Netflix Challenges Tech-Savvy Fans to Build 'Chill Button'
Netflix has challenged tech-savvy customers to build a "chill button," a device that will set the mood for a binge-watching session on the streaming platform.
The company is taking pity on those who need a few hours away from the screen, encouraging them to embark on the DIY project in the basement instead.
The successful "Netflix and chill" button should dim the lights, activate the "do not disturb" mode on a user's phone, order take-out food and queue up Netflix for an evening's worth of entertainment. Step-by-step instructions on how to construct the switch can be found on the California company's website, along with an explanatory an video.
The idea of such a "chill" button is simple, but making the device work will require some basic programming skills, as well as working knowledge of applications, programming interfaces and web servers, Quartz cautioned. The switch needs a battery, LED lights, an infrared transmitter and a power source known as a "Particle Core Arduino-compatible WiFi-enabled development kit," the website noted.
According to Quartz, the whole marketing effort can be seen as a nod to DIY tech culture, as well as an integral part of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' continued efforts to build what GeekWire has dubbed an "iconic company."
The company has gone through several reincarnations since it switched from a mail-order DVD business to a streaming service, the most important being its introduction of original programming with "House of Cards" in 2013. With a global subscription base of almost 70 million in more than 40 countries, Netflix's model is now so powerful that Hastings predicts that linear television networks will soon disappear, BGR reported.
"What's happening now is sports networks will go to on-demand -- you'll be able to watch any game, you'll be able to watch it on any device," he told CNBC in an interview with "Mad Money's" Jim Cramer earlier this month. "All the current linear networks, they're going to go to on-demand also."
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