For nearly ten years, the founders of Crackle have been fighting an uphill battle against the likes of Netflix and HULU for the attention of the streaming video market. I remember when it first came out under the name Grouper, it wasn’t all that impressive.
When Sony invested in the company and rebranded it Crackle, I again took a look at it. It was novel, but the selection of titles was just too limited. I quickly stopped toying with it.
Fast forward to this week when for some reason I downloaded the app again. It has changed in some major ways – all for the better.
I am totally biased but when I saw The Blues Brothers in the lineup, I perked up and gave the app another chance. (Long time friends will know that The Blues Brothers is my all-time favorite movie.) After digging through the inventory of movies and television shows, I have to say it has been majorly upgraded.
The selection is much better than it was when I first investigated and the library changes often. In addition, they are taking a page out of the Netflix playbook by producing their own content. Sports Jeopardy is the only one I looked at so far, but I see promise.
Then I noticed it can stream to Chromecast! How cool is that? I write this on my iPad as Jake and Elwood mix mayhem and music on my big screen TV – streaming from the same iPad.
by Chris Doelle
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