Netflix has announced the release of a new version of their iPad app today [iTunes link]. The latest version of the company’s free app is meant to be a significant improvement over the previous version, making it easier for users to find and watch content. The interface has been redesigned to fit a much larger number of titles on the screen, and to enable users to browse the Netflix catalog much more quickly and easily.
The app is universal, which means that the same app will run on the iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch. The interface redesign seems to be limited to the iPad, however, which makes sense in light of the fact that in the previous version the iPad interface was just a larger version of the iPhone interface. The design worked – and still works – well on the smaller device, but left a great deal of wasted screen real estate on the iPad.
In the same blog post, Netflix also announced that their subscribers in Latin America would be able to stream Netflix’s content on their iOS devices as well. They also announced that the Netflix “Just for Kids” service would be coming to the Apple TV. Launched in August, the service is designed to make it easier for children to find the content in Netflix’s catalog geared specifically to them, while avoiding the content that is less suitable. No mention was made of when or if the service would be availabe on iOS devices.
The new Netflix app is, as always, free, however it does require that users be running the newest version of the iOS software, iOS 5.
