Netflix planning streaming video support for Mac

Filed under: Internet, Video, Web services

Netflix planning streaming video support for Mac

by Brad Linder Jan 24th 2008

Sure, Apple may have launched digital movie rentals from the iTunes Store, but Netflix lets you watch videos for free. Well, free if you happen to already have a monthly subscription for their DVD-by-mail service. But while iTunes videos play on a Mac, PC, or Apple TV set top box, right now you can only watch Netflix videos on a PC. That's because the company uses Windows Media DRM to keep you from saving a copy of the streaming videos.

But Netflix is working on a Mac compatible version of its online video service. Silicon Alley Insider reports that during the company's recent earnings call, Netflix announced that Mac support could be coming sometime in 2008. Of course, there's a good 11 months and a few days left in 2008. And since Netflix didn't offer specifics, we're going to go out on a limb and say you might not see Mac support until leaves have grown on the trees and then started to change color. But we'd love to be proven wrong.

Tags: drm, netflix, online-video, watch-now, windows-media

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

James said 11:26AM on 1-25-2008

Bring this to my PS3 or 360 and I will be a lifetime subscriber starting day 1. Until then... well, it's still tempting, but it's a bit of a pain having to hook up my PC to my TV.

Tush said 3:19PM on 1-25-2008

Linux, please.

geof said 12:06AM on 2-04-2008

Hey Netflix,

if you are going to make a mac viewer you should also be thinking long term and make it viewable on all consoles and handhelds. you will get more market share.
more doors and less walls make a great company :)

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters