Netflix raises the price of video streaming for new customers

New customers of Netflix in the United States, Canada, and Latin America will see the price of a subscription increase this year. The video streaming service silently admitted that new customers will have to pay $9.99 per month for access to its library of movies, television shows, documentaries, comedy specials, and more. This is for Netflix’s tier that allows for two devices to stream content simultaneously.

Price hikes should never be surprising to customers of any video and music streaming service. The service providers must pay for existing content while securing deals for additional content; therefore, additional funds from customers are required. Even Netflix and its more than 65 million customers can’t avoid adjusting prices in today’s market. It’s also why video streaming service’s — Netflix, Hulu, Amazon — are producing in-house content. They can spend less on rights fees and focus on original content without ever losing control. And subscriptions are far less sensitive to the creation of more in-house content.

This isn’t the first time Netflix has had to raise prices, either. In September 2011, Netflix’s Reed Hastings announced that the company would split its video streaming service from the DVD rentals. The latter would be transformed into a separate service called Qwikster and also carry video games. After huge backlash, Netflix reverted its plans and kept DVD rentals as part of Netflix but still raised prices.

Definitely take a look at Netflix’s Twitter account to see how concerned customers are with the subscription’s increase.

Fortunately, existing customers will be unaffected by the price hike for a limited time… that ends in October 2016.

Source: Bloomberg

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The Wirecutter’s best deals: a Vizio 4K TV, the UE Roll, and more!

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read their continuously updated list of deals at TheWirecutter.com.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

Vizio M60-C3 60-Inch 4K Ultra HD TV

Street Price: $1,300; MSRP: $1,700; Deal Price: $1,100

BuyDig, through their eBay storefront, is offering up an impressive deal on this 4K Ultra HD TV. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on this TV, and it’s $200 below the street price (and $230 lower than Amazon). The deal includes free shipping.

The Vizio M60-C3 is our top pick for the best TV. Chris Heinonen said, “The $1,300 Vizio M60-C3 offers a better picture than pricier TVs made by other companies. It has a full-array backlight, Ultra HD resolution, low input lag, 5 HDMI inputs, and a decent selection of streaming content. Compared with the competition, it offers better contrast ratios and only slightly worse color accuracy than models costing $2,100 or more.”

Annex Quad Lock Sports Armband for iPhone 5/5S

Street Price: $40; MSRP: $40; Deal Price: $27

This deal is $13 below the going price and the best deal we’ve seen on this armband. Unfortunately, the deal is only on the armband itself you’ll also need the Annex Quad Lock case to use it.

The Annex Quad Lock is our flexibility pick in our guide on the best iPhone running band. Jim McDannald said, “the Quad Lock armband is more expensive than most other models. But if you like the flexibility of being able to record both running and cycling sessions with an iPhone, the convenience the Quad Lock system provides may be worth the extra cost.”

UE ROLL 360 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

Street Price: $100; MSR: $100; Deal Price: $90

This is the first price drop we’ve seen for the newest UE Bluetooth speaker from Logitech. This deal from Amazon is available on all five colors of the speaker.

We recommend the UE Roll in a couple of guides, including the best iPhone and iPad accessories and our college checklist article. We said, “UE claims the ROLL offers a 65-foot Bluetooth range and a battery life of nine hours. Considering the ROLL’s small size, it produces decent bass, if not much thump. Still, the ROLL will easily fill a small room with sound, and it also works well outdoors if you don’t need a lot of volume.”

Craftsman Quiet 208cc Dual-Stage Snow Blower

Street Price: $900; MSRP: $1170; Deal Price: $800

This beats the best price we’ve ever seen on this snow blower by about $10, and the current street price by $100. Typically, this snow blower sits at $900 for the majority of the year, popping down to $810 for a day or two every three months. With winter approaching soon, it’s a great time to get it.

The Craftsman Quiet 208cc Dual-Stage Snow Blower is our pick for best snow blower. Doug Mahoney said, “If you regularly get six inches to a foot of snowfall, and you have to clear a two-car driveway up to about 80 feet long, we recommend the Craftsman 88694 Quiet 208cc Dual-Stage Snow Blower ($900). No other blower on the market combines this unique combination of features at such an excellent price. We know $900 is a lot of money, but if you truly need this machine, it’s actually a great investment—and this blower gives you premium features that you usually only find on competing products that cost hundreds more.”

Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

NASA finds that Pluto has blue skies and surface water ice

Move over Mars, NASA’s just confirmed that Pluto, everybody’s favorite Kuiper belt object/celestial punching bag, not only has expansive fields of water ice on its surface but blue skies as well. Granted Pluto has neither the thick atmosphere nor global oceans that the Earth does, so the “blue sky” NASA’s New Horizon’s team spotted last week is actually more of a haze. And, technically, the haze particles themselves would likely appear either red or grey to the naked eye. However, the fact that they appear blue from this distance tells NASA a lot.

“That striking blue tint tells us about the size and composition of the haze particles,” said NASA’s Carly Howett in a statement. “A blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth, those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger — but still relatively small — soot-like particles we call tholins.” These tholins are likely generated high above Pluto’s surface where solar radiation breaks down atmospheric nitrogen and methane into these smaller particles.

Equally intriguing is the discovery of surface water ice, which would also appear red to the naked eye. This is, again, due to the high concentrations of thorin particles covering much of the dwarf planet. “Large expanses of Pluto don’t show exposed water ice,” Jason Cook, of NASA’s Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), said in a statement. “because it’s apparently masked by other, more volatile ices across most of the planet. Understanding why water appears exactly where it does, and not in other places, is a challenge that we are digging into.” Luckily, the New Horizon’s spacecraft is still in tip-top shape, despite being some 3.1 billion miles from Earth.

Source: NASA