Tag Archives: iTunes

TiVo Update Killed Amazon VoD

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I’ve been using TiVo for about 5 years now, and I absolutely love it. It’s a fantastic service that has forever change the way I watch TV. It’s kind of like broadband internet, I cannot imagine going back to the way things were before.

One of the cool things I’ve enjoyed about my TiVo for the last year or so is the ability to rent movies from Amazon Video on Demand (formerly Amazon Unbox) and have the movies downloaded directly to my TiVo. Not only is it a easy to use service, but the cost of most rentals is around $3.99 a whole buck cheaper than what Comcast charges for their extremely slow OnDemand service. And just to throw it in there, renting movies from Apple via iTunes is about the same cost as TiVo-Amazon. ;)

That Amazon-TiVo service worked great until a few days ago when TiVo issues the Fall 2008 Update. The new update changes some of the menus, adds the ability to order pizza from Domino’s, download video on demand from other providers, and unintentionally bricks the Amazon VoD service.

It took me three days of contacting Amazon (email and phone) before I finally got someone on Sunday that actually identified the problem as the TiVo update. Right now when you rent a video, it’ll start to download, and then just vanish. If you check for an error, you get the extremely vague “an error occurred while downloading the video.”

Yesterday morning when I spoke to a rep, they were estimating it’d be ~20 hours before the service was restored. This afternoon when I spoke to someone, there was “no new information.” So Right now, all I can do is wait.

iTunes 8.0.2 & iPhone/iPod Touch 2.2 Updates

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Apple has released iTunes 8.0.2 which in addition to some fixes and enhancements brings along the iPhone and iPod Touch 2.2 update.

With the iPhone / iPod Touch (IPIPT?) 2.2 update comes with a number of enhancements to the Google Maps, including street view, walking locations, and the ability to share locations via email. Safari also gets the goofy update that changes the “search” icon next to the address bar to look more like a search box. Who cares?? Though the update does claim to improve stability and performance in Safari, now that’s what I want to hear!

For a complete list of what’s available in the 2.2 update, check out the Apple Support website.

I Love Delicious Library

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There are a lot of things that I love about my Mac. It’s a whole new world, full of new software and applications. One of the apps that I absolutely love is Delicious Library. I don’t recall how I came to find out about this, but I’m glad that I did.

Delicious Library does two things, it keeps an inventory of everything you have and helps manage items that have been loaned out to someone. Before this I attempted to keep a list of DVD’s I owned in a spreadsheet. That didn’t exactly work to well. And last December when my home was broken into and most of my video games were stolen, I didn’t have a comprehensive list of what video games I had. That made it incredibly hard to provide a list to insurance or the police.

Another nice thing about DL is that it can even publish your library to an FTP site so you can show it off to your friends, or just have a backup copy in case something happens to your Mac. Check mine out, you know you want to. – I still need to add a number of books that Celtica and I own.

When you buy DL, you have the option to fork over $215 for (what I’m sure is a nice) bar code scanner or you can take a cheaper route and buy one off EBay. I got a USB Scanner for $30 or so, and another $20 for the USB cable. It works great. If you have an iMac or MacBook with a built in iSight, then no worries you can simply use that. Trust me, you’ll want a bar code reader if you have any kind of non-iTunes library. Yes, it’ll even track stuff you have in iTunes.

If you clicked the link earlier and saw my (well, mine and the wife’s) library then you see I’ve got movies (which is really DVD’s), video games, and books. That’s just what I selected to publish, you can also track just about anything else as well. Tools, toys, clothing, guns, gadgets, software, and more.

While the desktop portion of the app works fantastic, the export/publish leaves much to be desired. It’s very basic, and gives you two “themes” to select from when you publish. The published version has no search option, which sucks if you have a large library. It also has some problems from browser to browser, which hopefully will be fixed down the road. Sadly, there is also no method to customize the files, unless you chose to do it externally, which I’ve done a little bit to my published library.

For the desktop app, I’d have to give it a strong 10/10. For the publishing part, it wouldn’t score above a 5. I’d love to see some major work done the external part, maybe even a WordPress plugin. And I’ve already begun listing my ideas and feedback on GetSatisfaction.com.

Movies & Digital Copies

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This certainly nothing new, but it was “new” to me. Today when I purchased Star Wars: The Clone Wars it had a nice little sticker on it that said it included a digital copy. I don’t know if any of the other movies in my library included this, and if they did and I didn’t get the digital copy, well I’m an idiot.

For those of you that don’t know the digital copies can be downloaded to your PC or Mac, and even transferred to your iPod. And it’s free with the DVD purchase. Not bad, you get two for the price of one.

How painful was the process? That’s the thing, it wasn’t. I simply put the “digital copy / bonus disk” into my Mac, opened up iTunes, and input the redemption code that came with the DVD. iTunes downloaded the movie, and now I have a digital copy… just like that. There is a similar process for PC+iTunes or PC+WMP.

Yes, I’m still one that buys physical media. Usually I’ll go for the Limited Edition or Special Edition copies first. After this, I’ll be looking to buy more movies with digital copies.

What if Apple Created a Gaming Console?

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Everyone refers to the Xbox 360, PS3, and to a lesser extent the Nintendo Wii as a “next gen” gaming console. Does that mean the next round of consoles (Xbox 3602, PS4, Wii2) will be third gen, or will they just be the new “next gen”? I know, who cares, right?

A while back Apple announced to investors that there would be a “product transition”. No one is really sure what this is, or when it would be. Some think it was the new iPod Nano, the change to the iPod Touch, or even the new MacBooks. Others think it may be some kind of NetBook or Apple Tablet. Still others think it could be a new networked type TV. And some people think we have yet to se it.

Well, what if Apple were to venture into the realm of console gaming systems… better yet, what if they already had, and you didn’t know it. Perhaps you already have an Apple console in your living room, office, or bedroom. It may not be as big of a stretch as you think. Continue reading →