Amazon recently delighted its iOS-toting users by allowing offline viewing of Prime Instant Video movies and television shows, but don't count on Netflix offering the same feature anytime soon.
Gizmodo reached out to Netflix and asked the company why it won't change its firm stance that it's not going to offer offline downloads through its mobile applications and the official company line is eyebrow-raising.
Apple is exploring getting into the original programming business, reports Variety. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet claims the company has held "preliminary conversations" in recent weeks with Hollywood executives to suss out their interest in producing entertainment content.
It's unclear how large Apple's ambitions are at the moment, but one source says the endgame is to set up development and production divisions that would churn out long-form content in a bid to compete with Netflix, and the like. They say these divisions could be operational as early as next year.
As a longtime fan of TodoMovies, an excellent movie tracker by German developer Taphive, I've been using the app to keep tabs on the movies I wanted to watch.
Since its March 2014 App Store debut, developers have constantly updated the app with meaningful feature additions like Motion Posters in TodoMovies 2, a revamped design in TodoMovies 3 and lots of other goodies.
Previously a $1.99 download, TodoMovies went the freemium route and it did help widen the app's user base. And as of Thursday, TodoMovies 4 is available in the App Store with tons more perks.
For starters, it now offers a nicely designed Apple Watch app for your wrist. On the iPhone side, enhancements include custom lists, a richer movie details view, tab-based navigation, support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screens and more.
Read on for a quick review based on my brief hands-on time with the new version.
Apple is holding its “Spring Forward” media event at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts and the company has just announced that HBO's rumored subscription service is debuting on the now discounted Apple TV set-top box next month at a fleet monthly fee of $14.99.
The CEO of HBO Richard Plepler took the stage to say that the service, dubbed HBO Now, will be exclusive to Apple at launch. Past, present and future programming will be available on Apple devices, via a brand new channel on Apple TV and a dedicated iOS app.
Re/code is reporting that an upcoming episode of ABC's popular television sitcom Modern Family was shot entirely on iPhone and iPad cameras and will play out entirely on a MacBook screen, showing exchanges between characters who use FaceTime to communicate among themselves.
The forthcoming episode, titled “Connection Lost,” was shot entirely on an iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 and is scheduled to air at 9pm next Wednesday, February 25, on ABC.
As first noted by 9to5Mac, Apple has expanded its social presence with a brand new blog dedicated to iTunes content and hosted on Yahoo-owned Tumblr platform.
Now available at the itunes.tumblr.com URL, the blog highlights a curated selection of movies, television shows, music and books carried on the iTunes Store.
A special emphasis is given to Apple's Best of 2014 charts that were published on iTunes last week. If memory serves me well, this is Apple's second official blog on Tumblr following odd iPhone 5c web adds and Tumblr presence which was supposed to resonate with the blog platform's younger audience.
Like in years past, Apple ahead of the holidays published its list of the best and most popular apps, movies, TV shows, music and books available on iTunes. In the category of the top paid iPhone app, Heads Up! came in first. Facebook's Messenger is Apple's top free iPhone app and Clash of Clans emerged as the top grossing iPhone app, respectively. On the iPad side, Minecraft, YouTube and Clash of Clans have been rated as the App Store's top paid, free and grossing apps, respectively.
Without further ado, here's the rest of Apple's most popular apps and media in 2014.
After dropping some details regarding its upcoming 'Game of Thrones' game last week, Telltale Games today released its first trailer. The video sets the stage for what could be Telltale's biggest releases, given how popular HBO's GOT franchise has become.
The game will tell the story of the House Forrester, a noble family from the north of Westerns, loyal to the Starks Winterfell. Players will take on the role of different members of the Forrester household, and determine their fates. Here's the new trailer.
Amazon-owned IMDb, the world’s largest collection of movie, TV and celebrity information, has a nicely done iPhone and iPad application available for free in the App Store that has just gotten a whole lot better in the latest version 4.5 release.
For starters, the software at last provides a bunch of useful technical specifications for movies such as the original aspect ratio, color, audio, runtime and what not.
Next, movie pages now include box office information giving you yet another indication of the movie's popularity — that's in addition to the previous data like review scores. Note that U.S. box office result data was previously available only via the app's Popular Charts feature.
If you want to write a plot for an obscure movie that lacks descriptions, or maybe add interesting trivia to a television show, you can now do so directly in the mobile app, without visiting IMDb's interface on the web.
TeeVee 3, a TV show-tracking app that I reviewed in May by Tomas Perzl of the Czech Republic and Slovakia-based CrazyApps Team, now lets you tweet out upcoming episodes or mark the ones you've seen as watched, directly from the notification itself, and also see which shows are coming next in the Today view of the iOS Notification Center, thanks to its iOS 8-focused update released yesterday.
Other new features available in this excellent iPhone and iPad app include new sorting options (Alphabetically, Reverse, AirDate and Unwatched), the ability to delete a show by long-pressing it in the list and several bug fixes.
As a cherry on top, the team has decided to discount the $2.99 app to zero bucks, for a limited time, in an effort to bring in new customers. If you're going to grab the latest TeeVee 3.1 update, please keep in mind that the app now requires iOS 8.
Google has just updated its Play Movies & TV client for the iPhone and iPad with offline support, accessibility improvements and bug fixes, the Internet giant announced in a Google+ post Monday morning.
“With Google Play’s updated iOS Play Movies & TV app, you can download movies and TV shows then take them with you wherever you go, no Internet connection required,” reads the post.
Released this January, the free application (which now sits at version 1.2) continues to lack the ability to purchase movies and television shows on Google Play due to Apple's rules for iOS development.
Netflix for the iPhone and iPad now allows you to privately recommend movies and television shows to a cherry-picked selection of Facebook friends who have connected their Facebook account with Netflix, but fortunately without spamming their News Feed, wrote the firm Tuesday in a post over at the official blog.
The social recommendation feature is available to Netflix users in the United States and Canada starting today.
Dubbed Netflix Recommend, it's “another great way to discover your next favorite show,” as the popular on-demand streaming service put it.