Netflix adds more streaming videos

From "Spider-Man 3" to "No Country for Old Men," Netflix Inc. is making another 2,500 movies, TV shows and concerts available for instant viewing through a deal with Starz Entertainment LLC.

The world's largest online movie rental service and Starz, a Liberty Media Corp. subsidiary, announced that Starz titles were being added to the "Watch Instantly" feature of Netflix's Web site.

The new content will beef up the more than 12,000 movies and TV shows that Netflix already makes instantly watchable over the Internet through its streaming service.

Better driving, games link tested

Could playing computer games enhance mental agility enough to turn people over 50 into better drivers? Allstate Corp. wants to find out, and if the answer is yes, it might offer insurance discounts to people who play games.

Under a pilot program called InSight, Allstate will offer specialized computer games to 100,000 customers in Pennsylvania aged 50 to 75. The games' developer, San Francisco-based Posit Science, will track the total number of hours the drivers play.

Then the group's accident rates will be compared to a control group of people who do not play the games.

The games are designed to reverse age-related cognitive decline and improve visual alertness.

Tom Warden, an assistant vice president at Allstate, said Posit's technology was chosen because it is based on nine years of research into how older drivers' brain fitness might be improved. While people in their 50s and 60s have the lowest accident rates, in the mid-60s, this rate starts to climb again, he said.

iPhone secrecy pledge at an end

Apple Inc. will no longer force iPhone software developers to sign a nondisclosure agreement that many said hampered their ability to work.

The switch comes a week after introduction of the first phone loaded with Google Inc.'s Android software, an open-source operating system that lets developers make and sell programs without restriction.

In contrast, Apple had required every person who downloaded the iPhone software developer kit to pledge not to speak about its contents.

Recently, the Cupertino-based company also barred programmers whose applications it rejected from iTunes — the only legitimate place to sell iPhone "apps" — from posting the reasons for rejection on the Web. The move fueled a new wave of critiques about Apple's approval process.

— From wire reports