Netflix CEO Talks PS3 Streaming, Hulu Plus

Netflix is working on a streaming service for Sony's PlayStation 3, similar to that of the Xbox 360, that won't require a disc, CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement (PDF) to investors Wednesday.

According to Hastings, Netflix will "be launching a major new version of our Sony PS3 user interface which doesn't require a disc, and is dynamically updated continuously with the latest Netflix UI improvements." Hastings didn't provide many details on the service, which will launch at some point before the company's next earnings call in October, but it sounds like it will work similarly to Netflix on the Xbox 360. Rather than insert a disc, users need only to go to the Netflix service, sift through content, and play a movie or television show.

Hastings made no mention of the Nintendo Wii, which also requires a disc for users to be able to stream content. His remarks accompanied Netflix's quarterly earnings results Wednesday.

But Hastings didn't just stop at the PlayStation 3. The Netflix CEO said that by the end of the year, the company should have Netflix's instant-streaming service running "on over 100 million devices in consumers' homes."

Hastings then turned his attention to Hulu Plus. The service allows users to watch as many television shows as they want on various devices, including the iPad and iPhone, for $9.99 per month. Hastings acknowledged that Hulu Plus competes with Netflix's instant-streaming offering, but for now he's not worried. He said that "once Hulu Plus has a few hundred thousand subscribers," the company will determine what consumers like about the service. Based on that understanding, Netflix will incorporate the Hulu Plus features that consumers like into its own offering, Hastings said.

The company also said that it's now focusing much of its efforts on adding television shows to its streaming service. Over the past few months, Hastings said, Netflix has added "thousands of TV episodes from new deals with Fox, MTV Networks, and Warner Television." He said that the service now has every season from "24," "Lie to Me," and several others shows. Every season of "The Family Guy" will also be available to stream on Netflix "in a few weeks," Hastings said.

Kinect Playable at Macy's Months Before Launch

If you just can't wait to see how Microsoft Kinect works, be sure to run down to select Macy's stores nationwide over the next few months to try it out.

According to the retail company, it will be giving customers the chance to "test drive" its motion-gaming platform at 13 retail outlets around the U.S. on Thursdays through Sundays from now through September 30. The hours of operation are noon to 8 p.m. local time Thursday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. local time on Sunday.

Unfortunately, the Kinect won't be available in every Macy's location. According to the company, it will mostly be available in major cities, including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami. Smaller cities, like McLean, Va., and Bellevue, Wash., are also included in the list.

According to a Microsoft representatives, customers will be able to play Kinect Adventures, Kinectimals, Kinect Joy Ride, and Kinect Sports in-store.

Microsoft Kinect could be a major revenue generator for Microsoft. Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Carris, recently predicted that Kinect could generate $1 billion in revenue for Microsoft during its first year of availability. It would seem that Kinect's placement in Macy's stores could help the company generate the sales to reach that figure.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Pre-Orders Reportedly Outpacing Modern Warfare 2

Treyarch's traditionally been perceived as the "B" development team for the Call of Duty franchise, but impressive showings for Call of Duty: Black Ops have suggested their latest could be a coming out party of sorts for the studio, a culmination of their work on the series. Besides industry buzz, it seems to be translating to potential sales, as GameSpot reports a Pacific Crest Securities analyst is currently estimating that Black Ops pre-orders are outpacing those for Modern Warfare 2.

Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson made the claim in a report released to various outlets. Wilson increased his sales estimate for Black Ops' holiday sales from 10 million to 12 million.

In the past, the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty games have performed extremely well but failed to achieve a similar blockbuster status to the Infinity Ward-produced installments. Growing evidence suggests that could change with Black Ops, scheduled for a release on November 9.

Jordan NBA 2K11 Cover Revealed

2K Sports has revealed the cover of NBA 2K11 featuring long-time Chicago Bull Michael Jordan. Is this the greatest sports cover of all time? 2K seems to think so:

We knew as soon as we signed Jordan that we needed to do something special for the cover," said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. "This could possibly be the most highly anticipated cover art in the history of sports games and we think the image we came up with delivers on every front.

2K already told us what to expect from MJ in the new game. NBA 2K11 will be out on October 5, 2010.

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New Xbox 360 protects itself from overheating

The RRoD might be gone, thanks to overheating monitoring.
(Credit: Microsoft, Jeff Bakalar/CNET)

Microsoft's new, slim Xbox 360 not only ditches the Red Ring of Death, the console monitors itself to determine if it's starting to overheat.
According to an Engadget post, which posted pictures of a "red dot of death" on its site, the new Xbox 360 constantly evaluates itself for overheating issues. If the console doesn't get as much ventilation as it needs to operate properly, a red light is displayed in the middle of the power ring, and the console shuts down by itself. Upon doing so, a message is displayed on the users' television, alerting them to the overheating issue.

"The Xbox 360 is shutting down to protect the console from insufficient ventilation," an alleged screenshot of an overheating Xbox 360 error message says. "You can turn the console back on after the power light stops flashing."

Microsoft confirmed the existence of the monitoring function in an e-mail. The Microsoft representative said "the new console has safety mechanisms in place to shut down, if needed, including an advanced warning that the console will shut down."
Although the warning isn't something that Xbox 360 owners want to see, it's nice to know that Microsoft is doing more to protect its console. Previous versions of the Xbox 360 were rife with troubles that caused the infamous Red Ring of Death. Upon getting it, Xbox 360 owners were forced to send their consoles back to Microsoft for fixing.

I've experienced the so-called RRoD once. CNET writer Jeff Bakalar reported last week that he has sent back a whopping five Xbox 360 units due to the RRoD.
There's no telling whether the new Xbox 360 model will be more robust than the previous model, but protecting against "insufficient ventilation" is certainly a good first step.