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Netflix Finally Recognizes Mac Users

As an advocate of the mail order DVD rental site, Netflix , i was thrilled to learn last week that the company had finally opened up its "Watch Instantly" functionality -- which streams some movies directly to a PC's screen for no additional cost (with a subscription to Netflix, of course) -- to the Mac platform. I w

As an advocate of the mail order DVD rental site, Netflix, i was thrilled to learn last week that the company had finally opened up its “Watch Instantly” functionality — which streams some movies directly to a PC’s screen for no additional cost (with a subscription to Netflix, of course) — to the Mac platform. I was immediately zinged, however, when I signed into my account and got the “Our apologies, but…” this feature is not available for Macs; the beta-version of the platform was only open to certain Mac customers that Netflix had apparently already chosen. The comments section of one of my favorite websites, lifehacker.com, which has been keeping steady watch on this Netflix development was modestly infiltrated with Mac-owning Netflix customers who were not let in on the beta-testing.

This morning, though, my mild peevishness about the closed beta run was put to rest, when I went to my queue, and hooray, “Watch Instantly” was also now available to all, including Mac users with the installation of Microsoft’s Silverlight. Whether it will work is another matter entirely. According to users who have installed Sliverlight on their Macs the results are mixed, with some just plain happy to finally have the option, while others decry the poor film quality and the lagging buffer time as the movie streams.

As I had to come into the office this morning, clicking the install button for Silverlight on my Intel iMac will have to wait until later in the week.

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