I admit it. I'm normally light years behind when it comes to the latest and coolest stuff on the web. I learn about most of the new stuff from my teenager who spends most of his free time surfing the web or tinkering with apps on his iPod touch. Last week, my old and not-so-reliable DVD player decided to flake out. OK, time to upgrade. After a little research I find a Panasonic BD player with Netflix built-in to the firmware for a shade over $100. Perfect.
<rant> The fact that I have to use a disc on my PS3 and Wii to play Netflix really irks me. I have a 300GB harddisk in my PS3 and I have to pop in a disc every time I want to watch a movie. Why can't I download the software from the PS3 store and install it locally? It is not that I'm too lazy to get out of the recliner. It is the fact that I shouldn't have to.</rant>
Anyway, I get this new BD player, hook it into my network, get the firmware updated, and start browsing through the network based apps. It looks strikingly like Wii channels. Weather forecasts, Netflix, YouTube, ... and Pandora. I get Netflix enabled in a minute or two and have access to my instant queue. Cool. OK. I've heard this Pandora thing mentioned before, but what is it? I open it up and within a few minutes I'm listening to a mix of my favorite music though my audio system. Very cool. I've been a Yahoo Music/Launchcast user for years, but no more. Pandora is faster, the commercials are less irritating, I can mix my music and best of all it works on most of my other music devices - Android phone, PS3 browser, and my laptop. I haven't tried our Wii yet, but I'm guessing it'll work on the Wii browser too.
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