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Netflix Apocalypse

September 19, 2011 by robertforto 2 Comments

Image representing Netflix as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

We saw the warning signs just a couple months ago. Netflix decided to stick it to their most loyal customers and raise prices on their two services: streaming movies and DVDs by mail.

I have been a subscriber to Netflix for more than four years. My family and I love their service. In fact, we currently have two plans (part of the family is living in Colorado and the other in Alaska). We have gladly paid the 10 bucks that is withdrawn from our credit card every month.

We also travel frequently between the two states and use the streaming service to watch movies on our iPhones and iPads away from home and on the airplane.

But as I said, the beginning of the end started a couple months ago when the Netflix brass thought that they needed to raise the price to almost 19 dollars for customers that were receiving both streaming and the DVD option. Customers just like me.

There was a huge backlash on social media and over a million of people went so far as to cancel their accounts. We were not one of them. We continued to fill up our queue with movies and receive two of them per month like clock-work in just two business days, even up in here Alaska.

I awoke this morning to an email from Reed Hastings the CEO of the little red envelopes. It started off as what I thought would be a sincere apology: “ I messed up.” Hastings said. “I owe everyone an explanation.”

Then came the bombshell…

Hastings said that Netflix could not remain successful in the online streaming end AND the DVD end if something wasn’t fixed.

Reed continued to try to apologize to hard working guys like me that have forked over several hundred bucks over the past few years to his service.”In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based on past success. But now I see that given the huge changes we have recently been making, I should have personally give a full justification to our members of why we are separating DVD and streaming and charging for both. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do,” said Reed.

Really? 

We all know what is up, Reed. Its about the bottom line. I know how it works. I am a small business owner too. But you know what I don’t screw my most loyal customers so I can have a better executive compensation plan for the brass.

Sure you gave us a little forewarning of the price increase. Till the beginning of September to be exact. I am not crying over a couple bucks. To the contrary. I still think the movie service is a great deal. Think about it. What costs twenty bucks these days? Two people at dinner at McDonalds will blow a Jackson and you are lucky to buy ONE ticket at the movie-plex.

But not 19 days later you are at it again! Hastings you have gone a little too far. Today you announce that the two services will split in a few weeks. The streaming content will remain Netflix but the DVD by mail service will be called Qwickster and will be become part of a separate brand.

What does Qwickster mean to you? It means that you will have to go to a separate website to order your DVDs and customers will have two entries on their credit card statement. Hastings laments that the service will be “exactly” the same but with a new name.

He also says that there will be a new video game rental option through Qwikster and substantially more streaming content in the coming months.

Great!

We all know that streaming content is the wave of the future. I understand that. But what about people, like me that don’t have a fast enough Internet connection at home or people that are on the already outrageously expensive data plans on their smart phones. I use my iPhone and iPad for almost everything and I am on the 4 GB plan and I use it to capacity every month and that is with very little streaming of video.

Wait there’s more.

If you are a subscriber to Netflix you know that one of the best features is the rating system we all took part in for movies that we have watched in the past. By rating the movies you have watched Netflix would “suggest” movies based on your preferences. Well as part of the Qwickster switch none of this will follow you.

I had well over 500 movie ratings on my account. Hey, Reed, thanks a lot for all that wasted time. It’s not your fault. I know. You are only doing your job. What will my default suggestions be now? Little Mermaid? Dune? The Deep? Boy, I can’t wait!

Reed also said in his personal email to me that the prices will remain the same with the new services. In fact he said, and I quote, “We’re done with that.”

We’ll see. I am putting my money on a price change before the beginning the of the year.

But you know what,I will stick with the service for now. I still like the concept and like I said, it is still one heck of a deal. But I don’t know how long it will last if they continue to alienate it’s most loyal fan base with moves like this.

I think Reed and the powers that be need to wake up and smell the coffee. Losing one million subscribers over your last debacle equalled what? A bulls**t email and a shake up of your business in my inbox this morning.

What’s next? 

Time will tell.

Will you remain a subscriber of Netflix/Qwikster? 

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Filed Under: Daily Post, Tech Tagged With: alaska, DVD, ipad, iphone, McDonalds, netflix, postaday2011, Reed Hastings, robert forto, Streaming media

30 Days About Me. Day 10: Something that Makes Life Easier

August 10, 2011 by robertforto 7 Comments

I am partipating in a blog challenge–

It is 30 Days about Me from a Daily Dose of Toni

So far I am loving it! I connected with a few great bloggers and I have read some interesting posts from them. I have even gotten my wife, Michele to participate. Who would think, even after 10 years you can learn things about a person that they share with the world through their blog.

Today’s topic: Something that makes life easier.

Well, I, like most will probably have to say their iPhone. I don’t know if it makes life easier but it makes it much more connected.

I have been drunk on the Apple juice since as far back as I can remember. I used to have one of those little square suitcase type Mac’s with the black and white screen since the early 1990’s.

Right now I have an iPod, a Touch, 2 iPhones, an iPad, a Mac Mini, and my MacBook Pro.

But this isn’t about them. It’s about the iPhone. I use my iPhone for just about everything. I am a Twit-Facing YouTubing Ustream hosting blogging machine.

I use my iPhone for my business. I accept credit cards from an app called PayAnywhere. I keep my track of my work with my client’s on TimeWerks, I keep my calendar with Google Calendar. I have 11 email accounts, 14 twitter accounts, 6 blogs, Linkedin, Skype for video calls and chat, Google voice, an 800 number platform and a GoGo inflight WiFi service, just to name a few.

Paypal for invoicing to clients and impulse purchases on e-Bay and Amazon. My bank, Chase, even lets you take a picture of a check and it will deposit into my account. That is a great feature since the nearest branch is probably 1100 miles away.

For those that want to stalk me I have 5200 check in’s on Foursquare and can say that I have been to every one. I am a newbie to Gowalla but it is still fun.

I use the top of my 4 gigabyte data plan every month and occasionally use my iPhone as a hotspot for my Macbook when I am on the road. I have hosted my radio program, Dog Works Radio from a busy restaurant with my iPhone on more than one occasion.

I use my iPhone for my Sirius Satellite Radio broadcasts–since it is not available up here in Alaska. Occasionally I will listen to Pandora, iHeart Radio or audio books.

I use MapMyRide everyday for tracking my dog sledding training runs. Last year alone I ran over 1800 miles on the back of my dog sled with my iPhone on and one time it saved my butt when I took a wrong turn on a trail that I have never been on. Getting lost in the middle of Alaska when the temperature is -25 degree is not something you want to do.

On the trails the music is rockin’ with a playlist that includes Metallica, Rob Zombie/White Zombie, Eminem, Godsmack, Herbie Hancock, and Bob Marley. But just so you know an iPhone will not work at -32 degrees. It shuts itself off and will not turn back on until it is warmed up. And the same goes for a 120 degree sauna.

So, Steve, there are limits to your technological wonder…

With that, I guess you can safely say that my iPhone is the one thing that makes my life a little easier and hey guess what?

If I lose my iPhone there is an app for that too.

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

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Filed Under: 30 Days About Me, Daily Post, Tech Tagged With: 30 days about me, apple, daily dose of toni, ipad, iphone, IPod, postaday2011, robert forto, Tech

Apple to the Great White North

August 9, 2011 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

So folks, its official! At 10 am on Saturday the Apple Store is opening at the 5th Avenue Mall in Anchorage.

This is great news for us up here in the Last Frontier. We have not had a place to go for official support for our iPads, MacBooks, iPods and iPhones.

If we wanted service on these products we would have to send off our beloved gadgets to the Lower 48 or take a road trip to Seattle to visit a Genius Bar.

I know first hand about this. Last September I purchased a brand new iPhone 4 from the AT&T store in Wasilla and not 24 hours after I bought it something weird was happening on the screen. It was sort of like a blur in the left hand bottom corner.

The next day I took it back to the AT&T store and they said that could not do anything about it and told me to either; 1. visit the MacHaus or 2. Conatct Apple.

I headed over to the MacHaus. MacHaus is (or was) Alaska’s version of the Apple Store. It was a third party Apple retailer, sort of like those cell phone kiosks you see in the mall. The guy said he couldn’t help me and in fact said that they don’t do any warranty work on Apple products at all.

So I called 1-800-MY-APPLE and the customer service agent was happy to help me IF I just put my new iPhone in a box and send it to them.

No way! I couldn’t be without my iPhone.

Luckily I found out that the problem with my screen was happening to a lot of other iPhones and it was some sort of production glitch in the new verison. The forums said it would go away with use and sure enough it did after just a week or so.

With that being said, as of Saturday, us folks that are drunk on Apple juice have no fear, Steve and the boys will have no problems getting even more of our paychecks.

I just wonder if the grand opening is in concert with the release of the new iPhone 5 and the sending out of our PFD checks in a month or so?

I think it just might be time to take another sip of the juice, don’t you?

 

Related articles
  • Man begins camping for iPhone 5 with no release date in sight, no money (digitaltrends.com)
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Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post, Tech Tagged With: 5th Avenue Mall, apple, Apple store Alaska, applestore, AT&T, ipad, iphone, IPod, MacBook, postaday2011, robert forto

The iCloud

June 6, 2011 by robertforto 2 Comments


Our family includes four Appleholics. We are so drunk on the Apple juice that we could start our own 12-step program.

All of us have at least one iPod and we have too many iPads, iPhones, Macs and Mini’s that we could have our own orchard I think.

Just today, something exciting happened to all of us Apple geeks. Steve Jobs came out of medical leave (again!) not to release a new iPhone 5 but to talk about the iCloud. On the heels of Amazon and Google we knew this was coming. It was just a matter of time. What was it just a few weeks?

What is iCloud?

iCloud allows you to seamlessly integrate all of your devices over the web. It lets you synchronize your content through the air. This is the next step in the computing world. I have told my kids for years that the days of a clunky desk top computer with a 500GB hard drive and a keychain full of flash cards are numbered.

The iCloud is purely awesome! This will change how we use our computers and devices forever. We will no longer be dependent on one device. I have four iPods/iPhones. One in my truck, one I use when I am dog sledding, an iPhone with very little music that I use every day, and an iPhone that sits in a drawer as a back up. Every time I want to sync my library from one device to another it is a hassle. I am constantly shuffling from one device to another. The iCloud will eliminate this.

With the iCloud, instead of syncing your devices to your Mac to get the files you are looking for, you can connect to the cloud and sync with it. The cloud will be the hub of EVERYTHING that you have on those PC’s and Macs.

For example when you take a photo on your iPhone it will push the image up the cloud. Later on that evening when you turn on your Mac, your image will appear among your photos without having to transfer the photo.

The stuff of business

All of your contacts, email, and calendars will be sync’d across all of your devices. Calendars will appear on your iPhone, your Mac and your Touch without having to do anything. You can even share these with your friends and co-workers.

All iCloud users will get a @me.com email account that pushes all of your mail to the cloud and sync’s it to all the devices.

The band played on...

The coolest feature of the iCloud is the music. All of us have iTunes libraries. Ours is stored three places right now. On my MacBook Pro, My Mac Mini and a 500GB hard drive that is hooked up to an old Dell and so archaic that it no longer works because I can’t find a driver for it.

We have a music library of over 7500 songs. Most of them come from CD’s that we have ripped, a process that has taken hours upon hours. I will get to that in just a sec.

Any music that you have previously bought, you can download to 10 devises for no charge on the cloud.

An auto download setting within your devices will automatically sync your new purchases across the devices. If you buy that Justin Bieber in secret one night, you wife will find out the next day when she opens the iPad’s music player. The song will load into your collection there too.

ITunes Match will let you match all of your ripped from CD tunes with 18 million tracks stored in Apple’s servers. That means you don’t have to upload them to the cloud. It will cost you $24.95 per year to do this. So if you plan to visit the used record store, like I love to do, and you buy a lot of music for 6 or 7 bucks a cd and you want to share these disc’s across your devices it will cost you a bit. But think about it–25 bucks a year is less than the cost of two new cd’s.

Storage

Right now, iCloud provides you with 5GB of storage for mail, documents and back up. This storage is outside of your quota for iTunes and photos, iWork documents, apps, and books.

This is going to rock for our business (and yours too)

Just in the past couple months my wife as gone to an iPad as her primary device for our business, Denver Dog Works. We can do everything on it from processing credit cards, to blog writing, to Facebook and Twitter updates, to Skype to production of our Internet radio show.

One thing that we have struggled with is the ability to share documents. We have tried yo use Google Docs. We have found it clunky and has limitations. As well as blog writing on Pages with links and it not transferring seamlessly with WordPress.

With iCloud you can access documents between devices while on the move. Keynote and Numbers will work with a click or a swipe.

When and How?

Just moments after Steve announced the new service the App Store and iTunes were dramatically updated with a new “purchased” tab for re-downloading software and content and a new version of iTunes (10.3) was released.

Once you download all the updates you will see the new iBooks as well as the “purchased” software by clicking the “updates” tab from there it will be seamless.

While today’s update will offer you a “taste” of the cloud, the full service–including wireless syncing of content and data–will roll out with the launch of iOS 5 this fall. Just in time for Steve to come back again from his medical leave to introduce us to the iPhone 5!

Filed Under: Daily Post, Tech Tagged With: Denver Dog Works, iCloud, iOS, ipad, iphone, iPhone5, iTunes, mac, postaday2011, robert forto, Steve Jobs, Tech, The Cloud

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