Hulu may be constantly on the brink of a buyout, but that doesn't mean the current owners are just sitting about waiting for some high roller to come along. In fact, over the last couple of months the streaming service has undergone a pretty impressive transformation. There have been a few new features added and some licensing deals struck. But, most noticeably, Hulu Plus has received a spiffy new look across almost all platforms. Today it's the iPad's turn to cash in and the new experience has a heavy focus on discovering content. Tapping on a show brings up the "discover" panel, which provides you with a quick shortcut to play the first, next or latest episode (depending on where yo left off) along with details about the program. If you want to keep looking, but don't want to drop back out to the card-like UI of the home screen, swiping left or right will take you to the next collection or season. If you're in the middle of watching an episode of SNL then remember you forgot to add the latest episode of Misfits to your queue, you can pinch the video to minimize it quickly add it then pop back to a full screen of Weekend Update without skipping a beat. Of course, multitasking is in-app only -- so you wont be able to shrink the episode down to the corner while you search for stills from Good Burger. There are also a bunch of more minor tweaks, such as inline clip playback and curated collections. After the break you'll find the complete changelog as well as a video walk through of the updated app.
• Minimize a video during playback by tapping the minimize icon or "pinching" the video. The video will continue playing at the bottom of the screen while you use the app to browse, search, or do anything else you can think of.
• Tap on an image of any episode, show, or season to take a peek at what's inside using the new discovery panel. Have fun casually exploring old episodes within a season or learning more about a new show with as little effort as possible. (Want to get straight to watching content? Just double-tap any image).
• Check out collections of editorially curated shows, clips, and movies. We recommend starting with the "Trending Now" collection of the day's hottest clips – it's a great way to see what everybody's talking about right now.
• Watch clips and short-form content inline, just one tap away.
We've made sure to keep all of your favorite features intact, including the popular Kids Lock (iPad-only) which limits the app to ad-free, safe and enjoyable content from our selection of Kids programming.
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Finding things to do and places to go has never been easier thanks to services that neatly pull all the options together. Weotta hopes to be another weapon in your discovery app arsenal after expanding its coverage to the whole of the US, having initially been limited to 40 cities. As the company's CEO told Forbes, the free iOS app uses "phrase extraction and natural language processing" to source its local suggestions from the nooks and crannies of the internet. That same wizardry is used to steer its rating system, which is based on what's said about a venue or event rather than aggregating numerical scores. It'll learn your likes and dislikes, tailoring recommendations as it gets to know you better, but you can discover what's happening in the area for yourself using the search feature. Via Facebook Connect, the app will also tell you what's popular among your peers. While Weotta is only available for iOS, it's attracted funding from Google Ventures, which is a recommendation in itself that suggests you give it a whirl. when.eng("eng.perm.init")