Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) Oct. 19 made some die-hard Android tablet users happy by porting a version of its application for Google’s Honeycomb operating system, the Android 3.x version the company tailored expressly for tablets.
Android tablets such as the Motorola (NYSE:MMI) Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab haven’t sold as well as their rival Apple iPad, which is now in the hands of more than 32 million users.
However, the few million or so Android tablet owners have been pining for more applications than the 100 or so that have been developed for the Honeycomb branch.
Netflix TV shows and movies, which have been available on all Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphones since September, can now be viewed on 7-inch and 10-inch displays.
The app, which also brings Netflix capability to Canada and Latin America, is free and may be downloaded from the Android Market.
Roma De, Netflix director of product management, noted: “I’m excited to bring Netflix to even more Android devices. Netflix members now have even greater flexibility in watching TV episodes and movies wherever and whenever they want.”
Netflix began rolling out on Android smartphones in May but only on a handful of handsets.
De said at the time Android’s rapid adoption and evolution made it challenging to build a streaming video application because there just isn’t a digital rights management (DRM) standard for secure, streaming playback that Netflix can adhere to for rolling out its application to every Android phone.
However, that gap in availability, combined with the large interest of users attempting to get the popular service running on their Android device, created the perfect cover for the Trojan Android.Fakeneflic to exploit, as developers tried to port pirated copies of the app to run on handsets Netflix did not officially support.
The Android.Fakeneflic malware, classified as “very low risk” by Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC), is a “text-book case of an information-stealing Trojan that targets account information,”said Symantec security engineer Irfan Asrar.