If you are a customer of Netflix, then you would have received an email yesterday that explains that the service will now separate their services into two payment structures. Here is a copy of an email I received:

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $14.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month

Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 2 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $11.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $19.98 a month ($7.99 + $11.99). You don’t need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

You can easily change or cancel your unlimited streaming plan, unlimited DVD plan, or both, by going to the Plan Change page in Your Account.

We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

The reaction to this?

Well if you are on Twitter, the trending topic for the past two days has been “Dear #Netflix,” where people from around the world have voiced their displeasure at the 60 percent price increase. Some are quite funny, some sad, while others lament the fact that the streaming service, which is the cheapest option, does not have as good a selection as the DVD’s they offer.

Here are a few dissatisfied customers from twitter:

@ChrisThomas:

Dear @Netflix: Not cool. Sincerely, Me and everyone else who have loyally paid you $ for years. P.S. Please fix it.

@adkalmanack:

Dear #netflix, You can’t double the price of a product without providing more value. Bad business move — #redbox here we come.

With that said, will you continue on with Netflix? Leave your comments below!

Sony released the BDP-N460 Networked Blu-Ray disc player last week, a Blu-ray playing, media streaming machine.

The player is capable of typical features like playing Blu-Ray dics and DVDs as well as streaming several kinds of pay and free video content from Sony’s BRAVIA Internet platform, including content from YouTube and Slacker. Late this fall, the player will also get streaming content from Netflix.

“Whether its full HD 1080p or streaming video and audio from the Internet, entertainment comes in so many flavors that consumers want choice,” said Chris Fawcett, vice president of Sony Electronics’ home audio and video business “Leading the entertainment experience, Sony brings the best of both worlds together in one player that offers more content than other stand-alone devices on the market.”

The BDP-N460 is capable of 1080p output and is compatible with the latest audio codecs. It is even BD-LIVE compatible with a broadband Internet connection and external storage.

The device incorporates cross search functionality with the BRAVIA Internet platform, making finding content much easier. It also includes Sony’s Precision Upscale HD, which upscales DVDs to near HD resolutions. The player even prevents damage to discs and itself using Sony’s Precision Drive technology, which helps detect and correct wobbling discs in the drive.

The device is available now, and retails for around $250.

Every day it seems like there’s another social network you need to keep updating. We’ll freely admit that should you try to keep up with all of them, it can get overwhelming. While there are sites like Friendfeed which aim to collect all of your social network happenings on one website, you’re still tied to your computer to be able to keep tabs on your friends.

But now, Motorola is introducing the Cliq with Motoblur, which allows you to update, post, and read everyone on all of your social networks all on the homescreen of your phone.

Motoblur is Motorola’s first offering built on top of Google’s Android phone OS. Motoblur is the “solution” that allows you to post to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, and last.fm. Content is delivered to the home screen of the phone in different categories to let users better handle the stream of information.

Updates, including statuses, wall posts, and friend feeds from social networks are delivered to the “Happenings” box, while email and networking messages are delivered to the “Messages” box. You can update all or some of your networks from the “Social Status” box, and an RSS feed reader will deliver headlines to your home screen.

The underling Android system allows tight integration between Google’s offerings, including Gmail and Google Calendar, as well as contact syncing with your Google account.

The Cliq phone itself is packed with 3G and A-GPS, wi-fi, a 5 megapixel camera, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and a standard headphone jack to let you listen to music or stream last.fm playlists. The Cliq doesn’t have an official release date other than “fourth quarter” from T-Mobile. Definitely looks like something to add to the Christmas list.

Last Wednesday, YouTube began talks with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Sony Pictures, and Warner Brothers concerning a movie rental service similar to iTunes and Netflix. This would mark the first time ever that the Google owned video site would charge for content. The fee would also be similar to the other video services, charging around $3.99 a rental.

YouTube is also in talks with many other partners in an effort to shore up its offerings of professional grade content, which advertisers prefer.

“We hope to expand on both our great relationship with the movie studios and the selection and types of videos we offer our community,” said YouTube spokesman Chris Dale.

Such a program would be quite a change for YouTube. We think this is due to pressure from investors who see that the cost of supplying video to users all over the world still isn’t bringing in its equivalent in advertising revenue.

YouTube became successful because it allowed people to share their own personal “LOL” with the world “" for free! Considering that there are plenty of other and more well established places to stream movies, most offering better quality or lower prices at this point, and YouTube is a late entrant into the game.

The Sqeezebox Radio.

Logitech finally released details on its newest additions to the Squeezebox series of internet radios, and they’re just as exciting as we’d hoped.

The Logitech Squeezebox radio offers simple set-up through your wi-fi network sporting a similar “plug it in, turn it on, and go” endorsement from its maker. The Squeezebox radio gives you access to all the glories “" and terrors “" of internet radio as well as giving you access to music subscriptions services such as Napster, Rhapsody, Pandora, Sirius-XM and last.fm from anywhere you take the device, played through on-board speakers.

The device also has a color screen capable of displaying album art and track information for mp3s streamed from your computer as well as for radio station information. Features include six preset buttons, a brightness sensor for the screen, a built in alarm clock and, because technology isn’t advanced enough to pipe the music directly into your skull, your old friend, the handy dandy 3.5mm headphone jack is there as well.

The Squeezebox Touch.

The size of the device is 5.12in x 8.66in x 5.04in and it sports a 3-inch woofer and a three-quarter inch tweeter. Suggested retail pricing for the Squeezebox Radio is $199.99 and it will be available this month. A limited edition will also be available in red. A rechargeable battery pack is also available for the Squeezebox Radio, sold separately, of course. Battery life is rated at six hours. This will be included in the Squeezebox Radio Accessory pack available from Logitech for $49.99 in November.

The Logitech Squeezebox Touch sports a 4.3in color touch screen and needs to be attached to your existing speakers for music playback. The Touch also sports a USB port and a SD card slot to allow access to pictures and music on external devices. The Logitech Squeezebox Touch will be available in December with a suggested retail price of $299.99. There is also a wall mount bracket available for the Touch”"again, sold separately”"for $99.99.

Hulu continues to permeate society as the video and TV content medium of choice for the internet savvy. The last time we looked at them, they were gaining serious ground. So, just how “big” is Hulu?

According to comScore some 38 million people used Hulu this July. This surpasses Business Insiders estimate of 34 million subscribers for Time Warner Cable, the United States second largest cable company. To put this all in perspective Comcast, the US’s largest cable company, has about 62 million viewers. Viewership statistics for the cable companies were derived by multiplying the number of subscribers by 2.59, which is what the census bureau tells us is the average person per household.

Some numbers to consider.

This means that Hulu is effectively the second largest provider of television content for Americans. If only the internet could prove a reliable cash cow for producers Hulu could easily be the platform of the future; however, for now they will have to be content with second place.

A few months ago, we told you about the best music streaming app out there and all about how you couldn’t have it, provided you live in the US. Swedish company Spotify has continued its growth right in the mean time, and now has taken a huge step forward. Apple has approved the Spotify app for the iPhone. Amazing. We know.

This comes as a surprise to many of us, especially considering that Apple rejected (or is “indefinitely studying””"Google’s voice applications, presumably because they pose a threat to their bottom lines. Despite that Spotify poses an obvious threat to Apple’s music selling dominance in iTunes, they seem to have done the noble thing, and approved Spotify.

Users can now stream entire multi-million song catalogue to their phones over data networks, or sync songs to the iPhone’s hard drive via wi-fi. You read that right: you make a playlist, and the Spotify app will sync those songs to your iPhone so you can listen to them even when you lack an internet connection. While the application is free, it will require its users to have a Premium Spofity account which costs ‚£10 a month. This also entitles the user to ad free listening on the desktop player as well.

Spotify has proven very successful in its European markets. While Spotify is still in talks with US record labels to bring it to the US, this further success could be the final push we need to change the game here. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

MediaMall Technologies announced the availability of their PlayOn software for the Wii. The Wii version will be in addition to the successful Xbox 360 and PS3. PlayOn allows its owners to watch streaming internet content from sources like Netflix, Hulu, ESPON, YouTube, CBS, Amazon Video on Demand and more. Third party developers are also permitted to create plugins for additional steaming content such as Adultswim, Food Network, Cartoon Network, NFL Network, and South Park Studios. This will drastically improve the way many people will use the Wii, and is sure to please the people who have been pining after a release of PlayOn for Wii.

Excited? Frustrated? Comment below with your thoughts and opinions.

Consumers have more choices than ever for watching movies these days. Once they’ve left the theater, you can stream them on-demand from cable providers, grab a flick from Hulu, or stream them from Netflix’s Instant Watching. And yet, we’re about to get another choice: Epix.

As opposed to all the choices offered now, you can only watch older free movies from the limited catalogs, or you’ll have to pay to watch newer ones on demand. Epix will offer movies during this pay-for window, but you won’t have to pay for them directly. Instead, the joint venture of Lionsgate, Paramount, and MGM Studios will package their content, and sell it to cable providers who in turn will add a channel to the standard line up. As an added bonus, the content will also be available online for streaming in all of it its 720p HD glory.

Warning viewers receive if their cable provider does not offer access to ESPN 360.

If Epix gets their way, you won’t pay any fees to take advantage of this, and you won’t have to watch any advertising either. These costs for the operation will be recuperated by requiring users to subscribe to both the cable providers’ TV and Internet services. This is similar to the deal that ESPN has inked with some providers to allow streaming of live sports events via ESPN 360. It works like this: if your cable provider pays for access, you can watch all you want. If they don’t, there’s essentially nothing you can do, other than beg and plead with your cable provider to purchase it. Deals like this never sell content directly to the end user.

Epix has yet to announce its cable partners, so one has to wonder if they have any or will even be able to get them. It would be sad for this venture not to get off the ground, because it’s certainly promising. Epix is currently in a private only beta, though you can follow them on Twitter to try and gain access.

Considering the shear unsuccessfulness of most streaming music platforms, one might thing that streaming music can’t be more than a novelty. Napster is barely a thought in today’s music marketplace, Rhapsody shares a laughable market, and the Zune Marketplace is just sort of puttering along in the background. When users have the uber-intelligent Pandora and Slacker Radio to tap into their minds and pick songs they’ll love, why pay for streaming music? Likewise, polled Internet users routinely state that they want to own their music collections, hence why they so rarely choose subscription-based music models.

But what about those times when you want to listen to a certain song — like right now? Sure you can try to prod Pandora into playing the song for you, but it’s hit or miss. Slacker lets you choose some favorites, but these choices are limited, and again, there are no guarantees. And since the RIAA is actually still suing people, despite their assurances otherwise, we’re going for legal methods.

Enter Spotify.

Spotify is essentially a digital version of the iTunes catalog, where every song is available for free streaming. No kidding, you can pick and choose any song you want to listen to, and it will begin playing on demand. (OK, OK, The Beatles are still nowhere to be found, but that’s surprising to no one.) The familiar interface works much like iTunes. Artist names and albums are hyperlinked to the respective pages where you can listen to the artists other songs and albums.

I was very impressed with the selection. While all of the most obvious artists and songs are available, there’s an impressive back catalogue. I found many b-sides and live albums I didn’t know existed for many of my favorite bands as well as many, shall we say, “band nerd” songs from my yesterdays in the high school band.

The software allows you to build playlists drag and drop style but many websites also offer a robust selection of playlists that you can add. The software also comes with the ability to share songs via links.

All in all, this possibly strikes you as too good to be true; and alas, for anyone living state side, it is. Spofity is currently only available in a handful of European countries. Of course, enterprising users have managed to find a way around the IP address checks used to make sure that users are from these allowed countries; a simple Google search will probably reveal the methods.

Though currently in invite only-beta, the site actually allows new users (again, from the appropriate countries) to sign up and download the software, all for free. The company’s revenue model is based on inserting ads in the software and in the audio stream. Users can also sign up for premium service to eliminate these ads.

For the future, the company also has iPhone and Symbian apps in development, an obvious addition considering the limited space on most devices. All in all, free is hard to argue with, and should Spotify manage to strike the right licensing deals, they might just have a winning formula.