Photos: Gadgets we're thankful for, part 2

Netflix on a Mac
I love Netflix. I love my Mac. Bringing those two together for the Watch Instantly feature is the best thing for movie watching since, well, Netflix's original DVD delivery service.

I've been a Netflix customer since 2003, and two weeks ago I signed up for the Watch Instantly service. Downloading Silverlight, the program the service uses to stream video directly to your desktop, was a snap. Plus, I pay for Netflix's one-disc-at-a-time unlimited plan, so for $9.95 I can consume far more content--no more waiting two days for DVDs to arrive--and feel like I'm really getting my money's worth from Netflix.

It's got its limitations, of course. The streaming video is not the most fabulous quality, but it gets the job done. And the selection of new Watch Instantly movies can be disappointing. Red Dawn and Cyborg Soldier, which are suggested on my Netflix home page, aren't really my cup of chai tea.

The real value for me, however, is the selection of TV series available to watch right away. There's no expectation of cinema-quality video as with some movies, and no changing discs after four episodes, or being redirected to a menu every time a 22-minute show has concluded. As soon as one segment ends, you can easily click forward to the next on the same screen.

But the real reason I'm currently obsessed with Watch Instantly: though I'm three years late to the party, in just one week I caught up on two seasons of 30 Rock, which totally blew my mind grapes.

--Erica Ogg