Today Netflix, the popular DVD-by-mail service, announced it will begin offering the ability for customers to instantly watch movies over the Internet. You can read their press release here:

http://www.netflix.com/MediaCenter?id=5384

As a Netflix customer and someone who likes to see companies break from the mold of purely physical music and video, this is a step forward. Though it is only available to Windows PC users, I think it will be popular as they are planning a phased approach and have worked it into their existing pricing model. This way, you should actually be able watch a movie without the servers being taxed too much, and you won’t have to change anything to do so.

Of course this enhancement is not perfect. You are not downloading a video to watch at your convenience, you are watching a streamed movie on your PC. Also, not all movie titles will be made available for viewing. But after waiting weeks to receive DVDs over the recent holidays, it will be a nice option to have, and an even nicer choice when Comcast’s On-Demand service does not have anything I am interested in, which for me was the catalyst for signing up for Netflix in the first place.

It will be interesting to see the reaction of the movie industry to this offering – will they jump on the bandwagon, or just make their back catalog available? It is a step by a major player in the direction of a pure digital world of watching or listening to whatever, whenever, a step towards convergence that is easier to use without having to buy a pricey, flat-screen telephone.

Business • Technology • (3) Comments • Permalink

I start my mornings with the TV news on in the background, with the hope that subliminally I will retain the overnight activities of the world. On occasion, there is a useful nugget from a guest on a non-news topic that sticks in my mind, and today it was the topic of words.

The author of Words That Work, Frank Luntz, was on the tube stumping his new book. He is a political consultant and the example he gave was from the 2004 presidential campaign, comparing the words spoken by John Kerry, which tended to reflect his Yale education, and the words by George W. Bush, which… um… tended not to reflect his Yale education.

As this was swirling in my head, another good work on words came to mind. Dr. Peter Meyers of Tminus2 Consulting wrote a "geek guide" (a.k.a. white paper) on the topic of Speaking geek to customers which he makes available on his blog, debabblog. It offers good advice for technical folks in talking to clients or customers about technology without causing their eyes to roll to the back of their head.

Now the classic 80's song Cult of Personality by Living Colour is playing in my head, with its edited quote from Malcolm X, “[w]e want to talk right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand.” Though I can't recall what today's weather forecast is.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Business • Technology • (4) Comments • Permalink