The I.T. Life

It looks like Netflix has secured a deal with CBS giving them access to every episode of every Star Trek show. Original, Deep Space, Enterprise, you name it they will all be online by October (some will be on in July).

The only downside is this deal limits this to the US, so I won’t be watching this anytime soon.

The future of Blockbuster may be revealed in the next few days, as the the new owner of the company will be decided this week. Blockbuster, who has been completely destroyed by companies like NetFlix, and services like the iTunes store has been in bankruptcy for a little while now, and a few companies are bidding to take over.

Dish network is just one of the players, and the current big is somewheres around $290 million. My only question is what the heck is somebody going to do with Blockbuster, because nobody rents DVDs these days and the last thing we need is another online video store.

Deadline Hollywood is talking about a upcoming deal for NetFlix that could bring them there first original content. If it is all to believed they have outbid AMC and HBO, spending over $100 million on a show produced by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey. The show is called “House of Cards”, and is a political thriller based on a British miniseries of the same name, and if this is all true then NetFlix has it for the first two seasons. Something like this is really exciting and a big step forward for NetFlix, but sadly I won’t be completely sold on them until there content in Canada grows further, and they have more prime time shows.

I’m sure you all remember the Apple TV; there have been many versions and historically none of them have done very well. That is until the latest one; this time Apple finally has it right and it is showing.

If you are not aware, there is a growing category in consumer electronics for “interent televisions”. What that means is a little box that will allow you to stream your movies, music, pictures to your TV; along with feeding in content from YouTube, NetFlix, Hulu, and tons of other internet sources. Roku is one of the big names (probably a closer competition to Boxee), and if you use it as a marker to compare to the Apple TV you will be amazed just how well Apple is doing. Apple has actually doubled the sales of Roku, which is pretty impressive.

Now many people will argue that Apple finally got it right, however the truth is they haven’t changed very much. What they have gotten right though is timing. The original Apple TV was so early, nobody knew really what to do with it. The market was a niche for geeks, and that is it. Now that a lot of people are buying them, and it is something the average consumer is learning about they finally can Shine. One big advantage they have is there name. Now that consumers are learing what internet tv is, they are being told Apple makes a device; since they know the name Apple and typically associate it with higher quality products they assume it is the best.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a Apple fan boy, and have the Apple TV on my wish list; however I do wan’t to better explain how this is happening. Timing, a brand name, and a relationship to a product (iTunes, iPod) that almost everybody has these days. Because of all this, Apple is expecting to actually have 1 million units sold this week (total, not just this week). This is a incredible number, and something that other devices will be lucky to see by next year.

Since the recent decision of NetFlix to be 100% BluRay, Best Buy has decided that they are going to be, well, not 100% BluRay, but they are going to stop advertising and displaying HDDVD’s. You can still buy them, the problem is, you have to find them first.

Netflix’s just picked there format for HD movies, and it is Blu! Just another low blow for HDDVD, and they are getting even closer to the end. Read the whole story from Reuter.