Hacking the Netflix

I wonder how many people remember Netflix’s blue logo?

When we first got that flyer (packed in with our first DVD player), it seemed like an interesting idea. The DVD rental wars were still on then: Blockbuster on every fourth corner, Hollywood Video, home brew rental shops that had made movie madness what it is back in the days of $89.95 VHS movies.

Eventually we signed up, but didn’t keep it for more than a year. It took too long to get the DVDs across the country to us, and the selection was rather limited.

Now we stream Netflix every day. And this hack people have come up with seems pretty interesting, and a way to go with reactive technology. You wear a pedometer / accelerometer to track your walking and resting; when you drop into sleep mode, Netflix pauses your show. Pick it up later.

I’d like it to go further; if I wake enough to be “almost up”, I’d like to program the hack to perform a specific task, such as rewinding 10 minutes and starting it back up again. I like to drift to sleep to some sort of media. On nights I sleep to a book or podcast, my apps shut it off after a pre-set time, making it easier for me to sleepily start it up again for another 20 minute stint so I can drop off again and not drift too far off the path of the story.

But Netflix is doing  a lot of things right, even with their Beacon (yes, Facebook and Blockbuster did it too) and Qwickster hiccups. Aside from their originalish programming (House of Cards is a bit of a remake, Orange is the New Black and Arrested Development are more originalish), they’ve constantly tweaked and adjusted their UI we can see, and their algorithms behind the scenes.

Nook developers, you listening? There’s a lot of what they’re doing that can give you a few ideas to improve your service.