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.

Google + Circles, Part 2

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

So the first post got into why we needed Circles. This second post will hit on why Circles doesn’t go far enough. Remember, the point is to mirror real life, so that the product naturally extends and enhances what we already do.

Yes Circles allows grouping. However what about when the church leader is also your brother-in-law? What about when you hang out with one of your work associates? With Circles, a person can only go in one group. That is a completely artificial, limiting distinction, that I believe will limit Google+ usefulness, perhaps even dooming it to a fate worse than Buzz.

It’s a mystery to me how all these companies can keep getting this wrong. Sure there’s a sneaky reason why they don’t want us to have good grouping. But it’s shortsighted to make something we don’t want and can’t use. The first company to get this right wins.

Google + Circles

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

Well Google beat me to the punch here. I had been meaning to put up a rant about social networks, and how the lack of fine-grained “grouping” was keeping them from getting to the next level.

What I mean by that is Twitter and Facebook (and all the other lesser players in social media) only allow for the concept of a friend. Everybody in the whole world you have any type of relationship with, is a friend. And all of your social interactions go to all of your friends. This is one level below everything you do is public, and belongs on television.

Social networks have to model, mirror even, our real world social interactions, in order to augment them (and provide value we will pay for). That means Facebook needs to grasp the difference between my boss and my wife and my bowling buddy, and allow me to naturally control what I share with each one of them, not just lump them all into a group. This is not just about damage control (the classic drunk at the bar photo). It’s about value. I’ve got a cute story about my kids that my mother and my sister will find amusing, but it’s just clogging up the feeds of the rest of my “friends”.

Well, to get to the point, Google has had the same thought, and built friend-grouping into their newest Facebook-killer/social network, Google+, and is calling it “Circles”.

DosBox

http://www.dosbox.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFWCp9OM5Gs

Back in 1995 I brought home my first laptop from work. It was in some sense my first PC. And the very first piece of software I bought for it was Fuzzys World of Miniature Space Golf (on floppy disk of course, there were no cds back then). This wasn’t even a Windows game, it was a DOS game (though it had amazing graphics for the time).

Roughly 15 years have come and gone since then, and something reminded me of the game. I found it, but it is just too old to run on Windows 7’s version of the dos prompt. Well I went through some effort to set up a DOS VM (Virtual machine) that ultimately didn’t pan out. But then I came across an open source dos emulator, DosBox. Within 10 minutes of finding it, with very little fuss, I had my old game up and running, just as good as I remember it. Very fun, very nostalgic!