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KLTV 7 East Texas sent out six Netflix DVD mailers for testing by the pathology lab at University of Texas to check for bacteria and diseases.
We began our test by unsealing each Netflix envelope. We removed each disk from its sleeve, and the lab supervisor swabbed them front and back. Once each petri-dish was swabbed, the plates were placed inside an incubator.
A few days later, we found at least four different kinds of bacteria growing inside the plates. But it wasn't what Dr. Wallace expected.
"They were fairly clean," said Wallace. "If I took my fingers and laid them on the top of the plates, this is what you'd grow."
As for the disks themselves, Wallace said he found nothing that could potentially cause disease.
If you've ever wondered how clean the Netflix DVDs are, you should watch the video.
Roku is getting in on the Black Friday excitement and offering the new Roku HD XR for only $64.99, half off of the $129.99 list price. To take advantage of this special offer to go to http://blackfriday.roku.com at 8am PT (11am ET) and enter the code "hdxrsteal." Note: Roku is only offering 500 at this price, and they warn that the Roku servers may overload due to the "extreme nature of this offer."
Roku will be rolling out the Channel Store to customers over the next few weeks, but you can get it now by checking for update twice in a row within 20 seconds. To check for updates select "Roku Player Setttings," "player info," and "check for update" twice, quickly.
Spokesman.com reports that the US Postal Service is being sued by a former supervisor that was allegedly fired for refusing to accept a late Netflix delivery, and that the employee is also suing Netflix for slander.
In this instance a Netflix driver arrived several minutes after 6 p.m. with a truckload of more than 20,000 DVDs that had been handled at a nearby shipping center.
Branda said two other late-arriving customers had arrived just ahead of the Netflix truck.All three were told they were late, Branda said in an interview. “If I took the Netflix (shipments) I would have also had to take the others, and would never had been done by 6:30,” he explained.
Branda finished his shift and went home. He later received a call from a Netflix employee, and then a second call from a Netflix executive. They asked him to order the processing center staff to take the DVDs, according to the lawsuit.
“John was told that unless he (took the mailings) they would ‘escalate’ this incident,” said Mark Hodgson, the Spokane attorney representing Branda.
MarketWatch cites a Wedbush Morgan report: "In a note to clients, analyst Michael Pachter says while the company's performance has been "solid," the stock's current price "reflects investor expectations for growth well above what can be reasonably expected."
Netflix stock recently hit broke $60 a share for the first time, so what do you think? Will Netflix stock continue to rise?
[Reminder: I do not own shares in any company I write about.]
Roku is launching a new channel store for the Roku Player, and is adding 10 new free channels: Pandora, Facebook Photos, Revision 3, Mediafly, TWiT, blip.tv, Flickr, FrameChannel, Motionbox, and MobileTribe. The Roku Channel store will work on all 3 Roku Player models and will be available to all Roku customers within 2 weeks, but if you have a Roku Player you can install the update as soon as its available by going to "Roku Player Setttings," selecting "player info," and "check for update."
Adding and deleting channels is easy through the Roku Channel Store menu, and new channels will automatically appear in the store as they are launched.
Roku is making the Roku Channel Store SDK available for free, and Roku is promoting the Player as an open platform where anyone can create a channel.
"The Roku Channel Store turns the Roku player into the world's first open platform designed specifically for the TV," Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, Inc. said, "Now content producers and distributors --from single person shops to billion dollar corporations -- can deliver their content directly to consumers without having to go exclusively through cable operators, satellite networks or TV affiliates."
With an estimated 300,000 - 400,000 Roku players already in use, the Roku Player is an interesting way for video and content companies to use to get their content on the TV.
Here's a detailed walkthrough of the new Roku Channel Store and a tour of several channels:
If you're going to try one of the new channels, be prepared to go through a one-time activation process that is similar to when you originally setup your Roku. You'll need to read the code on your TV screen and enter it on Flickr, Pandora, or other websites to activate the Roku Player. If your computer is not near the TV a pen and paper is helpful since some of the codes are quite long.
The channel lineup is interesting, and includes social media, audio, photo sharing, web content, and professional video, and Roku says that many more are already in the works. I see the Roku Player as a complement to my cable box for now, not a product that will enable me to cut the cord (yet).
The channels I'd most like to see: YouTube and Hulu. What new channels would you like to see Roku add?
Variety reports that Netflix has added the first batch of 53 independent films from IFC to the 18,000 streaming titles. The IFC titles are available immediately on Netflix streaming, and include
The Thin Blue Line,
Following, and
Return of the Secaucus 7.
Hmm... The IFC titles are showing as available for streaming in one of my Netflix queues, but not the other. I guess they're still rolling out the titles to everyone.
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