Fandor, an online indie film streaming service that caters to both independent film fans and the mainstream movie crowd, released an iPad app today. This move comes shortly after announcing a partnership with the Roku streaming set-top box back in November. Going mobile brings one of the web’s largest collections of entertaining films that celebrate cinema to iPad users. The films within the collection include the likes of FILM SOCIALISME from the Legendary director Jean-Luc Godard. A magisterial essay on the decline of European civilization, the film was an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. Fandor offers its users great films such as this as well as others not found anywhere else.
The app features a unique way in which to discover new films via the “Spinner” which offers members a way to have a film randomly picked for them or to select criteria such as era, genre or length before spinning. Members can also take advantage of integration with Twitter, Facebook and email to recommend their favorite movies with friends. The company supports indie filmmakers by sharing a portion of its subscription fee with them as well as with distributors. New members can sign up via a seven-day unlimited free pass on Fandor. Subscriptions range from $2.99 per week or $99.99 for the year.
Did you get that long-coveted new iPhone 4s or iPad 2 for Christmas? Not sure what your new miraculous devices can do to improve your life? Or, maybe you’ve had an iOS device for quite a while and want a fresh perspective on its capabilities and the latest apps available for it. In either case, 148Apps and iPhone Life Magazine want to give you a chance to start 2012 off right by winning one of five magazine subscriptions to iPhone Life.
What do you have to do to enter? It’s simple! Just visit the following site: http://www.iphonelife.com/contest As a bonus, you’ll receive a free browser issue of iPhone Life.
Now that the NBA season is in full swing, the NBA has released NBA Game Time 2011-2012, an app that gives users access to tons of NBA features anytime and anywhere an internet connection is available. Many of the basic features are free, like game alerts from your favorite teams, stats, scores, play by play reports, news, and video highlights. There are also two subscription level available for users who want to access more of the app’s premium content. The NBA Game Time Plus subscription give users access to video highlights from in-progress games, full game video recaps, an advertisement free experience, and live radio feeds (both home and away broadcasts) of games. An NBA Game Time Plus subscription costs $7.99.
For $39.99, users can subscribe to the NBA League Pass which includes all of the features above as well as live streaming of all NBA regular season games, a full archive of all the season’s games, and live in-game stat overlays. Some users may already have an NBA League Pass subscription through their cable or satellite provider and are able to use their account information to log in via the app and gain access to all League Pass content.
Currently, NBA Game Time 2011-2012 is compatible with all iOS devices running version 4.0 or higher, but it isn’t optimized for the iPad.
YouWeb L.L.C. has released the one of the most ambitious and sought after workarounds ever on the iPad. Their popular browser, iSwifter, has just updated their app with an “all-you-can-eat” subscription model to provide unlimited access to Flash social games and MMO’s on the iPad. People can now play Facebook games and other popular flash games on their iPad. With the ability to use Flash not only to watch flash video but to interact with Flash content like games, the iPad may truly be able to replace laptops for some.
Rajat Gupta, co-founder of iSwifter and former EIR at YouWeb, explains YouWeb has been working over the entire last year creating this technology, “Playing Flash social games and MMOs on the iPad is something users are clamoring for. But it’s not as simple as building a Flash video browser: we have spent the last year building a cloud based Flash browser technology that lets users play their favorite Flash social games and MMOs on the iPad. Social game and MMO developers
benefit greatly from not having to spend months porting their Flash games to tablets.”
iSwifter is not only an app for playing Flash games but is a full-fledged browser with the added ability to watch Flash videos and interact with Flash content. The app itself is free and comes with a free seven-day trial. After the trial, the ability to have unlimited access to Flash games will be $4.99 a month.
Peter Relan, Founder of YouWeb and Chairman of iSwifter, compares iSwifter and Flash gaming to Netflix and movies, “iSwifter is doing for social gaming and MMOs what NetFlix™ and Hulu™ have done for movies and TV shows: subscription based unlimited access to awesome content. A few months ago nobody would have anticipated playing Facebook social games or Flash MMORPGs on iPads with a quality user experience!”
Rdio, from the founders of Skype and haters of the letter A (we presume), have announced that their iOS app has gotten a huge update, revamping a bunch of the app’s features. If you’re not familiar with Rdio, it’s a subscription service that lets you search for an and stream music on their service (which includes most if not all major popular releases) to devices that support their service, including iOS and Android apps. It’s a subscription-based service, costing $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming and the ability to sync songs straight to your device for when listening when you’re offline. They also offer a $4.99 per month subscription, for access via the web only.
The app features a bunch of new features. First, the homescreen has been redesigned in a more Springboard-esque design (similar to the Facebook app’s home screen), with the ability to customize and rearrange the icons on the homescreen itself. As well, they’ve added access to see top charts and new releases, so if you need to stay hip on what’s new, you can look at it, be befuddled as to who these people are and why they all sound like robots, before going back to your music with distorted guitars and incomprehensible screaming. That may just be me, though. Thankfully for people like me, personalized recommendations based on what you listen to are offered as well, so you can further envelop yourself in your bubble of specific taste. There’s a fairly solid social aspect to the whole system as well, where the recommendations can be pulled from friends and taste leaders whom you “follow,” a la Twitter.
As far as actually listening to music goes with the Rdio app, there’s now a bar at the bottom of the app that lets you easily call up your currently playing song list and controls, so you can easily play/pause and skip tracks without losing your place in the app. You can also set your specific syncing options, so if you want songs to sync to your device only on wifi and never on 3G, or if you want to never actually download anything to your device, you can do so. Rdio is a neat service for legally listening to music on demand, and the app comes with a free 7-day trial so you can check out the service risk free, without entering any kind of payment information. If you’ve been looking for a streaming music service for your iOS device, Rdio is worth a look.
Apple has finally, formally announced its subscription service for apps. This formal announcement means that any app that provides a digital subscription outside an app must also do so inside the app.
The announcement to day basically comes down to this. If a service provides a method to receive a digital subscription on an iOS device (think Zinio, The Daily, The Times of London) that the option to subscribe needs to be offered inside the app at the same or lower prices. To clear one thing up, this does not mean that print subscription prices need to apply to digital subscriptions. While I’d love that rule, as a consumer, that would be overstepping Apple’s bounds a bit.
One thing to note is that this doesn’t just apply to digital print publications like magazines and newspapers. This also applies to music services like Rdio, Pandora, and Rhapsody. And it applies to video services like Netflix and Hulu+. We’ve reached out for comment from some of these companies to get their reaction.
The result is that services like the above will need to provide a method to subscribe inside the app as well as outside the app. And Apple wants their 30% cut when subscriptions are done inside the app. To ensure that publishers don’t just pass the 30% extra onto the user, Apple has noted that the subscription prices inside the app be the same or lower than those offered outside the app.
If a service provides a subscription outside the app, and doesn’t deliver the subscription in the app, they seem to be excluded from this requirement. The one key phrase from the Apple announcement is “Apple does require that if a publisher chooses to sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app.” That does set the likes of Wired Magazine free to continue to only offer their magazine at an inflated per issue price. Wired offers their magazine at $3.99 per issue within the app while routinely offers the print edition at $10/year. But they don’t offer a digital subscription anywhere else.
Though companies like Netflix and ABC already have devoted video streaming apps for the iPad it’s still an arena that many media organizations are slow to embrace. It seems that the BBC is ready to jump in though, as they have announced plans to release their iPlayer TV service in the US very soon, but there are a couple catches. First off, it’s an iPad exclusive; second, it’s arriving as a subscription service.
The BBC iPlayer basically functions very similarly to what the major American television networks are doing in the online space. Users can launch the iPlayer and then watch or listen to any of the BBC’s television or radio programming from the past seven days on-demand. So, if you happened to miss the latest episode of Doctor Who, Top Gear, or want to get the latest headlines from BBC World News, iPlayer will be your best bet. The service has been available in the UK for three years now and is easily the most popular on-demand service across the pond.
Unfortunately, unlike American services such as Netflix or Hulu shows don’t stay on the iPlayer after the seven day window has passed. So if you’re looking to catch up on entire seasons of shows then iPlayer really won’t help all that much. However, huge BBC fans who want to have all the recent content available at their fingertips will likely love this app. The BBC hasn’t announced a pricing structure for the service yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how much the company plans to charge. Nor do we have any information yet on any potential service differences for the US version. There’s always the possibility that they will black out shows that are shown on BBC America for example.
The question now becomes, can the BBC break into the American market with this app? It’s definitely going to be tough considering how many other options are available to US consumers, but there’s definitely some content exclusive to the BBC that a number of folks would want to access. An interesting prospect indeed, and one which we’ll definitely be keeping our eye on.
Those wishing that the currently Europe-only Spotify music streaming service and iPhone app would hit to the rest of the world now have another option – MOG Mobile Music.
The MOG network has been around for a while but its new iPhone app makes it a serious contender in the audio subscription market offering similar, if not better, features by comparison to its rivals.
Highlights of the service include a library of eight million songs and some 700,000 albums that can be streamed to your iPhone over 3G and Wi-Fi and bundled into playlists. An unlimited number of songs can also be downloaded to the iPhone and stored for periods when you’re outside of Wi-Fi or cell areas.
The above features are all par for the course when it comes to this type of app and service but there are a few gems to be found in MOG Mobile Music too. The first is the true on-demand nature of the listening. Songs can be played at any time and repeated unlike many similar services that prevent repeat play, and you can listen to user playlists and customizable artist radio stations on the go. Artist radio isn’t as strict as the others either, with a simple slider determining how much of the artist you hear and how many similar artists are played.
It’s flexibility that seems to be the key difference between MOG and its rivals and, for a $9.99 per month fee, looks set to take a lead in the cloud-based music subscription game.
If you fancy trying out MOG Mobile Music, a three-day free trial is currently available when you download the app. No credit card is required either so you can sample the service risk free during this period.
The Hulu Blog today confirmed what many have been murmuring about online for some time. Hulu is bringing its streaming TV service to the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The aforementioned murmurs also questioned how this delivery of most of America’s top TV shows would be paid for, they too were given an answer with the introduction of the Hulu Plus subscription.
Formerly only available via a PC or Mac, the Hulu Plus app and subscription service will combine to deliver episodes from current and classic TV shows on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 as well as the iPad and third gen iPod touch.
At present the service is working on an invite-only basis (apply for one here) and will cost users $9.99 per month but, for this fee you do get a good deal of benefits. Full seasons of TV shows will be available including big hitters such as Family Guy, 30 Rock and The Office with up to 720p HD resolution available. Through the Hulu Plus app, users will be able to browse, search and resume playback at the same point on different devices. For iPhone and iPad users, you will even be able to stream over 3G!
While we’ve not had the chance to fully test Hulu Plus yet, this sounds like the service Apple’s portable devices have been crying out for and one that will likely bring about a few discussions inside Apple HQ. With the recent acquisition of media streaming startup Lala, it is rumored the company is gearing up to introduce a cloud-based iTunes service that could include streaming TV shows to iPhones and iPads.
The Hulu Plus app is available for free on the App Store and includes a bunch of freebies that don’t need a subscription in order to try out. The movie Super Size Me is included as well as clips and episodes from a number of TV shows as well, so it’s worth sampling the app for these bonuses alone.
Fandor, an online indie film streaming service that caters to both independent film fans and the mainstream movie crowd, released an iPad app today. This move comes shortly after announcing a partnership with the Roku streaming set-top box back in November. Going mobile brings one of the web’s largest collections of entertaining films that celebrate cinema to iPad users. The films within the collection include the likes of FILM SOCIALISME from the Legendary director Jean-Luc Godard. A magisterial essay on the decline of European civilization, the film was an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. Fandor offers its users great films such as this as well as others not found anywhere else.
Did you get that long-coveted new iPhone 4s or iPad 2 for Christmas? Not sure what your new miraculous devices can do to improve your life? Or, maybe you’ve had an iOS device for quite a while and want a fresh perspective on its capabilities and the latest apps available for it. In either case, 
Now that the NBA season is in full swing, the NBA has released 
:: ROCK ON
Rajat Gupta, co-founder of iSwifter and former EIR at YouWeb, explains YouWeb has been working over the entire last year creating this technology, “Playing Flash social games and MMOs on the iPad is something users are clamoring for. But it’s not as simple as building a Flash video browser: we have spent the last year building a cloud based Flash browser technology that lets users play their favorite Flash social games and MMOs on the iPad. Social game and MMO developers
Apple has finally, formally announced its subscription service for apps. This formal announcement means that any app that provides a digital subscription outside an app must also do so inside the app.
Those wishing that the currently Europe-only Spotify music streaming service and iPhone app would hit to the rest of the world now have another option – MOG Mobile Music. 
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