Hotstar Introduces Premium Subscription; HBO Original Shows Available for Streaming

hotstar-premium

Hotstar — Star India’s video streaming service that debuted in early 2015 has now introduced paid subscriptions on the service for watching “Premium” content. Called Hotstar Premium and available for ₹199 per month, it gets you access to a host of new “premium” movies and TV shows, including a bunch of HBO Originals such as Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Veep & True Detective as well as movies such as X-Men: Days of the Future Past and Kingsman: The Secret Service.

The subscription gives you access to not just the premium content available today, but also the new content that Hotstar will add in the future. You can access this either via the website or via the Android and iOS app. Non-Premium content on Hotstar will continue to be available for Free. The Premium service is only available in India right now and you can only sign up using your Credit Card. There’s a 30-Day trial to get your started, and the company puts a ₹5 authorization charge to verify your card details, which it says will be refunded to you. Hotstar does not currently offer support for Chromecast or AirPlay, so you can’t actually watch any content on your big screen TV. Video quality is decent and you can manually select up to 720p.

Let’s face it, the only real reason you’d consider signing up for Hotstar Premium is because you get access to Game of Thrones and other HBO shows. Not only can you start watching the episode as soon as it airs in the US, but you also get to watch is completely uncensored. That’s right, you get to watch Game of Thrones exactly how David Benioff & D. B. Weiss want you to watch it. Most other content is either already available on other streaming services or is old enough that you’ve seen it already.

I just finished watching the latest episodes of the Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley on the service and am fairly content with the experience. Am I going to continue my subscription beyond the trial? I’m not sure yet.

April 25, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Hackers Stole $80M from a Bank that had $10 routers and No Firewall

Serajul Quadir, reporting for Reuters:

Bangladesh’s central bank was vulnerable to hackers because it did not have a firewall and used second-hand, $10 switches to network computers connected to the SWIFT global payment network, an investigator into one of the world’s biggest cyber heists said.

The lack of sophisticated switches, which can cost several hundred dollars or more, also means it is difficult for investigators to figure out what the hackers did and where they might have been based, he added.

Like stealing candy from a baby…

April 23, 2016 ✚ Permalink

On the 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s Wider Color Gamut

The Iconfactory’s Craig Hockenberry has an insightful take on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s wider color gamut and DCI-P3 standard, seen also in the latest 5K iMacs.

After using this iPad for a couple of weeks, I’ve realized it’s like the advances of Retina in an important way: I never want to use a lesser display again. And as with higher density, I think it’s obvious that Apple will eventually update all its products to use this improved screen technology. I can’t wait!

We’re quickly reaching a point where more pixels don’t make better photos. Think about how much Apple likes to tout the camera and how better saturation improves photos. These new displays are the first step in a process were wider gamuts become a part of the entire iOS photography workflow. The number of places where your code assumes everything is sRGB will be both surprising and painful.

I haven’t been able to decide if I should be shelling out INR 49,900 on a new iPad, especially considering I’m still using the iPad Mini 2 (without Touch ID) and so far, it seems like Apple’s winning.

April 22, 2016 ✚ Permalink

WWDC 2016

I missed this yesterday when I posted about the new 12″ MacBook Lineup. Apple has also announced the dates and venue for its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) held in San Francisco. And they also have a really cool website this time for it.

WWDC this year will be held between June 13th to 17th, with the Keynote being held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on the first day and sessions, labs are more being held at Moscone West. There’s also the Bash scheduled on Thursday, June 16th again at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

wwdc-2016

I love the colorful site this year, with what looks like a monospace variant of San Francisco (the font).

If you’re looking to attend this year, you can register now, but attendees will be chosen via a draw like last year.

April 20, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Sony’s New FE 50mm F/1.8 Prime and FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS Zoom Full Frame E-Mount Lenses

I completely missed Sony’s recent announcement 15 days ago about the launch of their new Full Frame Lenses — the 50mm f/1.8 Prime and the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS Zoom.

50mm f/1.8 aka SEL50F18F

This new Prime is designed as a lightweight (192 grams) and cheaper alternative to the the 55mm f/1.8 Zeiss lens that Sony has been selling so far. The lens features a plastic body with a solid metal mount.

sony-50mm-18-prime

Compared to the $900 price tag for the Zeiss, Sony plans to sell this new lens at just $250 starting in May. You can pre-order it today on B&H.

70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS aka SEL70300G

This is Sony’s “longest reaching E-mount lens to date”. With a minimum focussing distance of just 3 feet and maximum magnification of 0.31x, the 70-300 makes for an ideal telephoto lens, especially considering the built in Optical SteadyShot (Sony’s term for Image Stabilization).

sony-70mm-300mm-45-56-zoom

This too will be available in the US starting May at $1200. You can pre-order it today on B&H.

Details about the India release for both these lenses are still not known.

April 16, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Flickr Might Be Up for Sale

Michael Zhang from PetaPixel referencing a WSJ report:

[…] Yahoo sent out letters to potential buyers in recent days, asking that they submit bids over the next two weeks for Yahoo’s businesses and holdings.

There are reportedly about 40 companies interested in snatching up part or all of Yahoo. Potential buyers include Verizon, Time, Microsoft, IAC/InterActiveCorp, private equity firms, and more. Yahoo originally acquired Flickr back in 2005 for around $25 million.

Yahoo has completely botched Flickr in recent times. They’ve made some crazy stupid decisions in the past, including making the Desktop Auto Uploadr a Pro feature.

sigh

March 30, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Flickr Desktop Auto-Uploadr Now a Pro-only Feature

Flickr today has announced a big change to its service that has left me baffled. On its company blog, Flickr says that it wanted to “reaffirm [their] commitment to the members of the Flickr community who wanted to know more about how people were sharing and engaging with their photos”

And how does Flickr plan to do that? Well,

The biggest change is that we are making the desktop Auto-Uploadr a Flickr Pro-only feature, giving Pro members exclusive access to the tool. This feature lets you effortlessly upload all of your photos from wherever they are being stored, while making them accessible from any device. If you are already a Pro member, you won’t see any changes to your existing subscription.

Flickr just yanked a tool that let its users upload more content to the service away from free users. Think about that for a moment. Flickr has already been in the dump lately, and now it has actively made it difficult for users to effectively the service. I fail to understand why it gives our tons of Free storage to users and then pulls a move like this.

March 9, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Why Netflix Does Not Release Any Show Ratings

The New York Times has a great piece on Netflix titled, “Netflix’s Opaque Disruption Annoys Rivals on TV”. The article talks about how Netflix, which has around 70 million subscribers around the globe, has never published its show ratings or has no plans to.

Ted Sarandos, the Chief Content Officer at Netflix says that he wants to avoid a “weekly arms race” and says,

Once we give a number for a show, then every show will be benchmarked off of that show even though they were built sometimes for very specific audiences,

and adds

There is a very natural inclination to say, ‘Relative to this show, this show is a failure.’ That puts a lot of creative pressure on the talent.

I signed up for Netflix after their global availability announcement at CES 2016 and have been a happy subscriber since then.

February 27, 2016 ✚ Permalink