Monday, June 16, 2014

Netflix Android App Highlights Need for Google's Antifrag Team - Computers

Netflix May 12 released its Netflix application for Android smartphones, permitting users to look at content instantly by way of WiFi or 3G link.

The software will allow customers viewing a movie on, say, the train ride house, continue watching it from their Web-connected Television or computer when they get home. Users may also browse content material and manage their instant queue correct from their phones.

However, there is a big, glaring caveat: the Netflix Android application is limited to five handsets. These consist of the HTC Incredible with Android 2.2, HTC Nexus One with Android 2.2 and 2.3, the HTC Evo 4G with Android 2.2, the HTC G2 with Android 2.2 and also the Samsung Nexus S with Android 2.3.

Considering that you will find now over 300 Android gadgets in the marketplace, and that almost all of them are smartphones, that's an incredibly limited start.

According to Netflix Item Manager Roma De, Android's rapid adoption and evolution made it challenging to construct a streaming video clip application in any way.

There just isn't a DRM (digital legal rights management) standard for secure, streaming playback Netflix can adhere to for rolling its app out to each and every Android telephone.

"In the absence of standardization, we have to test each individual handset and launch only on those that can assistance playback," De explained. "We are aggressively qualifying phones and appear ahead to increasing the list of phones on which the Netflix app will be supported." wholesale Android Tablets

De stated he anticipated a lot of the technical challenges will be resolved in the coming months to ensure that Netflix might deliver its streaming app on a "large vast majority of Android phones."

Compared to the present small minority of Android telephone owners, that's a relief, but note that De has not guaranteed the app will function throughout all Android phones.

Ironically, the fragment-friendly Netflix Android app arrives just two days following Google Android Vice President of Item Management unveiled a team geared to curb this kind of fragmentation.

The as-yet-unnamed team, which consists of top U.S. carriers Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and telephone makers Motorola, Samsung and HTC, will convene to ensure that Android smartphones they pump out will be eligible for software updates 18 months into the future, provided the hardware allows for it.

The goal is to head off the gross inconsistency associated with Android build upgrades. Samsung's Galaxy S handsets have been the most abused here, with updates towards the Android 2.2 "Froyo" taking months to roll out.

Case in point: Froyo has been out for almost 11 months now and Verizon's Samsung Fascinate is still running Android 2.1.

Ideally, the Google-led coalition will curb this fragmentation, but industry analyst Jack Gold said he has to see it to believe it.

"With all the various devices, manufacturers and carriers, it's going to be hard to enforce this," Gold told eWEEK. "It would be beneficial to customers, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon, at least not until Google decides to stipulate exactly what a device has to have to be upwards compatible and/or upgradeable, which it is unlikely to do given the open nature of Android."





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