We Still Watch 100 Hours Of TV A Month 
Spotify And Its Rivals: Subscription Music Services In Australia Compared 
Australia's Biggest Movies Aren't Available As Streaming Rentals 
Why Spotify Won't Replace My CD Collection 
Turn Your Phone Into A Universal Media Hub 
Planhacker: Who Has The Best FetchTV Deals? Back in January, Quickflix had around 10,000 customers on its WatchNow streaming service. Three months later, that number has risen to above 20,000 — an impressive growth pattern, but still a long way from turning it into a Netflix-like dominant provider.
There’s no shortage of subscription music services in Australia already: JB Hi-Fi Now, RaRa.com, Rdio are all active, and Spotify is due to land officially real soon now. Telstra is going to join the party, partnering with streaming service MOG to offer an “unlimited streaming service” drawing on a database of more than 15 million tracks.
I love music. I own lots of CDs. We won’t go into exact numbers, but four figures are involved. Shifting to a streaming music service like Spotify would theoretically eliminate the need to store all of those and give me back a lot of floor space. But it’s not going to happen based on the current catalogue.
One of the common complaints about the otherwise excellent BBC iPlayer app is that you can’t access recently-broadcast TV shows. The BBC has outlined plans to offer a download service which would allow viewers to pay to download copies of shows minutes after they first air, but while that sounds promising, Australians are unlikely to benefit.
Music streaming service Spotify has told journalists that it will reveal details of its Australian launch plans this week. If you’re keen to try it, signing up on the existing Spotify site for launch notification makes sense.
Your phone is already the centre of your digital life, handling everything from calls to games to email to entertainment. Let’s take your phone and all of the media you have on it to the next level, by turning it into a jukebox full of music, movies, and photos that you can play on almost any TV, stereo system, computer or other device you may come across, whether you’re moving from the living room to your bedroom or your house to a friend’s place. The technology is already built into your phone and the gear you have at home; all you need to do is unlock it. Here’s how.
JB Hi-Fi’s Now music streaming service has been available since last year, but without being available on a mobile device its appeal is limited. In its results announcement, JB Hi-Fi said the mobile apps for the service will be rolling out within “the next four weeks”.
This week’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.
iOS: Air Media Center is media streaming and live conversion app for iOS (and, strangely, just the Samsung Wave). It’s a lot like Air Video, our favourite app iOS app in that category, but it’s $2 cheaper and can serve up more than just your video collection.
The appeal of a streaming service such as Quickflix WatchNow depends heavily on offering lots of choices. So the news that it will “soon” offer content from premium US cable channel HBO is a welcome development that might see more people take up the service.
