Items tagged with HBO Go
When it comes to American mega-businesses, Comcast doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation. Its reputation is quite the opposite in fact, twice earning the top honors in The Consumerist’s Worst Company in America competition. You can blame poor customer service, a lack of humor, and wasting $32 million of its own money on the failed Time Warner Cable acquisition for Comcast’s typically “grinchy” behavior. The behavior also extended to allowing third-party streaming services to piggyback on its Internet connections. While HBO Go has been available for quite some time for the Amazon Fire TV, customers that have Comcast Internet have been unable to access the service. That changes today, as we...
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As most subscribers will attest, the HBO Now app is pretty awesome. It's easy to use, isn't saddled with bugs, and offers access to all of HBO's content, including Game of Thrones. However, only paying customers living in the U.S. are eligible to play. Some people in other countries have found ways around the territorial restriction by way of using a VPN (Virtual Private Network), but HBO is savvy to the situation and is attempting to crack down on the practice. Not to be confused with HBO Go, a complimentary add-on to HBO cable and satellite subscribers, HBO Now became a standalone app earlier this year. That open the floodgates for ineligible subscribers living outside the U.S....
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Comcast is one of only two companies (EA being the other) to be voted by readers of The Consumerist as the "Worst Company in America" on multiple occasions. It's fair to say the cable giant has an ongoing image problem, and Comcast isn't helping itself any by continuing to tick off subscribers, this time by preventing them from accessing HBO Go on their PlayStation 4 consoles. Much to the initial delight of PS4 owners, the HBO Go app arrived on the console on Tuesday. All a user has to do is authenticate the service through a cable or satellite TV subscription and they're good to go. While the service is working great for subscribers to AT&T,...
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Cord-cutting HBO fans are about to get their wish. Time Warner’s premium cable service is poised to offer HBO Now as a standalone, online service. Multiple reports confirm that it will launch in advance of the fifth season of Game of Thrones, which is slated to begin April 12. (Source: HBO) HBO Now is expected to be priced at $15 per month, making it one of the more pricey online video services. It will likely work with a variety of services and devices, including Apple TV, Google-backed streaming devices, and Roku streamers. HBO hopes that HBO Now will attract subscribers who don’t already subscribe to cable, many of whom have been clamoring (and even petitioning) for a standalone...
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When it comes to downstream internet traffic, the streaming-video service continues to dominate by a large amount. Netflix alone, at the top of the list, accounts for 34.89 percent in North America according to the latest report from broadband networking company Sandvine. In second place is YouTube with 14.04 percent. Netflix has maintained that usage amount for the past six months, with a slight increase from 34.21 percent, with YouTube gaining almost one percent during the same time period. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Instant Video has been growing slowly and accounts for 2.58 percent. It isn’t a lot, but for the company it is good news considering that this number almost doubled over the past 18 months...
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Look out, world -- we might finally be moving beyond cable TV after all. For years now, HBO has outright refused to offer up its older programming for streaming. If you wanted to re-watch 'The Wire,' you had to go buy the DVD set. No more. Amazon has reportedly spent around $300 million for a three-year deal that'll have HBO series like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Eastbound & Down, Oz, Band of Brothers and Deadwood, as well as early seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood, available to Amazon Prime subscribers. This is arguably the largest, most important deal that the Prime Instant Video product has landed, particularly given HBO's current rise to fame in the segment...
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A couple of disclaimers are necessary before moving on. First, each one of us at HotHardware loves our parents. We could go on and on with reasons why, just understand that despite the embedded videos you're about to watch, we have nothing against moms and dads -- we just don't always want to watch movies and TV shows with them. Secondly, the third video is NSFW (in case our parents are reading this, that stands for NOT SAFE FOR WORK). Cool? Let's move on. Never let it be said that HBO doesn't have a sense of humor. Whether or not you have one will depend entirely on whether any of these three videos elicits a chuckle. All three are intended to promote HBO Go, which is HBO's app and service for...
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Home Box Office Inc. doesn't receive nearly as much attention (and kudos) as it deserves in what's become a landscape of streaming media. While organizations like the RIAA and MPAA are ultra concerned with copyrights and locking down content with restrictive digital rights management (DRM), HBO is a company that seems to get it. We caught a glimpse of this in the first quarter of 2013 when HBO's popular Game of Thrones made headlines for breaking a BitTorrent piracy record. Within an hour of the first torrent being uploaded, there were over 163,000 people sharing the single file. However, HBO wasn't all that worried with the rampant piracy that was taking place. "I probably shouldn't be saying...
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A single dollar won't get you very far these days -- a soda or burger at your local fast food joint, perhaps. Up the ante to $35 and it's a whole new ballgame. Just how far can $35 take you? We're still finding that out. That's precisely how much it costs to buy Google's Chromecast dongle, and when it launched four months ago, you could enjoy YouTube, Netflix, and Google Play Music and Movies streaming from your Android or iOS mobile device, or PC or Mac running the Chrome browser. Since its launch, Chromecast has drawn support from Hulu Plus and Pandora, a couple of key third-party services. As time goes on, even more services will step to the plate, stretching that initial $35 investment for...
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Apple's $99 streaming box just got a little bit better today. Effectively immediately, HBO GO and WatchESPN are both available directly on Apple TV, a duo that will appeal to movie buffs and sports fans alike. As for the former, HBO subscribers can now enjoy unlimited access to shows like True Blood and Game of Thrones, as well as hit movies, sports, documentaries, comedy specials, and more. "HBO GO and WatchESPN are some of the most popular iOS apps and are sure to be huge hits on Apple TV," said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "We continue to offer Apple TV users great new programming options, combined with access to all of the incredible content...
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