Netflix replaces 5-stars ratings with thumbs to improve personalized suggestions.

In an update rolling out today, Netflix is retiring the familiar five-star rating system and replacing it with the much simpler thumbs-up and thumbs-down mechanism. In other words, you will either like or dislike a movie, with nothing in between. The five-star rating had the advantage of letting users moderately like something. However it was more of an indication of what customers in general liked or disliked, not really helpful to improve your personal experience. With the new thumbs rating mechanism, Netflix will use your ratings "to help you get better suggestions" and push those suggestions to your homepage within the app.

The new rating system will, according to Netflix, tell them "that you like something and want to see similar suggestions. A thumbs-down lets us know you aren't interested in watching that title and we should stop suggesting it to you." Furthermore, "using thumbs helps us learn more about your unique tastes so we can do a better job suggesting stories we think you'll love.", Netflix said in a blog post. The streaming company also claims they saw a 200% increase in ratings activity when testing thumbs rating.



I never rated anything in Netflix. Will the thumbs mechanism get me started? We'll see with time. 

You can download Netflix in Google Play Store.

Source: Netflix

Netflix for Android now lets users download movies to storage cards.

Not long ago, Netflix introduced a new feature in its app for Android allowing users to save movies to their phones internal storage for offline viewing, a move that proved to be very popular; but at the same time frustrating for those devices with limited storage and without microSD cards support.

Today, Netflix has published a new update to the Store that adds support for saving downloads to storage cards for offline viewing and saving precious space on our devices. iPhone users are out of luck because Apple devices do not have storage cards slot. 

Now, you won't be able to view the downloaded movies on another device. So forget about lending your storage cards to your friends to watch your movies.

Grab the update in Google Play Store and start saving your favorite movies/shows to your storage card.

IMDb for Android gets a new look in honor of Comic-Con.

With the Comic-Con only a few weeks away, IMDb for Android has been updated to look more à la page in honor of the popular event and added a new section dedicated to it. As a FYI, the Comic-Con is set to to begin on July 21 to July 24 in San Diego. 

While IMDb is celebrating the Comic-Con with its dedicated special section, not all new features related to the event are actually live in the app. Most of them, if not all, will become available mid-July, which is about a week away. Then, users will have access to the following:

• IMDb trending visualizes currently popular titles and stars.
• Fan IQ lets you test your knowledge and challenge your friends.
• Follow breaking Comic-Con news in our special Comic-Con section.

The update also includes the usual bug fixes and framework enhancements and is available in Google Play store for download.

Netflix introduces cellular data controls in its Android app.

This year Netflix went global making thousands of movies and TV shows available to the world. The company did not sleep on its laurels and enjoy the incoming stream of cash, instead they analyzed how much people are streaming on their devices and "what kind of mobile data plans they have". I use a monthly 1GB data plan and never used it to watch Netflix, but according to them and their study, if I enable their new tool to control how much data I use when streaming, I should be able to stream "about 3 hours of TV shows and movies per gigabyte of data." Netflix says that "In terms of bitrates, that currently amounts to about 600 Kilobits per second. Our testing found that, on cellular networks, this setting balances good video quality with lower data usage to help avoid exceeding data caps and incurring overage fees. If you have a mobile data plan with a higher data cap, you can adjust this setting to stream at higher bitrates."

In order to take advantage of this new feature and set your cellular data usage, select "App settings" from the menu and choose "Cellular Data Usage". From there, you can select a higher or lower data usage. Remember, the default is automatic and, as stated above, will let you stream 3 hours of TV shows and movies. Something I'll definitely try as soon as possible.

Update Netflix for Android in Google Pay store.

IMDB for Android gets Material design aligment and bug fixes in latest update.

Boasting the biggest info database about movies, TV shows and celebrities, IMDB issued an update today for its Android app. No new features were added, but IMDB instead aligned itself more with Android’s material design with the addition of a bell icon in its notifications. Other than that, the app “sanded some rough edges” in their application of the material design. Some bugs were also squashed along the way, notably in the image galleries and another bug that caused videos to keep on playing after closing them.

These fixes should make the IMDB experience more pleasurably and let you enjoy trailers and gossips about your favorite celebrities. Head over to Google Play store to download the app or to update it.