Netflix Android app leaks, not yet streaming video

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Movies, Rumors, Software

An alleged Android app for Netflix leaked on the Internet on Thursday, but doesn't appear to stream videos yet.

Android Police discovered and tested the app on an EVO phone, but couldn't get anything to stream.

"Everything looked good up until the point where I actually wanted to watch a movie – and then...nothing," blogged Will Shanklin.

Last November, Netflix blamed Android's fragmentation issues for not being able to offer a Netflix app on all Android phones. Netflix does, however, have streaming apps for the iPhone and iPod touch as well as an updated iPad app. Boxee finally added a Netflix app last month after multiple delays due to security issues.

"The hurdle has been the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android," Greg Peters with Netflix product development, wrote in a November blog post. "The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices."

Meanwhile, Google recently expanded its Fragments API to applications running older versions of Android, meaning apps that are compatible with Android 1.6 or higher can tap into Fragments to create apps that work on larger-screened devices like tablets.

This article, written by Sara Yin, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.