Netflix Mobile: A Destination To Bookmark
Without much fanfare the leading US DVD subscription service Netflix has launched its first mobile offering at www.netflix.com/mobile.
Netflix Mobile is a simple and well designed destination which now makes it much easier for Treonauts to search for new DVD’s, add movies to their queue as well as read a short synopsis for each title while on the go.
However, Netflix Mobile is still pretty basic. Some of the obvious things missing are the (in my opinion essential) average star ratings (to view and rate) as well as access to the ‘Member Reviews’.
Additionally, I would certainly have considered adding a “mobile review” option so that for example I could write about the movie immediately after watching it at the cinema or TV. Also, unlike searches on its website Netflix Mobile only allows you to search titles and not actors, directors and/or genres.
Accessing Netflix Mobile on your Treo is extremely simple. After typing the URL you just need to enter your username and password (the use of a cookie also means that you will conveniently not need to login repeatedly). The home screen allows you to search for a movie or click to view your queue.
I performed a search for ‘Indian’ to look up a movie which my brother had highly recommended but whose title I could not completely remember. The ‘popular matches’ results conveniently placed the DVD that I was looking for at the top. I was particularly glad to see that the main movie page provided a thumbnail of the DVD cover – something which almost no other mobile movie information site delivers.
I followed the link to read a short movie synopsis and from here (as well as the previous screen) I can quickly ‘Add’ the title to my queue.
The entire process from login to adding a new title should take less than a couple of minutes to complete.
Overall I think that Netflix Mobile is a terrific addition to the growing list of “Treo Friendly Sites” in the entertainment category and my only wish now is that IMDB would _finally_ get their act together and also develop a mobile version of their terrific movie database.
At the same time there is no doubt that I am also very much hoping to some day have the opportunity to download movies wirelessly or via my PC to the 4GB SD card on my Treo via Netflix Mobile – something that is technically already perfectly feasible today… In the meantime I will nonetheless continue to enjoy my Netflix subscription at home and on the go.
Finally, if you have not already done so please make sure to install TCPMP on your Treo to watch all your movies (see Now Full Video On Your Treo and Mobile DVD On Your Treo).
Treonauts always have a pocket full of entertainment…
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c71a953ef00d834ad596453ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Netflix Mobile: A Destination To Bookmark:
Comments
I have amassed quite a collection of mobile friendly sites including imdb. I can post them all but I really don't want to become a member of yet another forum and this comment section will not all the post.
In the meantime, here is the mobile friendly imdb URL:
http://206.130.125.89/mobile.php?UMPG=index
for The Onion http://mobile.theonion.com
for c|net.com http://m.cnet.com
for SciFi.com http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/handheld.html
for Technorati http://mobile.technorati.com/
for Y! Messenger http://mm.yahoo.com/
for MobileBurn http://www.mobileburn.com/index-brief.jsp
for Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/pocketpc/
for FedEx http://mobile.fedex.com/wince/home.xml
for Business Week http://pda.businessweek.com/
for BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/pda/
for USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/wireless/PALM_OS/index.asp
for Consumer Rpts http://www.consumerreports.org/Special/Avantgo/Electronics/menu.htm
for Fodors http://www.fodors.com/wireless/xhtml/
for Crain's NY http://206.130.108.165/demo/bberry/index.mvc
for Mapquest http://wap.mapquest.com
for Froogle http://wml.froogle.com/
for Moviefone http://palm.moviefone.com/
for Wikipedia http://pda.en.wapedia.org/
for Reuters http://bmobile.reuters.com/
for CNN http://mobile.cnn.com/xhtml/en/us/i.html
for Fandango http://mobile.fandango.com/index.jsp
for your Local News http://www.topix.net/ZIP
for the National Weather Service http://mobile.srh.weather.gov/
for Amtrak http://www.amtrak.com
for SeatGuru http://mobile.seatguru.com/
for Forbes http://mobile.forbes.com/sitehtm/mobile.php?UMPG=index
Ronin - thanks for all the links. Particularly the IMDB one which is terrific!!!
I hope that in the future you will find it worthwhile to register to the Treonauts forum ;-) but in the meantime you can send me all the links via email at treonauts [at] pobox.com and I'll post them for you.
Cheers, A.
The e-mail has been sent! I am glad I could give a little something back.
If you are interested in a mobile version of the Netflix API, vote up @ http://blog.pyxismobile.com/2008/10/app-from-scra-1.html. We are having a little contest to determine which internally configured application we want to release and support to the public.
We built the app for an internal contest using the Netflix API and are hoping we can release it publicly given enough interest. We would support BlackBerry and Windows Mobile to start off with iPhone and Android support to follow.
The comments to this entry are closed.