Monday, June 9, 2008

I’m going to try something this week and write up some quick product reviews in case you are looking for something to buy your dad or husband for Father’s Day. This year, budgets are tight so even spending $100 may be pushing it, but when you make a tech decision, you should do some careful reviews prior to pulling the trigger. The Netflix Player might be a good gift right at that $100 level.

netflix_streaming_logo2

I have been a Netflix subscriber for many years (with a slight diversion where I was with BlockBuster until they started taking away features and raising the price). It was actually kind of neat that when I came back to Netflix, my old user name and password still worked, AND all of my moving watching history was still there.

But anyway, this is not about the standard Netflix service, but rather about their newly released Netflix Player. Announced about a month ago, the first player to hit the market is the one made by Roku (other manufacturers are lined up for later releases). The premise is simple, assuming you have a NetFlix account of over $8.99, you simply choose movies you want to watch and they magically appear on your NetFlix Player. Ok, that is a bit oversimplified but essentially true.

The Player Details

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Hot on the heels of the iPhone 3G news-breaker are now peripheral press releases coming from accessories manufacturers. The first one that I have seen comes from Speck with a product line crafted exclusively for the iPhone 3G.

While I typically only do product reviews of products that I can actually test, I’m breaking my own rules by posting a “review” of a product I don’t physically have. But my reason for posting this is pretty selfish actually. I have several companies that I have worked with doing reviews, mainly relating to the iPhone or Mac products. I love getting product samples (ok, who doesn’t!) and given that I have ZERO budget for the actual purchases of these product, I REALLY love it when companies send me review copies that I can keep. I guess I’m easily bribed? HA!

So, before I go on to mention Speck’s new ToughSkin and SeeThru cases, I figured I would get this out there:

If you want me to review any of your software or products that are related to or work with the new iPhone 3G, I need to have an iPhone 3G! Is that a subtle enough hint?

Shameless plea for charity aside, I do think that the new Apple 3G iPhone will create a lot of new work for bloggers and reviewers like me. Now iPhone software will be in the hands of many and plenty of accessories will crop up as companies look to jump on the iPhone bandwagon (a lucrative one at that). So, my first nod out to the Accessory Developers goes to Speck.

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