Consumer content

Some Xbox owners see poor-quality Netflix streams

Some owners of Microsoft's Xbox 360 who have signed up to receive movies via Netflix's streaming movie service have seen the same loss of video quality as owners of Roku's Netflix Player.

A mysterious glitch has been hobbling video streams distributed by the two set-top boxes for at least two weeks, said a source close to Netflix on Thursday. The problem is the first setback for Netflix's streaming, which has won accolades since the $99 Roku box debuted last spring. Microsoft, LG Electronics, and Samsung followed with their own set-top boxes featuring Netflix's service. Microsoft … Read more

In Flickr's mobile upgrade, video!

Flickr's mobile Web site hasn't traditionally been in step with its popular Web app. A fresh lick of paint and some API work under the hood brings the two experiences much closer in line.

On Thursday, Yahoo-owned Flickr pushed out a very worthwhile upgrade to its mobile-optimized site, m.flickr.com.

Video streaming is the big draw. As on Flickr.com since last April, anyone accessing Flickr from an iPhone or iPod Touch can play videos hosted on Flickr's servers. In a few weeks, Flickr will unlock this capability for anyone using a Webkit, Opera Mobile (but … Read more

What's causing video glitches at Apple, Netflix?

Some Apple TV owners have complained for several weeks that it takes much longer now to download and playback high-definition movies.

"I started downloading an hour back and it says it will take two hours," wrote someone with the user name Reachg. "It's already 25 percent downloaded but it's not letting me play. In the past I was able to play the movie in 10 minutes max...seems something is happening."

The complaints at Apple's forums first appeared on November 14. That was the day after Roku, maker of the Netflix Player, notified customers … Read more

Will Colbert's 'Operation Humble Kanye' work?

Editor's note: CNET News does not endorse Stephen Colbert and has no formal opinion on whether Kanye West needs to be humbled.

Comedian Stephen Colbert has an army and I'm in it. Together, we got a bridge in Hungary named after him (though to be honest, I didn't actually vote; I helped my team in spirit from the comfort of my couch). Colbert had an eagle named after him. He's helped countless candidates for office with his undeniable "Colbert Bump." He even got Apple to send him an iPhone simply by holding out his … Read more

iPhone app promo codes trickle out

On Tuesday, the first promotional codes that will make iPhone apps free to some users began trickling out of the App Store.

Apple is finally bequeathing apps developers with a way to let some media testers review an app at no expense and reward or attract a few lucky users. (The first invite has already floated into my in-box.)

This is Apple, so there are limits. Fifty promotional codes per product, to be exact.

Also, as wonderful as it is to see the passcodes allowed and implemented, they are not free trials. Developers angling to hook new customers will still … Read more

MySpace to offer mobile streaming video

MySpace is going mobile with streaming video.

News Corp.'s social-networking site is expected to offer video clips from members' pages, as well as professionally produced ones, to video-enabled mobile devices starting Wednesday, according to a Reuters report. Professional video will be provided by the likes of celebrity gossip site TMZ, the National Hockey League, and National Geographic magazine.

The service will be free to users--supported by advertising. The move, which will make MySpace the first social network to offer mobile streaming video, is an attempt to tap into the small but growing mobile advertising market.

"These are the … Read more

Conde Nast to shutter teen site Flip.com

Conde Nast is throwing in the towel on Flip.com.

The teen girl social-networking site, which launched in February 2007, will shut down on December 16, according to an e-mail sent to users Tuesday. Members who used the service to create scrapbooks were advised: "any flipbooks that you would like to save before this date, we suggest you print them," according to MediaBistro.

Flip.com, which reached a membership of about 300,000, originally focused on shared "flipbooks" that members could create using photos, videos, and other content. However, the site had difficulty competing with the … Read more

EFF to court: Don't shield telecoms from illegal-spying suits

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for Internet users, is expected to argue in court on Tuesday that it's unconstitutional to prevent Americans from suing the telecom companies that allegedly helped the federal government unlawfully spy on them.

The FISA Amendments Act (FAA) gives telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for opening their networks to the National Security Agency. The telecoms can walk away from lawsuits as long as the government claims the request was "lawful" and authorized by the president. Before the law was passed, EFF had brought a lawsuit against AT&T that is before … Read more

Netflix's Web site suffers brief outage

Netflix suffered a nearly hour long site outage on Monday, the company confirmed.

The site went down at about 3:40 p.m. PT and Netflix posted this note to the site's front door at about 4 p.m.:

"We're sorry, the Netflix website is temporarily unavailable. Our shipping centers are continuing to send and receive DVDs , so your movies will be processed as usual. And you can still instantly watch movies via your Netflix ready device."

Netflix has suffered several costly outages in the past year. A hardware glitch prevented the company from shipping DVDs … Read more