Netflix Available For Android 162
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the branching-out dept.
from the branching-out dept.
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."
Supported devices (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Supported devices (Score:5, Informative)
Unless you root it...
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/13/how-to-install-netflix-on-most-android-devices/ [techcrunch.com]
Re:Supported devices (Score:4, Insightful)
It will not brick it. Joe Sixpack will ignore it if it is not out of the box supported. Joe has learned helplessness, he is not interested in learning. Look around you are on Slashdot, not Joe_6pack.com.
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It is pretty hard to brick an Android phone. Plus, if Joe Sixpack has his device rooted, he has already jumped through a lot of hoops already, even if it is a "one click root".
The ironic thing is that Android is easier to back up once rooted than before. Rooted, I have nandroid (complete copy of the ROM), and Titanium Backup (complete copy of all apps backed up, and stored encrypted on Dropbox.) Without root, there isn't any real way to back Android up.
To boot, editing build.prop isn't my idea of a good
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The only way Joe Sixpack would even recognize the word "fragmentation" is his stint in the National Guard, where he learned that you wanna throw the grenade really, really hard, or you'd be picking fragmentation out of your butt.
So the phrase "platform fragmentation" is a fine piece of marketing disinformation, even if it has no factual basis. "Your shiny fruit-themed entertainment electronics friend will never explode in your pocket, unlike that evil man-killing robot bomb maker."
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Joe Sixpack has probably never heard the terms "Osborne Effect" or "aircraft failure to maintain lateral clearance with terrain," but he still knows better than to buy Gamestation5 when Gamestation6 has been announced, and that a plane hitting a tree is bad.
The problem is people don't know what Android is, or what makes it different from iOS or Blackberry, aside from the fact that "having Android" doesn't seem to guarantee any particular functionality aside from the barest and most simple things, and that h
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Re:Supported devices (Score:4, Insightful)
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It would seem that officially, only Qualcomm devices support the DRM scheme they aren't actually using, since other devices have been modified to work.
Re:Supported devices (Score:4, Insightful)
... and accept that you're running it on an untested combination of software and hardware
So, every application on every platform is tested on every combination of hardware that is available for that platform? Thought not. And that hasn't been a problem. Until the trolls dreamed it up as a way to attack Android.
with no guarantee as to performance
It runs flawlessly on my OG Droid which is by far the slowest and most memory poor of any remotely modern Android phone with enough market share to matter.
and no support.
Support? For a streaming video player? Troll on, brother!
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The reason Netflix supports only specific devices has little to do with hardware fragmentation and more to do with included software DRMs.
It's very likely Netflix will eventually either look for a way to avoid non-certified devices from streaming, or studios force them to remove Android support, and by support, I mean tell their servers to block the platform (should they not manage to block reliable un-certified devices.)
I personally find it a bit stupid, but they are contractually obligated to make sure
Re:Supported devices (Score:4, Insightful)
Rooting the phone (often) voids the warranty.
Interesting. I have (had) a T-Mobile G1. The first thing I did was root the thing by downgrading the firmware, rooting, upgrading the firmware and the recovery partition and kept it up with the latest Cyanogenmod until the day it went kaput. I happened to be traveling in Pittsburgh when it happened. Went to the kiosk in the mall told them my phone broke, they switched it out for a new one. Lather, rinse, repeat on the Cyanogenmod.
I currently have a Droid from Verizon. It was rooted before I left the parking lot at the Best Buy where I bought it. Again, put Cyanogenmod on it. I had it for a while, then the screen stopped working when I would slide the keyboard out. Took it back to Verizon as is and guess what? Walked out with another one.
And if that isn't good enough for you, anybody clued in enough to root their phone is capable of flashing it back to factory.
You also, effectively, forfeit any customer support you would have received. 'Okay sure, type in *228' "Hang on, my leet custom ROM is different, so I'm going to type in %228" 'Umm, I'm sorry sir, we don't support leet custom ROM'.
Pure strawman troll bs.
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So stop being a weenie and edit build.prop.
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Fragmentation is a small price to pay for having the option of more than one non-customizable hardware release a year.
Netflix fragmentation is mostly due to an inconsistent hardware platform and thus large variance in DRM standards that have been solved later in the devices life with Tegra 2 support being standardized. Is it fragmented, yes, but Google is doing a decent job at closing the fragmentation while still allowing users the freedom to choose from a variety of devices within different price ranges a
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Really? Is the pace of phone hardware development so fast that there are significant changes every few months? Now, I love seeing a large variety of devices on the market, but a yearly release schedule doesn't sound unrealistic in terms of keeping us with actual development.
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They are probably the five most popular.
On the other hand, you have to wonder if you're looking for a phone and you want Netflix, will it run today, will it run tomorrow? Is this exactly the SKU that runs Netflix?
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They are probably the five most popular.
Nexus One and Nexus S are two out of those five. Popular? Not bloody likely.
It seems that it's just devs being lazy or testers being overcautious. Surely any 3.x tablet should be able to run this as well, at the very least?
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Actually, it appears to work on more than just those 5 (Reports of the Incredible working just fine...I'll have an Iconia A500 report here shortly...). It's just that they've CERTIFIED it to work with those 5 and officially support it there. BIG difference than the line you're running up the flagpole.
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It would be okay if they just said "feel free to install on this and that, but we won't support it". Instead, they've actually made it so that it won't even appear in the Market for "unsupported" devices, and you can't just download and install APK either because it checks hardware.
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June 30th is getting close ... Netflix might very well disappear from the iOS app store altogether at that point.
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"...while Netflix runs on all iPhones and iPads."
That would be two devices. Three less than on Android.
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iPhone
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3GS
iPhone 4
iPad
iPad 2
iPod touch
iPod touch 2nd gen
iPod touch 3rd gen
iPod touch 4th gen
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Seems like Jobs has released his shill army backed by his shill mod army. RUN!!
Anyway - going by your logic, Android is still doing 2.5 times better than your idevices.
Some people out there like, you know, choices. And ability to make decisions on their own. I know they are relatively new concepts for you, and you probably would not really like them anyway. Good luck with your walled garden.
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It runs on most android devices released within a certain timeframe. In the same way that it only runs on iphone's made within a certain timeframe. It doesn't run on my older iphone.
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Since it's streaming good quality video, a certain level of hardware capability and performance is necessary to play smoothly. Netflix can't determine the Android hardware any more than Google can. It's dumb to limit it to such a short list rather than provide general guidelines about hardware requirements and let users try it, but the reason is so that large numbers of people don't have a bad experience and get a bad impression of Netflix.
It's an odd analogy since Android is mostly Free/Open Source while W
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Crazy URLs (Score:2)
What is with that URL? http://blog.netflix.com/2011/05/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html [netflix.com]
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I agree, tried to change some of the false to true, but the page does not exist.
Also, changing normal to weird did not yield the desired effect.
Why is it so difficult to stick to nice URLs?
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Because too few developers know about mod_rewrite?
Learning web development on shared hosting (Score:2)
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.
Geek needs update BADLY! (Score:2)
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.
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The Nexus S only ever came with 2.3. How can you have 2.2.1? Did you employer root your device and downgrade it?
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LoB
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As noted, any Nexus S would already have 2.3, just not the most recent minor version of that.
As well, any Android phone will happily update over WiFi. Those "OTA" updates are actually "OTI" (over-the-Internet). Obviously, that won't affect the phone bill in any way.
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If this is the case, one can run the employer's E-mail using an app like Nitrodesk's TouchDown. This way, the work stuff is under the restrictions of the Exchange policies (encrypted, etc.) However, that just affects the app. Plus, it keeps work's GAL from getting confused with one's personal GAL, if they have a personal Exchange account for mail.
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At my work we have the option of getting issued a phone (a Blackberry.. ugh) or using a personal phone and being compensated monthly for it. I use my personal Nexus One because it's superior to a Blackberry (for me, anyway. Give me Android or iOS over Blackberry any day. I don't mean that in general for everyone, though. To each their own, whatever works for you, etc.) ... but I really don't like that Android 2.2.1 forced Exchange policies on my phone... ie. the admin can now remotely wipe my phone through
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No. I've been given direct orders NOT to root the phone. They don't want our carrier possibly cutting service to the phone or any other issues arising from it getting in the way.
Since it's technically their phone, I say jack and shit about it.
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You don't need to root the phone. As I and Locutus already pointed out, you should already have 2.3 Gingerbread if you have a Nexus S. It came with that from the moment it was available to the public. If there's a 2.2.1 available for it, it would already be a rooted custom firmware. Google never made firmware less than 2.3 for the Nexus S.
Android is Linux? (Score:2)
Is Android basically modified Linux? If it is, does mean that I might be able to use a Linux + PC combination with Netflix someday?
Re:Android is Linux? (Score:4, Insightful)
Android does use the kernel, but unless you install the rest of a normal userland that is pretty much were it ends. You might be able to run this app in the emulator though.
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Apparently they are developing a Netflix plugin for Chrome that may work on Linux. See here [thechromesource.com].
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US only? (Score:5, Informative)
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...
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I've seen the same on xda-developers. Reports indicate it still doesn't work in Canada... Netflix knows where you are (probably by the type of account, not just IP location)... thanks though, I'll probably give it a try anyway just to see :)
Where is the table support? (Score:2)
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?
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Yes. They got it to work with a particular library, and decided to drop it before expanding it to use other libraries. Beta-testing and demand evaluation are valuable experiments.
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It also works great on my LG Optimus S with CM7.
Both are unsupported and ones an ereader, the other a low end free Android phone. By running well on this I think it shows how wide the range of hardware it can really run on.
Rooted Droid X w/ 2.2.1 (Score:2, Informative)
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 g
Works great (Score:2)
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
5 Fucking phones??? (Score:3)
This is so full of win I can't contain myself... (Score:2)
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 investig
nonuniform drm == fragmented? (Score:2)
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.
One thing's for sure (Score:2)
The Nexus One is supported, so it's certainly not hardware specs preventing the install on other Android devices.
Stupid, very stupid (Score:2)
So with all the caps people have on their 3G/4G connection, streaming movies are the way to go!!!!
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So edit build.prop. Oh noes, edit a text file and reboot.
Re:yesterday (Score:4, Insightful)
edit a text file and reboot.
Android, bringing you all the features you loved from the good old days of DOS.
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In the grown up world everything is still done that way. How do you think apache is config-ed?
Minus the reboot of course.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah I'm a Unix sysadmin, I know all about the "grown up world." This is a phone we're talking about though, it's supposed to just fucking work. I'm not going to spend my free time babysitting another computer, I already have plenty of those.
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This is not a phone, this is a computer that happens to make phone calls. Nothing just works. Things that claim to work sometimes and give no indication as to why not they do not.
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My iPhone "just works", my mac does a good job of just working most of the time especially compared to a Windows box or a Linux that needs tweaking for every little thing. They're not time-sinks which is why I got them in the first place, I've got a kid and the remains of my social life which I'd rather put my time into. Don't get me wrong I love that these things exist for you to tweak and play with and maybe I'll get one of these Android phones one of these days as a hobby thing, but my main computer and
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Linux boxes don't need tweaking all the time, set it up run updates and be done with it. Sounds like Unix admin in your case means Mac Weenie.
Your iphone does not just work, send it a mime/multipart message that really only has html and text. Sure that should be mime/alternative, but either way showing nothing not even an error sure is not just working. We tested this on an iPhone 4 with all the updates and still it showed nothing, as though the email was blank.
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and then the alarms don't even ring with DST rolls over.
iPhones don't go on DST, they go on RDF (which is amazingly revolutionary and intuitive).
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Linux boxes don't need tweaking all the time, set it up run updates and be done with it. Sounds like Unix admin in your case means Mac Weenie.
I'm a Mac weenie on my own time (OSX is a fully certified Unix too btw), at work I'm a Solaris/AIX sysadmin (there's even 1 or 2 Linux boxes in there that we need for interoperability with another company.) Linux on the desktop sucks, there's no middle ground either you are using it as set up by default or you're constantly tweaking it. That's just my opinion though and I've never really liked Linux, if given the choice I'd take a FreeBSD system over Linux any day.
Your iphone does not just work, send it a mime/multipart message that really only has html and text. Sure that should be mime/alternative, but either way showing nothing not even an error sure is not just working. We tested this on an iPhone 4 with all the updates and still it showed nothing, as though the email was blank.
I didn't say it was completely free from bu
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there's no middle ground either you are using [Linux] as set up by default or you're constantly tweaking it.
So, for the former, you are basically in the same boat as the Mac and for the latter, at least Linux lets you tweak it how you want. And when you're done, guess what? You're done. It will run happily for as long as you want. Personally, I'm a very happy user of KDE 4.6 on a Debian based distro. The extent of the tweaking involved dragging a couple of my favorite applications to the taskbar and installing some ap
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You forgot to mention that he'd have to root first.
Re:iOS? Check. WinPhone7? Check. Android? NOPE! (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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Having to root your phone and trick software into running on your device isn't crippled ?
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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 [att.com] 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 f
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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 u
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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.
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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.
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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 [blogspot.com] 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
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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.
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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 [pcworld.com] too.
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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.
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Re:iOS? Check. WinPhone7? Check. Android? NOPE! (Score:4)
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.
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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?
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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?
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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.
Re:iOS? Check. WinPhone7? Check. Android? NOPE! (Score:4, Informative)
From here [mobilecrunch.com]:
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 [android.com], 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?
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DRM was bad until it stopped being inconvenient.
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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.
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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.
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Roku has DRM [deviceguru.com]. Now you know.
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They can try. And then people will "drop" Verizon or AT&T without the ETF. The problem is who do we go to, Sprint? gahhh
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Now, if they'll just make a cell phone with a 47 inch screen I can get rid of my TV.
Well... you are right. People do seem awfully crazy when you don't understand their motivations.
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