Its a New Year and a lot has transpired in the Video Realm during 2011. Additionally, we have been very active in SMB media and as any one can tell from visiting the site this last year, we have not been too active in publishing content to our own Virtual Interactive Systems site! Well I can say that all the changes and challenges we faced in 2011 have had dramatic effects on our business and that has resulted in a complete overhaul of our business for 2012. Within the next month you will see Visin.com move to a total Video Aggregation site as we move into assisting more of our SMB clientele into the How To process of Internet video along with copious amounts of relevant data on Internet marketing on our new site SMB Social that will have its official launch in February 2012. So 2012 is shaping up to be the Video Year for Business and we will dominate this arena.
Google Plus – the bandwidth HOG
SO why does it take G+ so long to load (20 minutes and counting) ??? Once again we are down to (1) Fiber line or so says MIT (Magic Island Technologies) . Life sucks working in the Middle East especially with regards to internet access. Most users in the US and other places abroad take their high speed access for granted. We pay $65.00 a month here with no guarantee of up-time and lately its been down more than up. That’s partly the reason for the large load time of G+. However, it’s also appearing that Google has not load balanced their apps very well. Even though we have what amounts to Dial-Up access, I would think Google with their co-located servers all around the World could do better than this ?? I can access Facebook and Skype which can be heavy on servers at times and I can even access the back-end of my system here at Virtual Interactive Systems, to create this post with very little latency. So why is Google Plus taking such a long time to load the Streaming portion for updates ?? I ran a TRACERT and we are connecting to the servers at Google, but it’s a SLOW PROCESS, and my bet is G+ is not properly load balanced or optimized to deal with the rest of the world yet ?
Ok, Google you can spend BILLIONS to buy-up Motorola , but you can’t even get your own system to work properly on low bandwidth…. hows that working for ya ? Cause it’s not for me, so for now your Google -1 (MINUS one) to me!
Time to Change the Channel on Netflix
Time to change the channel on Netflix ? Customers irate because of new pricing model. Some media pundits support Netflix based on their signing new deals with NBC . Netflix in my opinion is not providing the services that warrant a price hike of this magnitude. Their streaming services serve up OLD & outdated movies…..August 31, will be a bitter pill for Netflix to swallow.. Kiss your IPO adios
| “ | Current users need to drop NetFlix and new subscribers should look elsewhere. NetFlix is raping loyal customers and they don’t care!!!!!! | ||
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Netflix’s 60% Price Hike: You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Me!
Imagine my surprise when I opened an email from Netflix Tuesday to discover that my current plan is jumping from $10 a month to $16 a month. Sure, that doesn’t seem like a huge jump (come on, Sarah, it’s only $6), but it is a pretty large hike–60 percent, to be exact.
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Netflix Raises Rates Again: Business Model Has Serious Challenges Ahead | CMO.com
Netflix announced that they are raising rates on monthly plans that allow customers to get unlimited streaming and one DVD out at a time.
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Netflix Price Increase Infuriates The Interwebs
I’m sure that when the people over at Netflix submitted their blog post about the new prices yesterday, they expected some level of backlash. How could they not? In short, they turned a service that cost $10 into a service that costs $16 without adding anything new.
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Netflix Backlash Explodes On Facebook
The upcoming Netflix price increases has the Internet in an absolute tizzy. Their blog post announcing the upcoming price hikes quickly filled up with the 5000 comment limit, and although every comment wasn’t sifted through, the word “backlash” is absolutely fitting.
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| 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, …
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| “ | Netflix price hike angers users, some drop plan. | ||
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Netflix users revolt over price increases [poll]
Yesterday, Netflix did something almost unthinkable in this economy — dramatically increased prices for many customers. I asked for your reaction, and, whoa, did you give it. To recap: Netflix separated its DVD and streaming plans. Under the old arrangement, subscribers could rent one DVD at a time and get unlimited streaming for $8.99.
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Hulu or Netflix: In the game of streaming video, you win or you socialize
With over 23 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, Netflix has roughly 25 times more paying customers than competing online video service Hulu Plus. However, Hulu is by far the more dominant streaming service when it comes to social interaction, according to data collected by social media listening firm Mashworks.
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Dear Netflix, Thanks For The Customers! Signed, Redbox
Talk about backlash. I’ve yet to see one comment anywhere supporting Netflix’s price hikes and for good reason. Netflix announced a new pricing scheme yesterday that effectively raised the price of a popular subscription plan by 60%. Instead of costing $9.99 for streaming and DVD rental, Netflix separated the services and priced them each $7.99, which results in a combined cost of $16.
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| “ | Cancelled my netflix last night..greed is UGLY! | ||
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| “ | Said goodbye to netflix lastnight. They waited till the movie stores went out of business then jacked their prices! Assholes! Same with walmart! They put Ames, Hills, and almost K-mart out and now their prices are not as good as they used to be. | ||
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This Day in Tech: Netflix customers are angry birds
waynec_sf: Got a quick Skyline run in the GT-R, barely taxed its capabilities. Photos courtesy of @antgoo http://t.co/HsxoQ6Q cnet: Busy day? We round up all the top stories in This Day in Tech: http://cnet.co/oXzzYK CNETNews: This Day in Tech: Exclusive on Sprint confirming LightSquared deal; angry Netflix customers http://cnet.co/r5crfW crave: iLuv iSP110 review: Is this speaker case worth $15?
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| “ | I must be very angry today-today is vent day!!!Netflix-good bye!!!!!thanks for managing to squeeze yet again more money out of people trying to make a living.Greedy Canadian company.Is there another company anyone can suggest to me to order videos by mail or stream videos thru the xbox?please let me know I am cancelling my netflix subscription today | ||
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Netflix Expands NBC Deal As Customer Anger Mounts | Technology News, Social Media News & Aggregated Tech Information From TeckTwo.com!
The renewed deal not only assures that content from shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Office will remain on Netflix, but it also expands the deal to include shows such as Leave it to Beaver, Psych and Law and Order: SVU. The deal also covers a selection of NBC Universal’s film library.
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Netflix Expands NBC Deal As Customer Anger Mounts
Netflix and NBC Universal have renewed and expanded their live video streaming deal, bringing more content to Netflix. The agreement comes as customer anger mounts over a major price increase for Netflix DVD and streaming services.
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| “ | Netflix overhauls subscription plans; splits DVD, streaming options http://usat.ly/qZw27m @netflix Time 2 CANCEL subscriptions! | |||
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Real Estate Mobility
We recently wrote an article for the folks over at Home Gain, where I am a guest Blogger on the Technology front for the Real Estate industry. My article entitled, Is an iPhone Under Your Tree This Christmas? discusses the merits that the iPhone has ushered in for consumers and the reason why Real Estate agents and Brokers should give some serious thought into developing a mobile version of their web site.
A few of the screen shots used in the article are from the recent upgrade we did for the Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate Team, where we not only added video capability but made the platform Mobile aware with specific emphasis for those using iPhones and the new Goggle Android platform.
We will be posting as press release here shortly on all the things we did for the Real Estate platform upgrade, it will blow your mind at how much functionality we added to their site. Anyways back to the article on Home Gain.
Unfortunately, one area of the article did not make it past the editorial cut due the fact that the application I referenced is one from Trulia a competitor to Home Gain. So, I am including that portion on our site here because it is very good information on how to do an iPhone application for Real Estate consumers the right way. It is by no means perfect but of the applications now available on the iPhone in the Real Estate category, this ones does the best job by far.
As we know competition can spur technology so I only hope that Home Gain picks up the gauntlet and comes out with an even better application. So read the blog post over at the Home Gain Blog and then come back here for more. [Read more...]
Online printing services extraordinaire
With Christmas fast approaching, I often get customers that have rather large projects that need to be done in a hurry. This is in itself not a problem but if my resources are tied up and the project results in needing more than (1) or (2) DVD’s, well it can be quite hectic getting the labeling and jackets ready for that finished professional touch that our customers expect from us. Recently I came across a company that can help us out in this area.
Since we are all about Web services at Virtual Interactive we also tend to use vendors like ourselves that work or support a web based business model.
After taking a look at their offerings, I thought this was something that I should pass on to others who regularly frequent our site.
What am I talking about? Printing services that produce top quality full-color CD/DVD sleeves. Hey this beats the old plastic jewel case, looks very professional and they can save us money and a lot of hassle.
After looking at their site, I was very surprised at the range of additional service that they offer.
One that caught the eye of my daughter was their poster printing. She is a budding artist and I may be having a discussion with the bearded guy….if you know who I am talking about ….for a special Christmas order? The samples on their site look great. Come to think of it, I may have a use here as well for another upcoming video project. I can just see the look on my client’s face when we present them with their finished DVD and full size movie poster to boot.
I also liked the easy to navigate site and their pricing is straight forward, calculated based on details of your project and delivery requirements. So weather you’re an artist, musician or budding film maker, it looks like PsPrint has something for you.
BTW here’s a quote from their site that I think sums it up quite well.
“By combining the very best in web technologies with state-of-the-art production facilities, PsPrint delivers online convenience combined with lightening-fast turnaround and very competitive prices”
You can bet that we will be using them on our next project.



















This last Saturday my local News Paper printed a pretty good article in the Homes section regarding 




