Roku Streaming Stick delivers TV apps in a flash drive package

Set-top boxes are so 2011. Roku, a company that helped popularize cheap streaming video boxes, is out to changing the game with its new Streaming Stick.

The Stick, which is about the size of a USB flash drive, plugs into …

Cloud gaming service OnLive offers crazy discounts this Thanksgiving weekend

The pioneering on-demand cloud gaming service, OnLive, is offering all users a free five-day rental of both Homefront and Red Faction: Armageddon during its Frag Feast promotion this Thanksgiving weekend. In addition, you can buy your first full OnLive game …

Sean Parker says Spotify on Facebook lives up to original Napster vision (video)

Sean Parker, the billionaire of Napster and Facebook fame, is on to his next big deal: Spotify, which started in Europe and is now offering streaming music in the U.S.

In a conversation with Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek, Parker …

Spotify is singing success: 2M paying subscribers

Streaming music service Spotify now has more than 2 million paying subscribers in eight countries, according to a new report today.

Spotify saw a huge boost in premium subscribers after its U.S. launch in July. The company’s premium service is …

Netflix’s Qwikster game rentals may have short shelf life, thanks to cloud gaming

Netflix today spun off its mail-order DVD business into a new service called Qwikster, which will include mail-order video game rentals. Given Netflix’s immense success with the movie business, you might expect the games rental business to fare just as …

MOG launches free on-demand streaming to better fight Spotify

Subscription music service MOG on Wednesday announced it will launch a free on-demand component to its service tomorrow, in a move that will help it better challenge players like Spotify and Grooveshark.

MOG has been making a name for itself …

Netflix says hola (and olá) to Latin America

Netflix today began its launch in countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

Altogether, this expansion of availability, which was first announced back in July, means 43 new countries are now in Netflix’s territory.

The rollout should be …

SoundHound parnters with Spotify to offer music streaming in Europe

Music discovery company SoundHound has formed a partnership with streaming music service provider Spotify that will allow European SoundHound users to instantly access Spotify’s catalog of 15 million tracks, the company announced Thursday.

Much like its rival Shazam, SoundHound’s free …

HBO follows up streaming success with ‘MAX Go’ app

Fresh from its successful implementation of the HBO Go app, Home Box Office is launching a new MAX Go app. The app will stream the HBO-owned Cinemax channel’s library of content across multiple devices.

Versions of the app are available …

Apple launching ‘iTunes Replay’ streaming service? Not anytime soon

News of Apple getting ready to launch a streaming video competitor to Netflix is apparently premature, reports CNET.

iTunes Replay, as the service is rumored to be called, makes use of Apple’s advances into the cloud. The service allows iTunes …

Rolling.fm founder says it’s no Turntable.fm clone

Whenever a popular web startup appears on the scene, it doesn’t take long for an onslaught of clones to show up. And ever since music sharing site Turntable.fm launched in late May, we’ve been expecting duplicate startups to follow.

The …

Netflix CEO: “We’re gonna thrive on streaming only”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings that the online-video giant plans to focus on a “streaming only” future after separating its mail-order DVD service into a separate subscription. But that future, Hastings said, …

Updated: Netflix expects subscriber growth to slow in Q3

[Update: Added additional information from the company's quarterly conference call.]

Video streaming site Netflix’s recent rate hike has slowed the site’s growth substantially.

The site expects to add 700,000 new domestic subscribers — at the most — in the third …

Warning: Spotify may not remember your starred songs

Some Spotify listeners are finding that the application has a short memory when it comes to remembering their favorite songs.

“I just signed up yesturday, starred 1700 tracks and now they are gone,” wrote one user a week ago. “Logging …

More music: Turntable.fm lands big licensing agreement with BMI

Music licensing company BMI on Thursday announced it had reached an agreement with social music service Turntable.fm, which will make it possible for Turntable to get access to BMI’s more than 6.5 million creative works.

“We are pleased to have …

Meet Roku 2: a video streaming box with motion-controlled gaming (video)

Roku, a company that produces boxes that stream web content to televisions, announced today that it is unveiling a new lineup of devices that feature games and motion controllers.

The company’s flagship title at launch is Angry Birds, a game …

Spotify to give away free music with no caps for 6 months

With an invite to Spotify’s just-launched music service, people in the United States can now listen to 15 million songs on their computers for six months, for free. Now go tell your family and friends, because that’s exactly what European …

Netflix raises plan prices by 60%, with 4100 negative comments and counting

Netflix on Tuesday announced significant changes to its pricing plans that include a 60% price bump on combination DVD and streaming plans. The new changes go into effect September 1 for existing members.

Netflix customers, if you couldn’t already guess, …

The shuttle program ends, and with it, an era of American tech excellence

The last American space shuttle, STS-135, lifted off this morning, bringing to a close a remarkable era in U.S. technological dominance.

I stayed home and watched the launch on TV, just as I watched the very first shuttle launch on …

AOL to launch new music service based on Slacker Radio

AOL said today it has partnered with digital music startup Slacker Radio to launch a new subscription-based music service later this summer.

The free version of the new service will be based on Slacker’s current service. Like Slacker, the service …