Geek your way to a lower entertainment budget

February 20th, 2009 •
Tags: cable, entertainment, finance, Hulu, money, Netflix, personal finance, Video

J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly (one of my favorite blogs, btw) has a fantastic article about how he ditched cable, spent a fraction of the cost on iTunes downloads, and supplemented that with some free content from Hulu. This trend is becoming more and more popular in recent times. Kevin Rose has mentioned a couple of times on his podcast Diggnation that he recently ditched cable and now gets his entertainment via the Internet. I personally have been cable-free for quite a few years now. Between video games, Hulu, and Netflix streaming, there’s never a dull moment.

How I Cut My Television Bill in Half (via Get Rich Slowly)

Does Netflix need a desktop client?

February 19th, 2009 •
Tags: AIR, Netflix, Queued

ReadWriteWeb has unearthed an interesting AIR app. Queued is a multi-platform application that manages your Netflix queue. I have played with the app a bit to do some queue changes. It’s actually a great app. The interface is undeniably beautiful. In addition to providing queue management functionality, the app also has a few tricks up its sleeve that allow you to find new movies with lists of the top rentals, new movies, and your recommendations. It provides all the pertinent information needed to select new movies for queueing and to decide how to arrange your existing queue.

I’m really liking the app thus far, but I do question the utility of it. The one feature I gain over managing my queue at the site is offline access. I can make changes to my queue, and they are updated to the site the next time I have an active connection. Frankly, I don’t often find myself using the computer without Internet access, but there is something to be said for the convenience of a quick, desktop app to accomplish a task that would otherwise be done in a somewhat slower web app that I will first have to actually load in my web browser. I’m going to give it a few weeks and see how (and if) this app makes sense for me. I suggest you try it too!

Web site offers new ways to browse Netflix InstantWatch

January 28th, 2009 •
Tags: instantwatch, movie, Netflix, streaming, Video

ReadWriteWeb has discovered a new way to browse Netflix InstantWatch titles. I am a huge fan of the InstantWatch system. It always seems that when I have time to watch a movie, either my discs are still in transit or I’m not in the mood for the movie I have. Without InstantWatch, I may have already ditched Netflix even though I think it is an excellent service even if the only offering were discs by mail. There is nothing like the convenience of being able to sit down and watch any time I please. The newly launched Xbox 360 integration is icing on the cake.

One of my biggest complaints about Netflix in general is that browsing for movies is very inflexible. For instance, while browsing Blu-ray movies, I can’t filter by genre. In the InstantWatch section, it seems there are too few ways to separate the good from the bad. In short, any site that will make it easier for me to find cool stuff on InstantWatch is a site that gets tagged in my delicious. Instantwatcher.com offers just that. I’m already loving the “Highest rated” list and the ability to call up a random title.

NetFlix InstantWatcher: A Netflix Mashup for Impatient People