Engadget

No need to envy your iPhone- and iPad-toting friends anymore just because they can catch the latest episodes of Bates Motel or Dance Moms on the go. Streaming apps from A&E, History Channel and Lifetime have just arrived on Android, and you can access content even if you're not a cable subscriber. Naturally, the entire roster of shows and episodes isn't available -- in some cases, you can only watch clips instead of full episodes -- but Comcast or DirecTV subscribers who log in will have more to choose from. Should you need new companions for solitary nights, hit the source links below to download the apps on your device.

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Netflix mentioned another European country was in its sights for this year and tonight it's announced the new region it will service is the Netherlands. As is its custom, it will be offering Dutch viewers a package of movies and TV shows for one low price, including its ever-growing slate of original series. There's no word yet on what that price will be, an exact launch date or what devices will be supported, but interested residents can sign up for alerts at Netflix.nl starting today.

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Planning on turning on your PS3 for some The Last of Us action tonight? According to a thread on the PlayStation Support forums, if you're prompted to install the latest firmware update version 4.45 then you may want to hold off for now. A number of owners are reporting their systems locks up while booting, although the problem may only affect users with hard drives installed that are 500GBs or larger. According to the changelog, it was supposed to allow users to select whether or not they want an in-game notification when a trophy is earned. If it is tied to user-replaced hard drives, it does remind us of the time v3.41 resulted in a few corrupted PlayStation 3 drives. Check the thread for more details, if we hear more from Sony then we'll let you know when it's safe to press OK.

Update: It appears the update has been pulled and users are no longer being prompted to download it, but we haven't heard any official word from Sony on the situation yet.

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Jelly Bean has been making its way to ever cheaper phones in recent months, and that's very conspicuous with the launch of Virgin Mobile's new Samsung Galaxy Ring. For $180, you're getting Android 4.1 in a price range where 4.0 is still common. You're also getting a surprisingly capable device under the hood -- while there's no LTE, the prepaid handset carries a reasonably quick 1.4GHz processor, a 4-inch screen, a 5MP rear camera and a 1.3MP front-facing sensor. We'd still consider shelling out a little more cash for a future-ready 4G device, but Virgin users determined to scrimp and save can pick up the Galaxy Ring today.

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Scanadu clearly knows to tap into our collective Star Trek dreams, as the company just reached $1 million in funding for its Scout tricorder. The backing so far comes from people in 91 countries, including luminaries like Eugene Roddenberry (who else?) and Steve Wozniak. That figure is more than symbolic, we'd add -- backers who've paid for a Scout can now get theirs in black rather than a clinical-looking white. Should the new color option prove tempting, it's not necessarily too late; as of this writing, there's still a few days left to make a pledge.

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To use NVIDIA's graphics technology, you've typically had to buy gadgets using NVIDIA chips -- good for the company's bottom line, but not for influencing the industry as a whole. The firm is expanding its ambition today with plans to license some of that technology on a broader scale. Beginning with the Kepler architecture, other firms can use NVIDIA's GPU cores and graphics-related patents for their own processors and chipsets. The deal could affect a wide range of hardware, but it mostly pits NVIDIA against the likes of Imagination Technologies: a system-on-chip designer could integrate a Logan-based GPU instead of the PowerVR series, for example. While it will be some time before third-party silicon ships with NVIDIA inside, it's already clear that the company's in-house design is now just one part of a larger strategy.

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Today we had a chance to play with Qualcomm's latest MDP devices (tablet and phone) which pack the company's mighty Snapdragon 800 SoC (MSM8974). The tablet is slightly larger than than last year's and features an 11.6-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel display, 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 32GB of built-in flash storage (with microSD expansion), USB 3.0 support and a 12 megapixel AF rear camera with flash (2MP fixed-focus in front). All of this is crammed into a slim (0.46 inches / 11.7mm) chassis that's powered by a 3400mAh Li-ion battery and incorporates a bevvy of radios (LTE band 17, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4 LE, GPS, NFC) and sensors (including pressure and humidity).

The phone shares most of the tablet's specs but swaps the screen for a 4.3-inch panel (1280 x 720 pixels) and the battery for a smaller (1500mAh) pack. We put these Snapdragon 800-equipped MDPs through their paces by running our usual suite of benchmarks (plus a few more). The results? Prepare for ludicrous speed! More after the break.

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