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http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/first-look-netflix-for-the-iphone-arrives-and-does-not-disappoint/

Sent to you by Bill Boulware via Google Reader: First Look: Netflix For
The iPhone Arrives, And Does Not Disappoint via Epicenter by Eliot Van
Buskirk on 8/26/10

The Netflix iPhone app makes two key features -- Instant Queue and
Resume Play -- very easy to access.

Netflix on Thursday released an app for the iPhone, making it possible
to stream your instant queue on the smartphone and the iPod Touch and
finally catching up to the iPad, on which the service was available
from day one.

We applauded TV Anywhere and now do so again for Film Anywhere on these
far-more-ubiquitous mobile devices.

What you lose in screen size on the iPad — and your computer and the
plethora of devices through which you can stream Netflix movies — you
gain in fantastic resolution on the retina display. Nothing in the
viewing experience will seem out of the ordinary for those of us who
routinely watch downloaded TV shows and movies on our smartphones —
except this is streaming, even under 3G. No syncing or iTunes required.

Making the app backward compatible was an expected move but momentous
nonetheless because the iPhone is (as smartphones go) very mainstream —
much less exotic and in far more hands than the iPad. Getting the
viewing public used to watching TV without a television set and films
without going to the movies (or on TV) makes it easier for consumers to
dramatically change their habits by re-evaluating such things as cable
or satellite subscriptions.

The Netflix app is actually an upgrade to the version released on April
3 along with the iPad. It makes good use of those relatively small
screens surfacing the Instant Queue — where users line up the stuff
they want to see next — as one of only four menu options. And at the
very top of the screen sits a button resume button that lets you pick
up where you left off, regardless of the device (other than your DVD
player).

All of the content is browsable by category, genre and search — and, of
course, all of Netflix's carefully-constructed and -crowdsourced
recommendation algorithms help the service offer better recommendations
the more you use it.

We watched a full-length film under 3G — Silent Running, if you must
know. There were no hiccups — in the New York metropolitan area to
boot. Battery drain is the same no matter what you are doing on the
iPhone, though we seldom use the iPhone for 89 minutes straight, and
lost about half of our charge. Data consumption was about 420 MB —
which means that those now limited 3G data plans will start to look
pretty chintzy.

So, what took so long for this to get done?

For one thing, Apple and AT&T almost certainly waited until AT&T had
stopped offering iPhones with those unlimited data plans in June
(existing customers were able to keep their unlimited plans). The
prospect of millions of iPhone owners streaming video for hours a day
from an unlimited Netflix account was likely more than AT&T was willing
to handle. Now that the iOS wireless bandwidth caps are in place, AT&T
considers the iPhone safe for streaming, as it already had for Slingbox
and Skype (no video there yet).

Netflix on the iPhone

That's not to say that these bandwidth caps ruin the point of a Netflix
app — far from it. Subscribers can still stream as much as they want
over Wi-Fi, and like other media apps that get my seal of approval this
one is capable of storing content on the iPhone's memory so that you
can access it without a cellular data connection, or in a place where
no connection is available, such as on a plane.

Netflix subscribers accessing the service through Apple's iOS devices
will be able to select from the same video catalog available to users
on other supported platforms, for the same prices. (The Netflix app
itself costs nothing).

"The streaming catalog is the same for all Netflix ready devices —
iPhone, iPad, Xbox360, Wii, PS3, Blu-ray disc players,
internet-connected TVs, TiVo, Roku, Sony Dash, [etc.]," Netflix vice
president of communication told Wired.com. And when you switch between
platforms, your programming follows you, even down to the point at
which you had paused a currently-playing program.

From where we're sitting, here are the main attractive features of
Netflix for the iPhone:

Offline playback. As we mentioned last year, a Netflix app would be
significantly hamstrung without the ability to download and store
content for local viewing, without relying on an outside connection.
Either Netflix took our suggestion to heart, or were already thinking
along the same lines.

Netflix on the iPad

Seamless playback across multiple devices. The concept of media
consumers switching from device to device while accessing the same
entertainment flow gets a lot of lip service at media conferences, but
now, it's actually happening. Hit pause on your PlayStation-connected
television, head out the door, and pick up right from where you left
off at the coffee shop, on your iPod Touch.

Wi-Fi or 3G connection. People pay a lot for their wireless cellular
connections, so they get frustrated when they're told they can't use
them for something. It's important that Netflix be viewable over 3G,
even if the quality isn't as good as it is over Wi-Fi, because these
are mobile devices, and their features should be mobile too. As
mentioned, AT&T now limits iPhone bandwidth, and iPads have always
offered only limited bandwidth plans, so you wouldn't want to watch
this way every day. But these limits are almost certainly the reason
the app can connect over 3G, so some would call it a fair bargain.

Why watch television on an iPhone? On the other hand, why not?

The Netflix Home section surfaces the types of movie that Netflix
notices you're into, as you use the service on various platforms.

Let's face it — we're busy people these days. When something like this
comes along that lets us catch up on the rest of the movie we had to
stop watching last night due to lateness during our morning commute, or
enables us to maximize the a few spare minutes of leisure time we grant
ourselves during the average day — for instance, catching the "Louie"
episode about the dentist as we're waiting to see a dentist — it's a
good thing, information overload be damned.

Netflix-on-iPhone is huge news — and will become even huger if or when
Apple extends its iOS empire (currently encompassing the iPhone, iPod
Touch, and iPad) to the television with an Apple TV-like device capable
of running iOS apps including Netflix.

At some point, the strength of these alternate video distribution
routes could convince television and movie studios could decide to stop
prioritizing traditional models (cable and satellite) and give Netflix
and similar services full access to all of their content, during the
same release window.

Because in the long run, it makes more sense to have the consumer pay
for content-delivery pipes and associated hardware than to subsidize
hardware and connections through cable and satellite companies. We're
not there yet, but Netflix on the iPhone brings us another step closer.

Now, we just need to wait for SlingBox to release its iOS app too, and
we'll be happy — albeit mobile — couch potatoes.

Follow us for disruptive tech news: Eliot Van Buskirk and Epicenter on
Twitter.

See Also:

- Netflix Eyes iPhone for Movie, TV Streaming
- Netflix for iPhone Is Coming, Subject to AT&T's Data Caps
- How the Netflix Prize Was Won
- Netflix on the iPhone Will Work – But Only With Offline Mode
- Winning Teams Join to Qualify for $1 Million Netflix Prize
- $1 Million Netflix Prize to Be Awarded This Month; Winner Still a
Mystery
- $1 Million Netflix Prize So Close, They Can Taste It
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