It’s a pretty well-known in the video game world that Microsoft releases a relatively big Xbox Live update each fall.  (For those uninitiated, Xbox Live is the online network that let’s Xbox 360 users play games together from anywhere in the world, purchase, rent and watch movies and music, and more.) This year has been no different, as Microsoft released their Fall Update last week, introducing some new tweaks to the user interface, as well as some nice new features that most users will probably appreciate.  From ESPN3 to Netflix’s new abilities, Kinect connectivity to Windows Phone 7 integration, we’ve got it all here for you, so read on to see what we think! Read the rest of this entry »

As reported on literally 7 hours ago, Netflix has gone ahead and made offical the US release of their streaming-only subscription.  The good news is you can now sign up for Netflix without paying for DVD’s through the mail.  The bad news?  It will only save you a buck. That’s right, streaming only costs $7.99, and streaming plus 1 DVD at a time will run you $8.99.

Here’s hoping they can manage to either lower the price of streaming only, or at least for that price get new releases in time with DVD, because otherwise, this just can’t be recommended.  Don’t get me wrong, I still highly recommend the $8.99/month streaming DVD plan, but why would anyone opt out of the DVD option when it will only cost $12 extra per year?  Hopefully this leads the way for many, many more new and high quality movies on the streaming service, but until then, grab the 1 DVD plan!

Are you a Netflix subscriber?  How often do you really get DVD’s?  What price would streaming-only have to get down to in order for you to get the streaming-only service over one with a DVD option?

Here at ITK we’re huge fans of Netflix.  Partly because it’s a great deal for basically anyone who likes to rent a movie or two a month, but even more so because of the growth its bringing to video streaming.  We’ve always thought that streaming content was the future, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has confirmed for us now that he agrees.  When announcing their third quarter financial results, Hastings stated that Netflix is “now primarily a streaming company that also offers DVD-by-mail” and that while Canada already has a less expensive, streaming-only subscription available, the US could see the same offering sometime this quarter. Read on for pricing details and more!

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