Using the words “piles and piles of money” in a headline seems hyperbolic, but there’s nothing trivial about saving a few bucks. Last July’s Netflix price increase news seemed like betrayal to many, and that only came down to a few dollars too. Some of us are on the $7.99 plan because we’re not fancy, yet it’s easy to forget about the simple matter of bandwidth. See, it’s always those hidden associated charges that will get you, and watching Netflix costs more than the simple monthly charge to the company itself.
If one’s binging in a waiting room without wifi, it’s very easy to suck all the life out of a mobile data plan, which means the next phone bill will be ugly. According to some new rumors, Netflix has found a way to help folks avoid such a mess. Out of the goodness of their cyberhearts, they’re reportedly issuing Netflix mobile app update to help people curb data usage. Pocket-lint says they got the inside scoop from Netflix at a private event:
The movie and TV show streaming service has told Pocket-Lint that later this year it will begin rolling out an app update that puts greater data control in the user’s hands. The iOS and Android app update will feature a button that can be turned on to limit bitrate.
The app will then intelligently work out the best economical bandwidth at which to stream the programming. This, says Netflix, will be able to limit quality in order to save data even to the point of pushing it below Full HD 1080p streaming levels. But there is a second button to allow HD, should you want to keep that as the minimum quality level.
If true, this is fantastic news and will grant the mobile app similar controls to what users can already choose on desktop. Those came in handy during a month where my gaming neighbor played the wifi hacking game and sucked up a huge amount of my cable internet allowance. For mobile, Netflix hasn’t provided similar controls, but now, they’re gonna make life much easier for users. And cheaper too.
The streaming giant also reportedly has plans to roll out a second-screen function to overlay data relevant to a show, movie, or actor. Plus, they’re officially launching HDR with the new Daredevil season in March, which will make these new data-conservation controls even more useful.
(Via Pocket-lint)
