I’ve been a touch busy, folks. But I’m back in action with a little bit of information for you on Hulu, the (sort of) new venture from NBC and News Corp. Already, I’ve got some explaining to do: I say sort of new because it launched back in October, but I only recently got an invite to the private beta - takes around a week to get one, requests are taken on the site’s page.
Why would you want in? Because it’s actually a great way to watch TV over the internet. Personally, I’ve always been disappointed at the content offered on apps like Miro, maybe I’m unusual, but I really want to see TV shows for entertainment. I want my Battlestar Galactica, The Office, 24, and the like - Ask a Ninja, funny as it is, just doesn’t have the same draw. Anyway, I was just running up massive credit card debt on iTunes when suddenly I couldn’t buy those shows anymore - word on the street is that NBC wanted to raise prices significantly, and Apple refused. So I started looking for another source of entertainment, and found all my favorites on Hulu. I signed up for the beta. Once I got my login, I was immediately impressed by the interface: Here’s a screengrab of the interface. And Here you can see the controls.
The astute among you will notice the Saturn ad up there, it doesn’t quite match the clean look of the site. Of course, since the whole thing is supported by advertising, it’s free to use! Unfortunately, there are commercials in the shows, though they are much shorter than on TV - I’ve never seen one longer than 30 seconds - and there are only about five of them. Each break has only one commercial. All in all, it’s a pretty civilized way to go about it - I think I prefer it to the iTunes model of paying for the show.
As long as were griping a little, I should mention that I can’t get fullscreen video to play properly on my machine - the software is capable, but the framerate drops to an unwatchable level. This could be the fact that my machine is old (the last generation of Powerbooks, motorola guts and all) or that I have maybe the slowest cable modem of all time. Either way, I’ve still been watching a lot of stuff - and one nifty feature is that if you are watching in the small window, you can dim everything around it, which is really handy.
Finally, I have to mention the biggest gripe I hear about Hulu - it’s only available in the United States. This isn’t some conspiracy to deprive the world of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I assure you. This site isn’t some fun project, it’s an attempt to craft a streaming alternative to iTunes; logically, the rest of the world must be in the plan, just not right now. The technology to offer it everywhere is available, so the hangup must be a legal one. Licensing issues would be my best guess, but I really don’t have a clue.
Anyway, if you’re in the US and like TV, check out Hulu - it’s been great to me.
This is hardly new news, I’ve been subscribed since last summer, but Seattle’s KEXP’s Song of the Day podcast is a godsend to anyone that cares about more than what gets played on TRL. Here’s the skinny: everyday you get a new song from an up and coming artist or new album (often before the single hits the mainstream). Like anything else, it’s not 100%; no one is going to like every song, everyday. But, for me, there’s at least one new song every week that I find myself bumping endlessly on the daily commute. If you’re that guy in your crew who likes to know about all the new cool stuff (especially music) KEXP’s podcast is a great way to stay ahead of the curve.
