Gadgets Blog

I have talked before of my affinity for both Netflix and Hulu, but the online rental and streaming monolith that is Netflix is trying to eclipse America’s television alternative.

For those of you unfamiliar with both, Netflix started as a company that sent DVDs via mail, but quickly cornered the market on streaming movies and seasons of television shows online. They have old movies, B-movies, independent movies and even newer movies that make it to streaming relatively quickly.

Hulu is best known for running episodes of television shows online soon after air, and retaining at least three to five of a series’ past episodes for people that missed a few shows. They have movies, as well, but many are older.

In the past, these services were kept pretty much apart, since they each had their own niche. This is no longer the case. Netflix reportedly is willing to pay $100,000 per episode for television shows for next-day streaming rights, and I doubt that television execs are going to turn down the offer.

When DVR first came on the scene, networks and advertisers were livid at the idea that customers would be able to just fast forward through their ads after they had spent millions on them. As DVR became an increasingly larger part of television viewing, advertisers and networks begrudgingly softened their views and began to take DVR viewership into account.

The Internet has always been an advertiser’s dream. You have banner ads that never move an inch, you have videos that require you to watch the ad before it plays and you have pop-ups for everything from travel agencies to “male enhancement” pills.

There appears to be a change in how ads are being marketed these days to give people more of a choice in the ads they see and watch. In one of the biggest coups, YouTube has made ads optional for viewing after five seconds by clicking on a button. This move seems to be fine with advertisers, who seem to be more open to change in Internet ads.

This follows on the heels of Web sites like Hulu, which occasionally give people a choice of three options for advertisements, so viewers can pick the one that is most appealing to them. You may still have to watch it, but at least you get to pick the one that is most palatable.

I admit that I was a holdout on Netflix for a long time. I liked the immediate satisfaction of going to the video store and getting my comedy or action and adventure movies and not waiting a day or two for them to come in the mail.

When Netflix started streaming movies on the Internet, I decided to try out the system, but was relatively unimpressed. They had a decent amount of streaming movies, but all the new releases still had to come through the mail.

Now, not only are relatively new releases available by streaming, but a vast variety of little known and classic older movies are available as well. I don’t mind waiting a day or so for new releases, because there is always something new to watch on the streaming movies.

Apparently, that’s the problem. Netflix streaming accounts for about 20 percent of the total bandwidth use during peak hours of operation. That’s a lot of bandwidth, and people are beginning to notice. Recently, a company called Level 3 worked a deal with Netflix to deliver movies to the cable giant Comcast’s customers.

For years, Nintendo’s Wii has been the unrivaled leader in motion control technology with its nunchuk-like controllers that followed peoples’ movements and translated them to actions on the screen.

This year, both PlayStation and Microsoft unleashed their version of motion control, and Microsft Kinect for Xbox 360 seems to be leading the pack. Unlike both PlayStation and Wii, Xbox Kinect does not use a controller, instead using a camera to track the movements of the player.

When the player jumps, the character jumps. This controller and camera in one gives players the unique opportunity to have their direct image placed into the game screen, and it even reads clothes and colors and translates it to the screen for chats, etc.

Tech and gadget G4 recently tested this device’s capability to recognize specific clothing, from standard jeans and a T-shirt to a naughty school girl uniform, bikini and even nude. Jeans and even naughty school girl translated to the game, but the digital version of nudity was blocked. Unfortunately, it does not block direct video nudity, even though there are supposed to. That’s something for parents to watch out for.

I don’t like shopping over the Internet for much. Sure, it’s easier than going to the store, but I am an instant gratification person. I don’t like waiting. I like to hold it in my hands as soon as I buy it, even if it’s not for me.

That’s why I have never been a big Cyber Monday shopper. Retailers would like you to think that I am in the minority and that today is the biggest online shopping day of the year, but it isn’t. According to CNN.com, the real big online shopping day is sometime in December.

It makes sense. Most people wait until the last minute and they order presents right when it gets close to the shipping deadlines. Cyber Monday was a term coined about five years ago by Shop.org and was at its heart a marketing gimmick.

One that has taken off considerably over the years and has become household name in shopping circles. I have no doubt that the Internet has revolutionized the way people shop, but coining a phrase for a specific day (when it’s not the biggest online shopping day of year) is a bit erroneous.

Believe it or not, the annoying Farmville game that has been plaguing the lives of millions has been dethroned as the number one app on Facebook. Woo hoo!

As a man who is addicted to Facebook games, even I hated the constant barrage of Farmville requests that filled my Facebook feeds every day. Phrases, an app that allows people to post quotes and quizzes on their feeds, recently passed the iconic Farmville with 8.1 million active users before stopping the app in the United States.

Last month, Phrases had 54.4 million users, beating out Farmville’s 53.9 million, but Farmville still dominates daily usage. Phrases had about 5.1 million users and there is no word on plans to reinstate the American version anytime soon. So how was Phrases able to beat down Farmville? Facebook changed its format.

At its height, Farmville, by Facebook game giant Zynga, had almost 84 million users, but recently, Facebook stopped posting Farmville and other game requests on people’s feeds, and its users dropped to the current 53 million status.

5. Donkey Kong: He came into the video game world as a menace to Mario and his girlfriend, and has since become a loving father and avid race car driver. It’s obvious when Donkey Kong was created that they were going after the whole King Kong vibe, but just like wrestling, he ended up changing sides. His most recent game, Donkey Kong Country Returns, came out this month. He’s an old monkey, and it’s time to slip him his last banana and leave the tough stuff to Donkey Kong, Jr.

4. Lara Croft: Arguably, the first video game sex symbol when she burst on the scene her tight shorts and athletic moves had gamers playing with their joysticks for hours. She spawned many games and even two movies starring Angelina Jolie, and there is talk of a reboot in the works. Her latest game, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, came out in September. Let’s face it, folks; she’s had the same outfit and hairstyle for 15 years. Just like Angelina needs to make way for Megan Fox (oh, snap), Lara needs to make way for someone else.

3. Pac Man: Just like Donkey Kong, Pac Man was one of the first true video game stars found in arcades around the globe. He even got his wife and kids in on the ghost-gobbling business. He spawned countless games, cartoons and breakfast cereals, and his most recent game came out this month. You want to talk about a workaholic? This guy was busy through his children’s entire childhoods and is still churning out the games. Put Pac Man to pasture so that he can actually enjoy his golden years with the Misses.

As if you need any more realization that print media is a dying business, media magnate Rupert Murdoch is developing a newspaper designed specifically for iPads and other tablet reading devices.

The paper, to be known as The Daily, will be “delivered” daily at a cost of $0.99 per week and may be available as early as late December, according to CNN.com. Murdoch has long been a proponent of creating and charging for news content delivered by digital medium, and this digital newspaper is his first major foray into that field.

The question that must weigh heavily on Murdoch’s mind is this: Will people pay for digital content when they get most of their news online for free? Also, newspapers like The New York Times can already be delivered directly to the Kindle and other e-readers for a modest amount.

Murdoch plans to focus on national issues and not local content for the newspaper, so I can’t see it making much of dent in the online information market. Even with some of the top journalists of the day working for him, he is going to be charging for stories that will be readily available via online news sites and other e-papers at the same time.

When I was working at a corporation and was required to have a cell phone so that the soulless leeches could contact me 24/7, I had a cell phone contract maxed out on everything. I maxed on the minutes, texts, data usage and anything they had because that phone was my lifeline to corporate hell.

I checked my e-mail constantly, surfed the Web in the car, texted while I drove (yeah, I was one of those guys) and occasionally talked on the phone. I had the standard contract, and since everything was supplemented with a monthly stipend from work, it never hurt my pocket book.

When I decided to make the change from the corporate world to stay-at-home writer and blogger, the phone that had been so important was pretty useless. My wife and I were home 24/7, so I had my desktop computer to surf the Web and check my e-mail.

We used our landline for phone calls because our cell reception was bad in the house. We didn’t go anywhere because we have three small children and no social life, so why was I spending so much money per month on a cell contract?

We looked into decreasing everything, but I still had tons of leftover minutes on both our phones. Our contract was reaching its end, and we began looking at no contract and prepaid phones as a way to stop wasting money.

Television as we once knew it may be approaching its final days. Thanks largely in part to Internet sources for TV series and movies, the slowly emerging market of streaming-based TV content has become a prominent force in the electronics world.

Once just a distributor of by-mail DVD rentals, Netflix has solidified its place in the 21st century, providing the best quick-streaming services out there. Competitors like Hulu for TV and movies and VEVO for music have followed suit with a similar business model, leading to a whole new market of internet-TV streaming devices.

Apple and Google have both jumped on board this bandwagon, with Apple TV and Google TV bringing a wide variety of content to users thanks to TV set integration as well as standalone units. With titans such as these in the ring, is there even room for smaller companies? Boxee, a gadgets maker that has been utterly unknown save for a beta version of today’s product, may very well say yes.