Tag: Netflix

The Netflix app for Android has a great new feature that is rolling out today:  Smart Downloads.  The feature, which is enabled by default, will delete an episode that you have downloaded and completed watching and will replace it with the next episode in the series that you have not watched.  It means that you will automatically get the next episode in the series without having to manually go download it yourself.

Here is the scenario:  Let’s say you watching Season 1 of The Crown and have downloaded the first four episodes in the series.  When you complete episode one, it is deleted and episode five of the series is downloaded automatically to your phone.  It means that you will always have four episodes downloaded and ready to watch.

The latest update to the Netflix app for Android brings a lot of improvements that should make it easier to use on touchscreen Chrome OS devices as well as your Android phone or tablet.  The update, which is now in the Play Store, brings bigger controls for those using a Chromebook while everyone gets a Next Episode button and 10-second rewind and fast forward buttons too.

The update to the Netflix app is version 6.3.0 for those keeping score at home and when you start the app and play a television show or movie, the changes are immediately apparent.  For those who use a Chromebook with a touchscreen, like the Google Pixelbook, you will see much larger touch controls for starting and pausing the show, as well as the 10-second rewind or fast forward buttons on the main display.  This makes it much easier to use these controls if you are using our Chromebook, or an Android tablet, as previously these were pretty small and difficult to tap accurately.

Earlier this month, Razer announced at CES that the Razer Phone would be the first mobile device to support Netflix HDR as well as Dolby 5.1 audio.  The update to make that happen is now rolling out.

The update brings support for Netflix HDR but there are a lot of other things in this 249MB update that owners of the phone will want to get.  First, it comes with the January Android Security Update which has fixes against the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities.  Second, the update includes updates to the rear cameras on the device.

In an unannounced updated, Google and Netflix have been partnering to give Voice Match support to the streaming service when using Google Assistant.  With Voice Match you can now have your Netflix profile linked to your voice for your personalized content on the service when you invoke it from Assistant.

Voice Match is aimed at personalizing information for you when you interact with Google Assistant.  For example, if I speak to Assistant through my Google Home, I will get my personal information (like my calendar) while if my wife speaks to it, she gets her personalized information.  Think of this addition to Netflix as an extension of that same service.

For those of you who have been waiting for Netflix to drop Season 2 of Stranger Things, your wait is over.  The 9 episode second season is now listed in the Netflix app and online so you can start binge watching while at the office today.

Stranger Things, for those who haven’t watched, revolves around a young boy disappearing, his friends, a strange girl, and the unraveling of the mystery behind it and secret experiments.  By their own admission, Netflix did not expect much from the series but it won five Emmy awards last year for its first season.

Hold on to your wallets folks, a price increase is coming to Netflix.  The company has indicated that the price increase will be announced on October 19th with notifications going out to customers.  The new pricing will go into effect on your next billing cycle after the 19th.

The price increase is not impacting all of the tiers of service with the entry level subscription remaining at its current price of $7.99.  The Standard Plan, Netflix’s most popular and the entry level for HD streaming, will be going up by $1 to $10.99 per month.  For the Premium tier, which gives you 4K HDR streaming, it is going up by $2 to $13.99.