Criterion Collection now streaming on Hulu Plus, maybe Sanjuro and Hanbei will settle differences (update: Netflix and Hulu won't)

Hulu Plus just got a whole lot more appealing for cinephiles. The streaming service just rolled out 150 properties from the Criterion Collection, perhaps the premiere pusher of amazing films, with that number expected to top 800 in "the coming months." It'll include the regulars, like plenty of offerings by Kurosawa, along with some films "so rare that they have never been seen in the U.S. in any medium." Indeed this deal is available only in America, so we'll send our apologies to our friendly neighbors to the north, but you're certainly welcome to come on down on movie night. Just bring some popcorn. Naturally the quality here won't match a Blu-ray and we're guessing the usually epic Criterion special features won't be streaming, but you can't have everything for $7.99 a month.

Update: We got a note from Hulu indicating that, yes indeed, special features will be here too. Director commentary, deleted scenes, and lots of other bonus goodies will be coming to the mix. Maybe there'll be something in there explaining the deep, hidden meanings of Sans Soleil. Oh, and it's an exclusive deal, which is a bummer for Netflixers.

Update 2: Netflix is losing out in more ways than one: "All of the films that are currently on Netflix streaming will be down by the end of the year," reads a somewhat bitter Criterion Collection post on Facebook. Criterion will continue to ship Netflix discs, but we all know that Netflix doesn't care about those so much anymore.

Samsung Galaxy S II official: dual-core 1GHz CPU, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus, coming this month (hands-on with video)

One of the worst-kept secrets of MWC this year -- the Galaxy S II -- is finally official, and we'd say it definitely lives up to its name as a proper successor to the original Galaxy S that lit the Android marketplace on fire last year. Major (and largely expected) features include a 4.27-inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus display, an 8 megapixel primary camera with 1080p video capture accompanied by a 2 megapixel cam up front, Gingerbread with TouchWiz 4.0, integrated NFC support (on some versions), and a shell measuring just 8.49mm thick, making it likely the thinnest smartphone ever to roll off an assembly line -- in fact, it's over 0.2mm slimmer than the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc's thinnest point. The biggest news here, though, might be that Sammy's going with an NVIDIA Tegra 2 core -- the same as the LG Optimus 2X, Motorola Atrix 4G, and Droid Bionic -- despite the fact that its own Exynos 4210 was just announced for March production.

Update: We were originally told that the Galaxy S II would be using an NVIDIA Tegra 2 SOC, but have been informed that was incorrect -- the phone will indeed have a Samsung chip, and quite possibly the Exynos.

We were able to spend a little bit of time with the Galaxy S II today, and we can conclusively say that this is one gorgeous device. It shares the Infuse 4G's aspirations as an ultra-thin Android device and arguably shares most of its industrial design elements, but interestingly, the Infuse steps down from 4.5 to 4.3 inches -- either a nod to the fact that 4.5 is too big for a mainstream smartphone, or a sign that the 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus component simply isn't ready yet. You totally notice how ridiculously thin the phone is as it rests in your hand, and the effect is amplified by the fact that it's got so much surface area -- the screen-to-edge ratio is off the charts. Though we still prefer the stock Android experience, TouchWiz 4.0 (as it's being called) on top of Gingerbread is clearly Samsung's most refined custom Android skin to date; a new Game Hub in ROM has potential to do battle with Sony's PlayStation Suite and allows developers to bypass the download size limits of the Android Market, but we weren't able to test it on the preproduction unit we were given.

Owing to a lack of time and connectivity, we weren't able to put the phone through a suite of speed tests, but the entire UI felt perfect fast and smooth, a testament to the processor's chops. As at CES, we were blown away by the clarity and brightness of the Super AMOLED Plus display -- picture the already-excellent Super AMOLED technology amped up on steroids, and you'll have a good sense of what we're talking about here. All told, this seems like a great upgrade to the Galaxy S; if anything, we're a little concerned that it's going to be a smidge too big for people that were perfectly happy at the 4-inch tier, but odds are good Samsung will continue to crank out smaller devices for those folks. It'll be on the market in parts of Europe and Asia as soon as this month; no word on North America, but as always, there's little doubt Samsung has some plans in the works. Follow the break for our quick video and the full press release.
Samsung Galaxy S II first hands-on!