Netflix has announced the launch of the long awaited streaming app for Android devices, however, it is only available on five devices.
As of right now, the app is available for the Nexus S, Nexus One, T-Mobile G2, HTC Evo 4G and HTC Incredible.
You must be running Android 2.2 (or 2.3 for Nexus S) to download the app.
Netflix was clear to explain why the small selection of phones:
The Android platform is gaining rapid adoption in the mobile world and presents a great opportunity to reach more of our members. Because the platform has evolved so rapidly, there are some significant challenges associated with developing a streaming video application for this ecosystem. One of these challenges is the lack of standard streaming playback features that the Netflix application can use to gain broad penetration across all available Android phones. In the absence of standardization, we have to test each individual handset and launch only on those that can support playback. We are aggressively qualifying phones and look forward to expanding the list of phones on which the Netflix app will be supported. We anticipate that many of these technical challenges will be resolved in the coming months and that we will be able to provide a Netflix application that will work on a large majority of Android phones.
Despite the fragmentation, the company is working on expanding the selection of devices the app will work with:
“e expect to quickly add to the number of phones that can download from Android Market as we work with ecosystem partners to expand playback support.
Result for: playback
RIM has unveiled their long-anticipated Playbook tablet today, throwing their contender into the market dominated by the Apple iPad.
“Every successful professional has a great PlayBook,” said Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM.
The tablet will measure in smaller than the iPad at just 7 inches, but it is thinner at 9.7 millimeters.
Furthermore, the tablet has a rear and front-facing camera, and the ability to natively playback Flash videos.
BlackBerry smartphone owners can tether their devices and use the 3G on the tablet.
The Playbook will not run on RIM’s new BlackBerry 6 OS, however, instead it will run on a brand new mobile operating system created by QNX Software, which was acquired by RIM earlier in the year.
Result for: playback
Thanks to a Japanese forum poster, we now have concrete evidence that Sony is at least considering creating a peripheral that would give PlayStation 3 owners a way to play their PS2 games.
The new patent filed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan shows off a “Compatibility Adapter,” a peripheral that contains necessary parts to playback PS2 games, but will work when attached to a PS3.
When the PS3 launched in 2006, gamers were given full hardware backward compatibility, but later versions of the console removed the hardware and added software-based emulation instead.
Sony later removed all backward compatibility, in an effort to shed costs.
While the peripheral is interesting, there cannot be too many people still wanting to play PS2 games out there, especially as the console reaches the very end stages of its life.
View the patent here: PS2 compatibility adapter patent (Warning, it’s in Japanese)
