as most VOIP and NO cell services cannot do FAX well or at all. Yet many businesses still rely on FAXing...
ergo, I don't believe in this 2018 date... not at least until BB Internet is available EVERYWHERE that PSTN is, and I mean everywhere, not just 99% of the population (which is a meaningless statistic for public policy, even though it is what, from an economic standpoint what might may sense)...
Sprint will not survive this buyout... even Hesse admits this...
Either Sprint will be bought by Verizon, or Sprint will die a slow death, then be bought for pennies on the dollar.
Sprint will be strangled by 1) high roaming costs, or NO roaming, which means poor coverage for its customers, who will then leave,
2) handset freeze out, prime example being the iPhone which Sprint *still* cannot get,
3) price war: AT&T and Verizon can just decide to wage a price war for a couple of years and decimate Sprint,
4) landline/call termination obstruction and rate hikes, since between AT&T and Verizon, most of the landline are controlled by them, they can and will simply charge Sprint huge sums to allow Sprint consumers to call landlines. This is already a big cost for Sprint and it will get bigger.
In other news, book publishers have agreed upon standards for books and ebooks that only permit one reading. Spokesperson Page Turner explains, 'We allow a limited number of backward page turns so you *can* reread the last page if you need to, but multiple full reads or readers is a form of piracy and must be stopped. Children are the worse offenders.'
I specifically chose United over USAir for travel yesterday as I've had the most trouble with them. However United was also in poor shape yesterday. It was termed 'operational delays', with two hour delays across the board. Calls into United faced 25-30min wait times. And many overbooked flights.
Seems the whole industry is going down the tubes... and decreased competition from these mega-mergers are not helping.
such progress...
uid's used to be encoded in 8bits, 0-255 and some software would break with 128-255 being wrongly converted into a negative integer...
now we start at 1000... I guess it took a while to access the impact of PIDs going beyond 30000...
no its a good way to easily slip in cameras, mikes, speakers, everywhere... electricity increase, at least at first, could be tiny... a few milliwatts...
this TW app (which works pretty well), is not any different than Slingbox (its more restrictive than Slingbox, both in channels and in tying you to your home network, unlike Slingbox). So its not even "place shifting" or time shifting.
what's the beef?
If I understand the idea correctly...
it would be like the power company charging you separately for EACH device you've plugged into the wall. Moreover, rates would be dependent on WHAT the device was, not how many WATTs it uses. You enjoy your TV more than your 500watt toaster? the TV costs more. 3 ipods drawing 5 watts each will cost more than that 1500watt spaceheater...
That Dish Network thing is just actually a Slingbox... which yes, isn't new and does support Android and is not restricted to your home network.
actually the figure is 9:1... the ipad has 90% of the tablet market...
so the priority is clearly ipad over (fragmented) Android table market for now...
the ipad app issue is certainly the same as Slingbox, which the content providers have begrudgingly accepted as ok... for now...
indeed, Slingbox does a lot more than this ipad app does.
This ipad app is actually pretty cool and works well... modulo the slashing of channels available.
ok, so?
(qualcomm, intel, samsung, marvell, etc.)
So meteorites brought the life-critical element Nitrogen(!) to Earth... that truly is an astounding finding... no way that life could have evolved here without that contribution from space...
oh wait... doesn't the Earth already have "some" nitrogen? And ammonia? is that hard to make? (no don't think it is...)