Amazon Prime Subscribers Get Unlimited Streaming Videos
It’s been in the works for a while and Amazon has officially launched online streaming videos for subscribers of its Prime service. The service is currently available to paid Prime subscribers in the US only at no additional charge.
If you’ve already been taking advantage of subscription-based two-day shipping so that your impulse buys get to your door a little quicker you can now enjoy streaming of 5,000 pieces of “prime eligible” content, including some recent movies and a lot of TV shows, much of which will look awfully familiar if you’re also a Netflix subscriber.
Check out the hands-on review at Engadget. What does this mean for Netflix? Too early to tell, but Amazon has the infrastructure to be a serious challenger.
Windows Phone 7 Update Bricks Phones
One would think that a company with years of experience updating operating systems over a network would have no problem keeping their mobile devices up-to-date. One would also think that, with the battle against Android and iOS in full swing, Microsoft would take every precaution to make sure things go smoothly with Windows Phone 7. Unfortunately, one would be wrong. The first patch for Windows Phone 7 devices, which became available Monday, has been a nightmare for many. More specifically, it’s been turning phones into bricks.
Those unfortunates with apparent firmware corruption can try forcing the phone into download mode (turn off the handset, then turn it on while holding the camera button and the volume down button) or firmware reset mode (turn off the handset, then turn it on while holding the camera button and volume up button; then choose the “format” option) or perhaps even a different download mode (turn on while holding camera, volume up and volume down). If this is successful, it should allow the handset to recover its original firmware and resume operation. But not everyone can get this to work, indicating that the devices are truly bricked, with the only option being to return them to the network operator and have them replaced under warranty.
via ars technica
Google Pushes Gingerbread. Enhances NFC. Kills Facebook.
Lucky Nexus One owners are getting an update to the latest version of Google’s Android Operating system. Gingerbread is rolling out to a Nexus One handset near you. This probably means the carriers can begin dragging their feet about officially updating devices like the HTC Evo and Droid X. The Nexus S gets its own special update to the Near Field Communications feature, which now allows it to write data as well as read data with a single bump/tap. You can also use your device to write data to the NFC stickers from Google. This should make it easier for users to play with the feature since there aren’t many physical places supporting NFC yet.
On another note, Google has completely disabled phone book directory sync with Facebook on the Nexus S. Previously, you could set it up so that your Facebook contacts showed up in your Nexus S contacts list. Now, that feature is being removed. This is part of an ongoing battle between Facebook and Google over data portability. Here is Google’s statement:
“We believe it is very important that users are able to control their data. So in the over-the-air update for Nexus S, we have a small change to how Facebook contacts appear on the device. For Nexus S users who downloaded the Facebook app from Android Market, Facebook contacts will no longer appear to be integrated with the Android Contacts app. Since Facebook contacts cannot be exported from the device, the appearance of integration created a false sense of data portability. Facebook contact data will continue to appear within the Facebook app. Like all developers on Android, Facebook is free to use the Android contacts API to truly integrate contacts on the device, which would allow users to have more control over their data. We are removing the special-case handling of Facebook contacts on Nexus S and future lead devices. We continue to believe that reciprocity (the expectation that if information can be imported into a service it should be able to be exported) is an important step toward creating a world of true data liberation — and encourage other websites and app developers to allow users to export their contacts as well.”
via TechCrunch