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Amazon adds unlimited video streaming to Prime members

This week, Amazon.com announced unlimited movie and TV streaming to its Prime member subscribers. Prime is a premium membership at Amazon which provides free two-day shipping to all orders placed on Amazon.com for a yearly fee of $79.

The streaming video isn’t the same as Amazon Instant Video, with its collection of over 90,000 movie and television titles (allegedly the largest streaming collection in the USA). No, it’s a new service for Amazon Prime which includes 5,000 movies and TV shows, which initially include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Amadeus, Syriana, and Chariots of Fire, documentaries such as Food Inc., March of the Penguins and Ken Burns’ National Parks, TV shows, such as Doctor Who, Farscape, Fawlty Towers and children’s shows, such as Arthur, Caillou, Super Why! and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

At $79 per year, this service is comparable to monthly subscription services from Hulu Plus and Netflix, which are $7.99. The math makes Amazon Prime $6.58 per month. However, Hulu and Netflix have a much larger collection of titles available to them. The Amazon press release doesn’t make it clear if these Prime videos are available for streaming on electronic devices such as Samsung Blu-ray Disc players or Vizio HDTVs the way Amazon Instant Watch is currently available.

Personally, this seems more like an incentive to sign you up for Amazon Prime two-day shipping than a real challenge to Netflix. They must think members of Prime are more likely to purchase items on Amazon.com than other websites or brick and mortar stores. And for existing Prime members, a way for them to be introduced to Amazon Instant Watch where they might rent or purchase movies. But this is worth keeping an eye on.

Press Release after the jump.
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Criterion Collection joins Hulu Plus

This morning I was watching a TV program on Hulu and the advertisement which played before the content was for The Criterion Collection. I thought that was interesting. And then the ad ended saying it was now available to Hulu Plus subscribers.

Now that’s compelling.

The complete collection is available only on Hulu Plus. (I have noticed recently that Criterion titles have been appearing on Netflix instant recently, so I assume Netflix won’t have the full collection.) Hulu has the rights to over 800 of the films in their library, and over 150 of them are available now, with more to come each month.



The Criterion Collection restores the finest films ever made, and releases them in the highest quality available on each medium. Among the library are films from directors such as Antonioni, Bergman, Bresson, Bunuel, Chabrol, Chaplin, Clouzot, Cocteau, Dreyer, Eisenstein, Fassbinder, Fellini, Godard, Kaurismaki, Kieslowski, Kurosawa, Lang, Malle, Ozu, Renoir, Tati, Truffaut, Varda, and Welles.

A few of the titles now available include The 400 Blows, L’Avventura, The Battle of Algiers, Breathless, La Jetée, Jules and Jim, M, Pickpocket, Playtime, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, La Strada, and The Wages of Fear. And that’s just to get started. Coming soon are Le Silence de la Mer, the extended filmography of Kenji Mizoguchi, early Chaplin shorts, L’Assassin Habite au 21 and much, much more.

Also from The Criterion Collection, the supplemental features for all of the titles, including commentaries, documentaries, interviews, original trailers, essays, and more.

Because this is from a Hulu Plus paid subscription, there will be no ads interjected into the movies. And for only $7.99 a month, I’m very tempted to up to Hulu Plus. And with Hulu Plus on my PlayStation 3, I wouldn’t have to stream Hulu on my laptop.

Does the addition of the Criterion Collection entice you into considering a Hulu Plus subscription?

Could new tech improve the horse track experience?

I live in the northern part of Phoenix, Arizona. This municipality is spread out far and wide, with lots of different attractions scattered across the city. One of those attractions is the Turf Paradise horse track, which happens to be right across the street from my neighborhood.

I’ve been to the track a few times, baring witness to the spectacle that is horse racing and partaking in the occasional gambling.

So what is a visit to the horse track like? It’s normally a take-it-easy type of experience. Most visitors typically attend with some friends or family, find a table or a spot in the stands to post up and kick-back to enjoy some horse racing betting. Whether you’re indoors in the lounge or outside on the sunny grand-stand, it’s customary to grab some grub, drinks and analyze the race booklet of the day, which gives you information and stats on the horses and jockeys that’ll be participating in the upcoming races.

After devising some sort of horse betting strategy or just willy-nilly choosing some horses based on the coolness factor of their names, you can run up to the cashier/betting booths to place your bets.

I’ve had a somewhat enjoyable time on each occasion that I’ve visited Turf Paradise, but I wonder if the experience could be improved with some technology enhancements?

Smartphone apps

A suite of smartphone apps would drastically improve the horse track experience. With iPhone, Android and other mobile OS apps, participants might be able to quickly view and sort horse stats, place their bets from the comfort of their seats, discuss the upcoming races with fellow gamblers and enjoy a much richer and more interactive experience.

Now I’m not saying that this type of interactive horse track app would be easy to develop or integrate into existing systems, but I can certainly foresee a future where most of the bet placing occurs on phones rather than at a cramped cashier’s booth, with a messy line of folks waiting their turn to vocally proclaim their bets to an attendant.

Touchscreen betting terminals

If smartphone apps aren’t feasible or the track just isn’t up to the task, the next best thing would be touchscreen terminals located at the lounge booths and in other areas where the spectators gather. It’s all about automation right? Why force the customers to high tail it up to a betting booth in between races when all transactions could be easily accomplished on an iPad-like touchscreen device in a self-service fashion?

Maybe the tracks don’t want to invest in this type of tech at their facilities right now, but I’m betting we’ll see it at some point in the future. Until then, I suppose we’ll continue to be forced into ambling up to the cashier’s booth to place our bets manually, per regular horse track etiquette.

How do you think new tech could improve the experience at the horse track?

Disclosure: This article was a sponsored, paid post.