Icontraband

It was inevitable, but via Roku, Netflix has released a set-top box that streams a chunk of its library over the internets to your teletube. It’s cheap, rolling in at $99 and does not require any other subscription fees as long as your regular Netflix subscription is at least $9 a month. When it comes to the interface, it does things a little differently than all the other set-top-video-on-demand-box hyphenates out there: the Netflix library is not listed through the box, rather you use your browser to put selections into the Netflix Queue in your account. Advantageous in that the box does not rely on clunky on-screen keyboards, loading long lists of potential choices, but perhaps irking when you’re too drunk to go fetch your laptop in the other room. At the end of the day, the price point and the sheer simplicity (think of all the less savvy users who have come to master Netflix in recent years - they won’t have to learn a new interface) makes this a formidable entry in this over-saturated and underselling market. Step it up, AppleTV.

Technorati Tags: appletv, netflix, queue, roku, set top box, video on demand

Tivo is vastly superior to cable DVR in function, but not necessarily in form. Too many features buried in too many similar menus have made TiVo a prime candidate for a UI upgrade for years now. Their website has been no cakewalk either, and after running incoming surveys on usability last week, TiVo.com has something of a new look (at the top levels at least). Cooler, less “preschool” colors and FrontRow reflectyness have brought it up to 2008 standards. Given the aesthetic parity between the device UI and the site, does this mean that we may be seeing a cleaner, easier TiVo UI in the near future?

Link to TiVo.com

Technorati Tags: dvr, frontrow, television, TiVo

Starting the week off is one fantastic application that just may or may not preclude any further reporting on new desktop wallpapers. Why? Desktoptopia by, er, Desktoptopia streams fresh wallpapers to your desktop based on what you want. Every 15 minutes (in our case - you can define the change intervals) a new wallpaper pops up, and your computer feels brand new. You can even customize the feeds to download the desktops from the source of your choosing (we might have to do one down the line!).

Desktoptopia is FREE and available for both Mac and Windows (beta)

Link to Download Desktoptopia

Technorati Tags: application, background, desktops, desktoptopia, feed, mac, rss, software, utilities, wallpapers, windows

Between iTunes, Hulu, Xbox Live, BBC iPlayer, Joost, and network websites, we might need to add four to five additional hours to the day in order to take in all the streaming content blasting through the internets these days. Adobe - who’s AIR self-contained platform is beginning to make some waves - unleashed the Adobe Media Player this week, which adds another streaming content application to the mix. Upon first glance, it offers a solidly designed interface, but it’s got some ways to go; you’re presented with a largely bare canvas before realizing that you have click on the “catalogue” button to find anything new. Contentwise, it’s just getting started, so there are a handful of video blogs and Viacom properties (like MacGyver!), and the video is well compressed. For now, it has nowhere near the navigational ease of iTunes or Hulu, but it excels beyond the organizational mess of Xbox Live’s video store and the indecipherable blast of generic icons and boxes of Joost.

Link to Download Adobe AIR (required before installing Adobe Media Player)
Link to Download Adobe Media Player

Technorati Tags: adobe, air, app, bbc, cbs, hulu, interface, iplayer, itunes, joost, linux, live, mac, macgyver, pc, windows, puppy, software, streaming, viacom, xbox