Netflix Now Available in UK and Ireland 

Making some competition for Amazon, Netflix announced they are now making their streaming service available in both the UK and Ireland.  Subscribers will pay a monthly fee of 5.99 pounds ($9.24) in the UK and 6.99 Euros ($8.88) in Ireland. 

Netflix already has a rival in the UK, a company that is called Lovefilm.  Lovefilm offers DVD rental and video streaming, unlike Netflix which only offers their video streaming service.  The UK company was acquired by Amazon a year ago,  so it looks like the two video streaming heavy weights will be competing against each other internationally just like in the US.

Hurry in to Best Buy 32” TV for $199 

Best Buy is offering a great deal right now on a Dynex 32” HDTV.  For only $199.99 this deal is available in-store and online.  If purchased online the TV is available for free shipping.  The TV features 720p resolution and 60Hz refresh rate, along with 2 HDMI inputs. In a previous blog article last month Amazon was offering a similar deal on a Haier 32” TV.  Since Amazon is no longer offering this low bargain price for the Haier model, the Dynex model from Best Buy is a great alternative.

Get a Discount using Amazon PriceCheck App 

Amazon is offering a new discount this holiday season starting Friday at 9pm and ending on Saturday at 11:59pm.  How do you get this discount?  Well first you need to download the PriceCheck app through Amazon.  Then go shopping for the items you are looking for in your local stores.  Once you find the items scan the barcode using the app, or take a picture of the item, or even type the name.  The app will then show you competitor’s prices, along with Amazon’s price of course.  You then can purchase the item through Amazon for a 5% discount from the price you scanned, or up to $5 less than the Amazon advertised price. 

A discount for you and Amazon gets to make sure their prices are still competitive. I guess that makes it a win-win.

Android Takes a Bigger Lead over iPhone 

Google’s Android continues to gain more and more customers in the smartphone market.  Comscore released findings from studies conducted over a three month period which surveyed over 30,000 smartphones users in the US.  The study was conducted from July to October. 

 What they found was that 46% of the people surveyed owned an Android smartphone.  In second place was Apple with 28%.  The studies show a 5 point increase from July to October for Android while the Apple iPhone only gained 1 point. Coming in third place was RIM, the makers of BlackBerry, with 17%.  RIM reported a loss during the 3 month period, starting out at 21% and ending at 17%.  Looks like some RIM customers jumped ship to Google.

Facebook Video Calls via Skype Desktop 

The new Skype Beta releases for Mac and Windows released today now enables users to make Facebook video calls. Skype users have already been able to see their Wall and update their status via the application, and now can initiate video calls to anyone on their Friend’s list without opening a browser and logging in to their Facebook account, making life a little easier.

Act Fast 32” LCD TV for $229

You can get your hands on a 32” LCD TV now from Amazon.com for only $229.  The TV, which is a Haier L32D1120, offers 720p max resolution, USB port, automatic volume leveler, and two HDMI ports. This great deal is only around for a limited time, so if you are in need of a TV replacement, go to Amazon now.

Android Tablets Available at GameStop? 

GameStop is now selling Android tablets for gamers. You can even purchase a wireless gaming controller for the tablets for an extra $39.  What tablets do they have available?  Well you can choose from 3 different models. The Acer Iconia Tab with 7” screen for $329, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer for $399, and finally the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for $499.  

The GameStop trade-in program which allows gamers to bring in their old game consoles for credit towards a new gaming console will also include the tablets.  So if you have a gaming console you don’t use anymore and would like to buy one of these tablets, go to your local GameStop today and make a trade.  Remember to bring any accessories for that old gaming console, because the retailer will also allow you to trade those in. 

There is one more bonus Game Stop is now offering; they will also include the Kongregate Arcade App.  This app gives gamers access to over 500 online games.

Mango Update Now Available 

Windows Phone users should be getting happier by the day.  The new Mango update has been rolling out to users upgrading those users to Windows Phone 7.5.  If you are a Windows Phone user and have not received the Mango update you can click on the link below to see when your phone will receive the update.  Although the update was made available to all carriers, some carriers are still testing the new version before rolling the update out to their user’s phones.  

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/features/update-schedules.aspx

Tribute Page for Steve Jobs 

Apple launched the tribute page in honor of Steve Jobs today that is made up of messages by customer, employees, and friends of the late co-founder of Apple.  The company posted over a million messages from people all over the world.  Apple also announced that some of its retail stores would be closed today to celebrate the life of Steve Jobs. 

To view and read the many messages posted on the tribute page click the link below, or copy and paste into a new browser window.

 http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/

RIM Apologizes for Blackberry Outage 

Research In Motion is apologizing for the massive Blackberry outage.  Now that most of the countries suffering from the outage are back up and running RIM is explaining why it took so long to fix the problems that had so many users without email and messaging.  

Per the Co-CEO’s Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie explained that a hardware failure on Monday by a dual redundant core switch caused email and messaging to go down in Europe, Africa, India, the Middle East, and South America. The backup switches were quickly overwhelmed and then caused problems to spread worldwide.  Once systems were restored there was such a backlog that many users did not see an improvement in service for quite some time until data flow became stable.

Users in the US are fortunate to already be back to their usual Blackberry service.  Hopefully RIM will now focus their attention to improving the backup infrastructure so that this does not happen again.