So I went to rent my second movie on Apple TV. This time sticking with a standard definition movie. But as I went to purchase it, I got an error message stating that I needed a valid address to purchase a movie with store credit. Weird, since I purchased a movie a few days ago without issue. Of course there is no way to enter an address at all in the Apple TV interface, so I assumed I needed to log on to my iTunes account on my computer. But there, the address was correct as it has always been.
A little research in the Apple forums showed that a lot of people were having this issue. The solution was to re-select your state from the drop-down list in the iTunes store account information page. When you do so, your two-letter abbreviation for a state (“CO”) is replaced with the longer “CO – Colorado”. But then the funny thing is if you save and return to the account screen, it shows “CO” again. The result was that I was immediately able to complete the movie rental.
This is a really stupid software bug that should have been fixed in minutes of the first occurrence, or have never happened in the first place.
This highlighted an interesting issue. Apple TV is different than its competitors. If I was renting a movie from a cable company like Comcast, or a satellite provider like DirecTV or Dish Network, I would have a customer support number I could call. I’m sure even NetFlixs has phone support. But when this issue happened, I was forced to go to the online support forums. What if the solution wasn’t there? Or, what if I was a more typical user who wouldn’t think to search online? This might be an indicator that Apple has a lot to learn before it is ready to compete in this space.
I’ve been coming across this term “predam iPhone” recently. If you do a Google search for Predam iPhone you quickly get this idea that it is an unlocked iPhone. Sometimes it is spelled “prodam iPhone.” It is a strange word, at any rate.
Apparently you can buy them on eBay, or from all sorts of weird sources. They even come in huge quantities, like I’ve seen pictures of a whole palette filled with these things. I found one source that says that predam means “break” or “unlocked” and I’m guessing that these are found in a lot of black markets in countries that don’t have the iPhone yet.
This did get me thinking as to why Apple still only sells iPhones in Apple and AT&T stores. Why not on Amazon.com, Best Buy and those multi-brand mobile phone stores? After all, Apple needs to reach that 10 million goal by the end of the year. More stores can only help.
I was recently in an Apple store and I overheard people who were not Mac fanboys like me talking about “Have you seen the iPhone? It is so cool! I think I need to get one. Me too!” etc. I think that salesfolk at mobile phone stores and electronics stores would love to push a $400-$500 device that practically sells itself.
Now, the reasoning I thought that Apple was going with to not sell in other stores was the unlocking problem. They wanted to keep close tabs on each iPhone that goes out the door. But obviously that is not working if there are so many unlocked iPhones floating around, and pages of “predam iPhones” are clogging the net.
There is a rumor based on a leaked AT&T document that we may soon have the ability to tether our iPhones to our laptops. The rumor looks pretty weak, so I won’t go into it here. But tethering is something that Apple and AT&T should consider.
A lot of my business friends have either a mobile phone or some sort of card that they can use to connect their laptops to the net from virtually anywhere. In addition to providing connectivity in places that don’t have wi-fi, it also provides security in a world where account IDs and passwords are sniffed from public wi-fi hotspots.
The type of people that would have both an iPhone and a MacBook (me!) are exactly the type of people that would want them to tether. The added value would be huge.
Now you might say: what good is a Edge-network-speed connection to a MacBook. The answer is: infinitely better than no connection. Even at slow speeds, it would allow you to get your email and check on critical information.
The iPhone should be the premier phone of choice for “the connected,” but it never will be until it has this key feature.
So you may have heard that there is a rumor going around that the Adobe Flash Player is coming for the iPhone very soon. But I’m inclined to doubt it.
I updated my Apple TV the moment I got home tonight. The update was fast and went without a hitch. Take 2 includes a new menu interface that seems simpler, but otherwise has the same functionality. But of course there are the new parts: renting movies, Flcker and .mac photos, getting podcasts directly from the net, and the ability to buy music from iTunes directly, without a computer.
With Leopard 10.5.2, the Stacks feature of the dock now has a more sensible, “List” view. Rather than the fancy “Fan” view that is nothing more than a list with icons on a curve, or the “Grid” view, which is just a grid of icons, the “List” view is a nice space-optimize list. But even better, it includes multiple levels.
Starting now, you can use Software Update to get version 10.5.2 of Leopard. There are some bug fixes for iCal, Mail and iChat. In addition, we’ve also got some improvements.
One is a new list view you can use with Stacks. This looks like the way folders in the dock used to work. You can also make menus non-semi-transparent. Time machine is also now present in the menu at the top of the screen. iPhoto will now handle the RAW format of more cameras.
You can find a complete list of changes at Apple’s site.
We’ve just added two new games to our iPhone Games collection. The first is a Pyramid Solitaire game. This is a pretty easy and fun card game. The second is a version of a game at the free online games that is also affiliated with MacMost. It is Add It Up, a number puzzle game. That makes a total of 18 games. We’ve got plans for two more by next week. Of course these also work on the iPod Touch.
