Netflix optimizes iPhone 6 for 1080p

Users of Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are getting an early holiday present from Netflix: The subscription video on demand provider is making much of its content, including original series, available on the smartphones in 1080p resolution.

"When Apple announced the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in September, we were excited about the opportunity to extend the Netflix application to different screen sizes," wrote Chris Fry, manager of iOS platforms, and Tom Richards, manager of UI engineering at Netflix, in a blog post on the corporate site. "We immediately began work on optimizing our user interface for the larger and higher resolution screens, and we're happy to announce these changes are included in today's update to our app. You'll see more titles on screen to choose from, bigger imagery, and improved performance throughout."

Full 1080p resolution, of course, is dependent on the quality of the Wi-Fi connection to the iPhone, along with other content delivery factors that might diminish video quality, bitrate and performance.

On another note, Bright House displaced Cox Communications in Netflix's October speed index, averaging streaming speeds of 3.13 Mbps. Cox averaged 3.03 Mbps. Verizon FiOS remained in the top spot with average speeds of 3.24 Mbps, with Cablevision Optimum in second place at 3.17 Mbps.

U.S streaming speeds, while rising, still lag behind Canada. Its top two providers average above Verizon FiOS: Bell Canada at 3.30 Mbps, and Bell Aliant at 3.28 Mbps. MTS came in third, averaging 3.23 Mbps.

For more:
- see this blog post
- and this post

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