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They write a native app for Android, but iPhone/iPad gets the crappy web app that tries to pretend it's native stuffed in a UIWebView. I swear that thing has th

They write a native app for Android, but iPhone/iPad gets the crappy web app that tries to pretend it's native stuffed in a UIWebView. I swear that thing has the worst UX experience ever.

xinsight 15y ago
Yes it's painful. I find it's best to use safari to browse netflix and then when a video plays it launches the app. Funny how netflix constantly sends surveys about picture quality (which is always fine) and their website ui is so clunky and broken.
- kyp 15y ago
  Those surveys are probably part of the reason why their picture quality is always fine.
elq 15y ago
only the ipad app is like that now. The iphone version has been "native" for quite a while now.
- zbowling 15y ago
  it's not "native". look at the UIToolbar (or the fact that it's not a UIToolBar but an html div with transparent pngs). Look at the UITableView/UIScrollView (or the fact that it's not as but that it's a div with content scrollable and it's on magic javascript fake the same "feel" of a native app)... It's a webapp. It just pretends to be native by being wrapped in a UIWebView and uses AVFoundation to play videos and stuffed gingerly on to the app store. See this: http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/03/sxsw-mistakes-made-building-netflix-for-iphone-and-source-code.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/03/sxsw-mistakes-mad... and this: http://www.slideshare.net/kentbrew/mistakes-i-made-building-netflix-for-the-iphone http://www.slideshare.net/kentbrew/mistakes-i-made-building-...
tsuraan 15y ago
If it makes you feel better, their native app for Android is pretty broken too. The most obvious problem is that it can't rotate; the app only runs in vertical mode. The first page it brings you to is the login page; you flip your phone open to get at the keyboard, and the app doesn't rotate. I've never seen that before, anywhere. The rest of the app is the same way; all vertical. Different screens seem to have trouble refreshing, also. The search screen, for example, sometimes won't show search results when you search. Instead, it sends you back to the home screen after searching. You can flip back to the search screen, and your results are there, so it's working, but just in an amusingly buggy manner. Aside from the obvious UI bugs, the actual core functionality (streaming Netflix) seems pretty solid. I haven't played with it much, and since my phone (G2) doesn't have HDMI out I'm not sure how much I will use it, but it seems to fulfill its core purpose pretty well. It's an amusing toy to have, anyhow.
- bostonvaulter2 15y ago
  The video for me runs in landscape.
- apress 15y ago
  Rotates perfectly on my nexus s with 2.3.4

They write a native app for Android, but iPhone/iPad gets the crappy web app that tries to pretend it's native stuffed in a UIWebView. I swear that thing has the worst UX experience ever.

xinsight 15y ago

Yes it's painful. I find it's best to use safari to browse netflix and then when a video plays it launches the app. Funny how netflix constantly sends surveys about picture quality (which is always fine) and their website ui is so clunky and broken.

kyp 15y ago
Those surveys are probably part of the reason why their picture quality is always fine.

elq 15y ago

only the ipad app is like that now. The iphone version has been "native" for quite a while now.

zbowling 15y ago
it's not "native". look at the UIToolbar (or the fact that it's not a UIToolBar but an html div with transparent pngs). Look at the UITableView/UIScrollView (or the fact that it's not as but that it's a div with content scrollable and it's on magic javascript fake the same "feel" of a native app)... It's a webapp. It just pretends to be native by being wrapped in a UIWebView and uses AVFoundation to play videos and stuffed gingerly on to the app store. See this: http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/03/sxsw-mistakes-made-building-netflix-for-iphone-and-source-code.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/03/sxsw-mistakes-mad... and this: http://www.slideshare.net/kentbrew/mistakes-i-made-building-netflix-for-the-iphone http://www.slideshare.net/kentbrew/mistakes-i-made-building-...

tsuraan 15y ago

If it makes you feel better, their native app for Android is pretty broken too. The most obvious problem is that it can't rotate; the app only runs in vertical mode. The first page it brings you to is the login page; you flip your phone open to get at the keyboard, and the app doesn't rotate. I've never seen that before, anywhere. The rest of the app is the same way; all vertical. Different screens seem to have trouble refreshing, also. The search screen, for example, sometimes won't show search results when you search. Instead, it sends you back to the home screen after searching. You can flip back to the search screen, and your results are there, so it's working, but just in an amusingly buggy manner. Aside from the obvious UI bugs, the actual core functionality (streaming Netflix) seems pretty solid. I haven't played with it much, and since my phone (G2) doesn't have HDMI out I'm not sure how much I will use it, but it seems to fulfill its core purpose pretty well. It's an amusing toy to have, anyhow.

bostonvaulter2 15y ago
The video for me runs in landscape.
apress 15y ago
Rotates perfectly on my nexus s with 2.3.4