Group Video Chat

I had to research Group Video Chat for a teenager. Free and easy were the requirements. I figured all the big social sites had it by now. Turns out that is not true yet, though soon I’m sure. Here’s the current state:

Facebook – Facebook has group chat and video chat (through Skype), but the two don’t meet. However there’s a third-party app for Facebook called “Social Hangouts” that provides group video chat for 20 people, it’s free, and is supposedly pretty standard for a Facebook app.

Skype – Skype has free group and and free video chat, however the group video chat is a premium feature, and at least one person in the chat has to have a paying or business account.

Google+ – Google does provide group video chat, for free, in a feature called “hangouts”. It’s supposed to be really easy to use as well.

There are lots of other chat and video products/sites/companies, but this really has to be quick and easy, and the teenager already has some experience with the ones mentioned above.

Tablets at my local Staples

I happened to be in my local Staples the other night, and noted down the plethora of tablets they had on display:

Samsung Galaxy 10.1
Mororola Xoom
Acer 10"
Dell Streak 7"
Blackberry Playbook

There were a couple of readers sneaking in as well:
Kindle
Nook

Seems like just yesterday this category didn't even exist.

Free credit report

Everybody knows the catchy commercial jingles. You can hear the songs at http://www.garagespin.com/2008/08/17/free-credit-report-song-commercials-music-mp3-and-lyrics/ or on YouTube.

That site actually is one of those free trial offers where you get signed up for something ongoing.

But what I didn't know is that thanks to a federal law, the big 3 credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion actually do have to provide you with a copy of your credit report, free, annually, and there's an easy-to/use website for that.

http://www.annualcreditreport.com/

And if you don't think this is legit (I was skeptical myself), check out the Wikipedia article:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annualcreditreport.com

iTunes Automatic Downloads

There’s a new feature in iTunes to go along with some of the cloud functionality now rolling out. One part of that is basically syncing all of the pcs and devices when you buy something new. Automatic Downloads is how that is handled in iTunes (the computer-side).

But a side-effect nobody has mentioned that I can find, is that to turn all that on, you basically are turning off the prompt to login with your Apple account when you update or buy new apps. This is important to me so my kids can’t do something bad to my credit card if I accidentally leave my PC logged in. Up to now it prompts for those credentials for everything. But once I enabled Automatic Downloads that went away, and nothing I could find would turn it back on again. Suffice it to say Automatic Downloads are now disabled. I just wish I had back the time it took me to figure this out!

iTunes – Download all free updates

This is in reference to updating the iOS apps in iTunes, irrespective of whether there is an iOS device attached at the time or not.

To update the apps go to the “Apps” item under the Library section on the left of iTunes in the navigation area. Then choose “Check for Updates” from the bottom area of iTunes. If there are updates available there will be a popup, which when clicked, results in iTunes main area showing a page from the iTunes store listing the apps that have updates. In the top right will be a button labeled, “Download all free updates”, which avoids the work of downloading each update individually.

For the last couple of days, roughly 3 or 4, when I click this button nothing happens. But I can still download the updates individually. The only information I’ve found is on an Apple forum, however there is no fix indicated yet. It does confirm that this is happening to other people.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3192114?tstart=0

Installed Lion, iLife apps missing

This gets me every time. The iLife apps are not part of the OS, even though they came with your Apple computer. You can usually install the original versions from the disk that came with your computer. But the most up-to-date ones will cost you, either upgrade or full price, depending on how you get them.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1191462

Annoying iTunes Feature of the Week

Got the new version of iTunes, to go along with Lion et.al. I go to look at an app that I hear the price has gone down on, and the button with the price just says “Downloaded” now. Yes, I know I already own it. However there are a bunch of reasons why it would be nice to see the current price anyhow – perhaps to give it as a gift, or give advice to friends on whether to get it, etc. This is just plain annoying.

Online Statement Rant

Just a little note to all of the companies who are wondering why since I am such a forward-thinking, internet-savvy, cutting-edge type of guy how come I’ve never taken advantage of all their generous offers to swap my paper statements for electronic ones, “You need to understand the slight difference between ‘better for you’ and ‘better for me, your paying customer’. The very same day it’s actually easier, or more secure, or more reliable, or more functional, or cheaper FOR ME, I’ll switch!”.

Hey I’ve got an idea, how about direct URLs to my statement, instead of taking me to your homepage, asking me to sign in, and then giving me a vague and wrong set of instructions on what to click on to find my statement, from which I can try to deduce which one I am actually there to get.

Or how about this? Just email me my statement as a PDF. Secure it with some encryption and a password as appropriate.

Why do I even have to say all this?

I *WAS* a 3 dvd account on Netflix

They were getting me for roughly $20/mo with the tax. That seems like a lot, but when we moved outside the town lines we found we had a hard time getting the dvds back to the rental place, and many months it cost us more than that for late charges, so the roughly $16 Netflix was charging at the time actually saved us money.

The costs rose a couple of time, including at the beginning of 2011 for 3 or 4 dollars. Now they want to raise it another 6 or 8. I cancelled the dvd portion of our contract the same day! I can't encourage that kind of mis-management.

I figured it out. I would be paying about $17 for the 3 dvds (meaning I can have 3 dvds out at any one time). Now interestingly that's about what I was paying when I signed up, why should that cause me heartburn? Because I would also have to pay an additional amount for the streaming service, $8 I think it was. I'll hang on to the streaming service for now, as it's cheap and we are still finding things to watch on there. But with the money I am saving on the dvds, I can rent 4 or 5 movies a month from Amazon or iTunes (at $3-4 per movie), and avoid dvds altogether. As there were many nights the Netflix dvds just sat, this will probably work out in my favor. I'll also check out Hulu again, as I have been ignoring them since they put out their premium subscription with ads deal.

Here's the bottom line. There are thousands (tens of thousands?) of great TV episodes and movies out there. Costs completely amortized by first run and syndication. They are making no money while they are being sat on and hid away. It's a gold mine. Netflix has demonstrated that digital streaming is scalable and cost-efficient.  People have shown their willingness to pay. Why, oh why do these media companies continue to lock the stuff away! The last 3 episodes? I'm not going to pay for that. Now give me the first 6 seasons, that's something I'll pay for.

Netflix, this was a stumble. You lost my dvd charges, and I’m going to carefully consider if the streaming is really worth it. I could trade that cost for 2 more of newer movies as well.

Google + Circles, Part 3

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/
http://www.google.com/+/demo/

I just heard, on Paul Thurrott’s latest podcast http://twit.tv/ww215, where they were actually demo-ing Google +, that you can add people to more than one circle, so there’s that myth busted! Makes me hope for a quick invitation all the more.