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A few more of these, and it won't even be news. Netflix is going hard into the original content business, and judging by the outstanding results with House of Cards, we're guessing that it'll be aiming for similar results with a different demographic here. Derek, described as something of a comedy / drama mishmash, is fronted by the affable Ricky Gervais. The show actually aired as Dramedy over on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, so while it's not exactly a Netflix original, it's getting "original treatment." Per usual, the entire season will be available to stream at once on September 12th (overwhelming, we know), and if you're looking to decide just how much time you should set aside, the trailer is embedded after the break.

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In recent years, social media has altered the way we interact with each other, and according to a Nielsen study released today, it's also changing the way we consume media. While it may sound like a common sense conclusion to anyone who witnessed the storm of tweets surrounding the SyFy phenomenon Sharknado, Nielsen has uncovered a statistical link between what people tweet and what people watch. Basically, the more people tweet about a particular show, the more people will watch it. Likewise, the higher a program's viewership, the more likely people are to discuss it on Twitter in real time. Certain types of programming -- reality TV, comedies and sports -- showed a higher percentage of ratings changes influenced by social media, while things like scripted dramas showed a smaller but still noticeable uptick. The times are a-changin', and studies like this one are bound to inspire broadcasters and advertisers to change with them.

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Outerwall promised two months ago that it would offer Redbox Instant on Roku players, and the company is making good on its word by launching that channel today. The subscription movie service is now available for both the Roku Streaming Stick as well as conventional players ranging from the Roku LT to the Roku 3. There aren't any visible new features in the Roku version of Redbox Instant, but we doubt that many customers will complain -- they're getting cheap movie streaming through a similarly frugal media hub.

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It's Monday, and you know what that means; another Engadget HD Podcast. We hope you will join us live when the Engadget HD podcast starts recording at 8:30PM. If you'll be joining us, be sure to go ahead and get ready by reviewing the list of topics after the break, then you'll be ready to participate in the live chat.

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It's time. After a long wait, AMC's Breaking Bad is back and kicking off its final half-season Sunday night. That's not all however, as a flood of Blu-ray discs come to shelves including Disney classics Robin Hood, Oliver and Company and Sword in the Stone, the infamous bomb Ishtar, Wing Commander, Action Jackson and more. HBO is also kicking off its annual Hard Knocks series, this time focusing on the Cincinnati Bengals. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Breaking Bad
What else is there to say? If you're somehow not watching one of the best shows on TV right now, the first half of season five has just been added to Netflix streaming, so you've got all week to binge-watch and get up to date. There will only be a few more episodes before we say good bye to Walt, Jesse and the rest, so enjoy it. After the episode is over though, the network likely hopes you'll stick around for a new cop show it's debuting, Low Winter Sun -- check out a preview embedded after the break.
(August 11th, AMC, 9PM)

Oblivion
If the plot of director Joseph Kosinski's previous effort Tron: Legacy didn't grab you then Oblivion may be another disappointment, but there's one key feature on this Blu-ray that the other film didn't have: a music-only version of the film. With fantastic special effects and a soundtrack courtesy of M83, you can enjoy Tom Cruise's post-apocalypse adventures without little things like dialogue getting in your way.
($19.99 on Amazon)

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YouView's catch-up programming has remained mostly UK-centric so far, but TalkTalk is adding some diversity with a trio of World TV Boosts. The new Arabic TV, JSTV and kykNET TV packs give viewers a combined 16 channels of Afrikaans, Arabic and Japanese content. While the Boosts aren't cheap at a minimum £10 ($15) per month, they could be vital for ex-pats who want to keep up with news and shows from their home countries.

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Last week, Lovefilm snapped up some additional content of the cultured kind -- Man v. Food withstanding -- for adults to enjoy. The streaming service is kicking off this week by adding yet more films and TV shows for the kids. Subscribers will now find child-friendly material from NBCUniversal in the Lovefilm library, such as the shows Curious George, Barbie: Princess Charm School, Rastamouse and The Land Before Time (parents might remember the films). Given it's the summer holidays, your offspring are probably out enjoying the weather, but having something fresh to put on the tellybox might help keep them quiet come that inevitable rainy day.

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Netflix's user profiles haven't seen a full roll out yet, but they're already causing snags with certain users. Specifically, the new feature isn't compatible with Windows Media Center. Attempting to stream via Redmond's app offers users their list of profiles, but promptly throws an error message once one is selected. Unfortunately, the only fix it is to do without. According to The Green Button forums, Netflix will only resume streaming over Media Center if you kill all profiles except for the main one. If you aren't cool with sharing your account the old way -- and all the awkward movie recommendations that can come with it -- you're stuck. We do have a few suggestions for alternative streaming methods, however.

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We hope you weren't planning to tinker with your Chromecast this weekend. GTVHacker has confirmed that a recent firmware update to Google's streaming media stick plugs the bootloader exploit that many are using to get root access. Some XDA-Developers members have tried maintaining root by flashing recovery images and disabling signing keys, but those aren't reliable solutions -- we've seen a few reports of bricked Chromecasts. If you're cautious, it may be best to wait until more adventurous owners find a vulnerability in Google's newer code.

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Remember the Nexus Q? Yeah, we do too. After coming up short with that streaming effort, Google pulled the wraps off of another attempt to invade living rooms last week. In this week's issue of our tablet mag, we give Chromecast the proper review treatment to see if Mountain View's goal to smarten up dumb TVs hits the ground running. Hands-On scours the show floor at SIGGRAPH, Recommended Reading has more first-hand Google Glass observations and IRL takes another peek inside our rucksacks. Get cozy folks, because your end of the week tech reading is ready for download.

Distro Issue 101 PDF
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Plain old civilians like us can't buy Xbox One just yet, but some lucky folks who work for Microsoft already have beta units in their homes. Xbox VP Marc Whitten shared that tidbit, among others, with Xbox spokeperson Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb on a recent podcast. Not only do some folks internal to Microsoft have beta kits of final retail units, but many game developers have their hands on final versions of development kits.

Given that last bit, Whitten said that Microsoft increased the Xbox One's GPU clock speed from 800MHz to 853MHz, released its "mono driver" to developers -- a DirectX graphics driver "100% optimized for Xbox One" -- and more and more games are inching closer to "final" every day as a result. Essentially, Whitten's signaling the transition for Xbox One from a model seen only at press briefings to a physical thing you can own and use. Though Whitten kept mum about many other details, he repeatedly reiterated that we'd hear more solid detail at Gamescom in a few weeks. We'll of course be on the ground in Cologne, hounding Whitten and co. for more.

Today's Xbox One news comes just over a week after Microsoft revealed a more indie-friendly publishing model for its upcoming game console. It was also recently revealed that each Xbox One console acts as debug hardware, allowing developers to run incomplete code on any box -- a concept with major implications. Xbox One arrives this November and, should you be convinced by Microsoft's next-gen game console, it'll cost you $500.

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