CION: A Rocket Like RED?

By Tim Siglin, Chairman, Braintrust Digital

There’s a new camera in town that may have Arri seeing Red.

When it comes to digital cinema, every camera manufacturer in the past few years has been chasing Red’s rocket-like growth. As a one-time upstart, the company successfully upended market verticals from high-end cinema to mid-range industrial productions, challenging established rivals. 

Even the traditional digital single-lens reflex (D-SLR) camera manufacturers entered the digital cinema game, offering 1080P and 2K-capable D-SLR bodies geared towards cinema production, as did a few traditional film camera manufacturers like Arri.

Today, at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show, an interface and convertor company called AJA threw its hat into the digital cinema ring, with the CION camera product that looks—from the specs, at least—like it may contend with Arri and Red at a fraction of the price.

Is Red about to have its stratospheric reign at the low-end of the digital cinema price point usurped? 

We’re not quite sure, but the signals are trending towards the positive. Here’s why.

New Design, New Price. The AJA-designed CION camera won’t be out until August, but already the design and price are setting tongues wagging in the AJA booth at NAB. 

One topic that show floor visitors are talking about is the fact that AJA designed the camera in-house. It’s a natural step in the process of digital cinema, though, with a crop of traditional media interconnect companies moving towards the acquisition side of the digital supply chain. 

“Bringing this sophisticated camera to market underscores our passion to support filmmakers, broadcasters and content creators,” said Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video Systems.

Pricing is the other thing that’s gotten everyone worked up, given the feature set. Rashby notes that the camera will start at $8995 when it is available later this summer.

“We are incredibly proud of CION,” said Rashby, “which represents a new direction for AJA. We believe that the thoughtfully considered design, along with a powerful feature set, will make it extremely useful and versatile for productions worldwide.”

What It Does. While viewing the camera in use in the AJA booth, one thing was clear: the camera appears capable of shooting in a variety of formats, possibly rivaling those of Arri’s Alexa and Red’s Epic cameras.

Media is record to an AJA Pak, which is SSD media available in capacities of 256GB and 512GB. The company offers direct connections on the AJA Pak via Thunderbolt or USB 3 (see the G-Dock modules we reviewed a few months back for the type of form factor) or these AJA Paks can be transferred using an optional AJA Pak Dock.

AJA went for a complete 10-bit and 12-bit workflow, from HD to 4K, so the CION is capable of recording content using Apple ProRes 4444, something that no other low-end digital cinema camera has done to date.

In addition, CION can record in Apple ProRes 422 (HQ), Apple ProRes 422, ProRes 422 (LT) and Apple ProRes (Proxy).

From a format perspective, the camera shoots in Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) 4K at 4096x2160 as well as the television 4K format, better known as Ultra HD, at 3840x2160.

DCI 2K and HD are also available, at 2048x1080 and 1920x1080, respectively, but with a nice twist: the entire 4K sensor is used, and then 2K and HD are scaled down—via hardware, according to AJA—to retain the highest possible acquisition quality. These over-sampled images also allow for field-of-view retention, according to the company.

Will Griffith, creative director with Creative Energy in Johnson City, TN, had this initial reaction.

“I have used the Red Epic and Arri Alexa extensively on shoots around the US,” said Griffith. The AJA CION seems to be a direct replacement for those cameras.”

"Like Arri, AJA is a trusted name,” said Griffith, noting that AJA is new in the camera space. “Yet CION is very similar in functionality to the Arri Alexa but $40,000 cheaper.”

“It shoots native 4k@120 frames per second, which bests the Alexa and puts it close to the Red,” said Griffith, “but the CION has actual professional audio connections, which the Red Epic does not unless you pay for extra module.”

Griffith also noted that the CION has a global shutter (“it’s a big deal!” he says) and also has the ability to use ProRes files in varying ranges of compression.

“The ProRes formats are the same as Alexa, and easier to deal with than Red Raw files, in my opinion,” says Griffith. 

We would agree that’s ProRes is easier to deal with than Red Raw, especially in Final Cut Pro X, based on our recent timeline transcoding tests for Streaming Media Producer.

Griffith did have one additional request, though.

“This could be the ideal camera for independent filmmakers and commercial productions,” he said. “It would be even better if you could swap the PL mount for an EOS mount for existing lenses, but still it looks like an amazing tool.”

Power, Meet Touch

As a libertarian-leaning social conservative that happens to vote nowhere close to party lines, I'm not one for labels. Yes, I own a Mac and the business I help run owns a few more. And, yes, I live across both platforms: although I still prefer Windows XP to Windows 8, both pale in comparison to the ease of use of OS X.

Still, I'm not a fanboy and keep an open mind. That's what's so interesting about the HP Z1. It has the potential to be a game-changing workstation.

Read the review I wrote on the HP Z1 for @streamingmedia last November, and you'll see a few dings against the first-generation Z1. I'm happy to report, though, that many of those dings—from lack of MSATA to lack of Thunderbolt—are addressed in the new Z1 G2 (generation 2).

So when you read the "first look" assessment of HP's Z1 G2 and consider this: touch is a powerful thing.

For those interested in having both a Bluray burner and the dual Thunderbolt 2 connectors, consider an external USB 3.0 unit. An HP spokesperson had this to say when asked about the idea of having both units:

"HP sells an external Blu-ray Drive, but it only writes to DVD or CD," the spokesperson said. "It is read only for Blu-ray. The model number is HP DVD630i, but it looks like it may no longer be available from HP.com. It does look like its available through our channel partners."

At that, the spokesperson gave the nod to something we often suggest clients consider: third-party options.

"If customers need Blu-ray burner, there are many 3rd party external USB options available," the spokesperson said.

We've had success recently with the Asus A455-5030 (aka Asus BW-12D1S-U) Bluray burner, on sale this week for $119.99 with a $20.00 mail-in rebate through the end of January, 2014.

And, just in case you need the details, here's the pricing information for the Thunderbolt 2 module: $235 E3X57AV HP Thunderbolt 2-Port Module Desktops & Workstations.

Happy work(station)ing! 

Windows 8.1 update FAIL Privacy

Testing out a newer Windows workstation computer for a product review, and really missing the Start button. Was delighted, therefore, to find that Microsoft had released Windows 8.1 today.

Turns out, though, that Microsoft will no longer allow one to install without a Microsoft account. You know those accounts: Xbox Live, Hotmail, other services you may not have used for years.

And to take it one step further, one can't use a Microsoft account to install Windows 8.1 without providing either an alternate email address or a phone number. Microsoft takes its data-collection job for the NSA very seriously.

On the screen titled "Help us protect your account" the company gives a long explanation as to why one should provide these linking details between a Microsoft account and an alternate email or phone number.

Fortunately, at the bottom of the screen, right above the privacy statement, there's a link to "skip this for now". Except clicking the link resulting in a loop that returns one to the "Help us protect your account" screen.

In other words, there's no way to install Windows 8.1 without giving Microsoft additional personal information. The use of a Start button isn't worth Microsoft adding a notch to its NSA belt, so Windows 8.1 install is off the table (and the machine's a brick) until Microsoft makes the "skip this step" link actually skip the give-up-your-privacy step.

EDIT: Video Proof of Microsoft's Privacy Fail for Windows 8.1 ...

EDIT2: Microsoft claimed that the ability to log in via a local account would be available for the final (non-preview) version of Windows 8.1 but that appears not to be the case. In fact, we find that they've made it even harder to opt out of using a Microsoft account (not just for those of us who choose not to provide additional NSA bait in the form of an alternative email or phone number).

The phrase quoted earlier this year ("In order to use Windows 8.1 Preview  you must sign in to your PC with a Microsoft account. The option to create a local account  will be made available at the final release of  Windows 8.1.") has now been stricken from Microsoft's site...

Administering PostgreSQL in Mac OS X 10.8 Server (Server 2.2 and beyond?)

Those who are familiar with the Apple Mac OS X Server software product know that Apple recently deprecated the internal database (MySQL) in favor of the more robust, but lesser known PostgreSQL—or postgres to many, as that was the original name, which we'll use for the rest of this blog post.

For those using Mac OS X Server 10.6 and earlier, MySQL is still the default. From the emergence of Lion (10.7) forward to today's Mountain Lion (10.8) there's no trace of MySQL.

In addition, there's really no way to safely use postgres for custom content (read, non-Server databases) and there's really no way to remotely start and stop a postgres database engine short of turning on remote SSH login.

That's right: even the Server application itself, when used to remotely administer a running instance of Server, cannot start and stop a postgres database, at least of of this writing, via Server 2.2.1 (build 169).

Ok, so what's the best way to administer the postgres database on Mac OS X Server 2.2.1? Via SSH remote login.

Yes, it's clunky and requires the use of Terminal (and a bit of faith that SSH really will provide a secure connection) but it can be done.

Here are the steps for accessing postgres administration via a remote computer that is running a separate copy of the Server application FOR ADMINISTRATION PURPOSES ONLY.  For instance, we choose to administer one of our OS X Server installations from a remote machine (a Macbook Air with the Mac OS X 10.8.3 operating system).

Remember that enabling Server for administration from the remote device is of no benefit  when it comes to administering Server's built-in database engine (Postgres) . . . but at least the remote administration via the Server app does seem to have some limited benefits for those who are hesitant to use command line interface (CLI) to control Server. For those who want to use Server to control PostgreSQL, you're SOL.

1. Launch the Server app on the actual server unit (ours is a Mac Mini using an OS X 10.8.3 base operating system) and click the checkbox next to "Allow remote administration using Server"

2. Either from Server from either the Server app on the actual server unit or from the Server app on a remote Mac, click first on the name of the server (top left corner).

3. Check the check box next to "Allow remote login via SSH" to enable SSH remote login via Terminal. It can be found under the Settings tab in the middle top of the screen as shown in the picture below.

4. If you've installed Server on a remote device (like our Macbook Air) and want to control the postgres database engine, click on the arrow next to the "Allow remote login using SSH" text. This will launch Terminal on the remote machine.

5. You should now see a bit of heartwarming text, noting that  "The authenticity of host 'nun.nnn.nnn.nnn (nun.nnn.nnn.nnn)' can't be established". Don't panic

6. If that line is followed by an RSA key fingerprint, consisting of 16 pairs (32 alphanumeric characters, with each two characters separated by a colon (:) you SHOULD be OK to proceed.  In fact, Terminal will make you second-guess yourself by noting:

Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? 

7. After typing "yes" and hitting the return key, you will be met by another ominous warning:

Warning: Permanently added 'nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.

8. At this point, you should be able to proceed by responding to the password challenge. Once you've moved beyond this point, it's just like a standard SSH (or older, non-secure telnet) session. To take control of PostgreSQL, enter the following line:

sudo serveradmin start postgres

9. After another password challenge, the Terminal bash will return the state of PostgreSQL, with a line such as postgres:state = "RUNNING" to confirm postgres is indeed running.

This is a new feature in Server 2.2.1, as Apple has modified the way that it handles custom content. In fact, a recent Apple release note mentions that custom content in Server versions prior to 2.2 will not be migrated when 2.2 is installed.


OS X Server v2.2 now stores Postgres data needed by services in its own database (“/Library/Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services” by default). If you migrate from a previous version of OS X Server, system Postgres data will be migrated from /Library/Server/PostgreSQL to “/Library/Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services”.  Any custom content you may have created in /Library/Server/PostgreSQL will remain there after upgrading to OS X Server v2.2. If you wish to access this data, or if you’re installing OS X Server v2.2 for the first time and wish to create new Postgres data, you may need to start the service with this sudo serveradmin start postgres command. This will start a Postgres process separate from the one used by services, which can be used to serve your own content.


10. To stop postgres, issue the same command as above, but substitute the word stop for start and you should then receive, without a password challenge, the response postgres:state = "STOPPED"

11. Note that the requirement for a password challenge and response is only required ONCE per session, so subsequent start commands or other commands for postgres will not require a password. Be careful, since this means typing sudo serveradmin stop postgres will halt PostgreSQL immediately.

But what if you've opted not to install Server on a remote machine, and just want to hit a quick Terminal window to access the remote Server installation? We'll cover three simple steps in our next blog post.

2013 Quickbooks Pro "matching" bug persists

Having participated in a number of beta tests for Intuit products, at the request of an Intuit VP after finding a significant calculation error in TurboTax a few years ago, I've had the privilege of working with both Mac- and Windows-based products before they are shipped.

One bug I found—and reported—for the 2012 Quickbooks Pro software continues to be a problem. I wasn't chosen for the 2013 Quickbooks Pro beta tests for either operating system platform, but I've since confirmed that the bug is persistent in 2013.

The error stems from the "Downloaded Transactions" matching feature in Quickbooks. For those unfamiliar with "Downloaded Transactions" this feature allows credit card (or other bank account transactions) to be downloaded into Quickbooks and then matched against entries in the linked account.

For example, if I eat at McDonald's and enter the McDonald's transaction into my AMEX card account in Quickbooks, then later download all the most recent AMEX charges, the matching feature will note that I have a dollar amount and date matching between the "Downloaded Transactions" and the linked QuickBooks account.

It almost works like magic, with the matched charges automatically highlighted by the presence of an orange dot in the Downloaded Transaction window (as opposed to those that aren't matched being represented by a white dot).

I say "almost works like magic" because it turns out that the bug will automatically match transactions with the same amount, even if they are from a date weeks before and from a completely different vendor. This might not be a big deal for some transactions, but it leads to mass confusion when multiple wrong "matches" are registered, and can even lead to doubling up on erroneous entries, since the intended matches are left unmatched in the Downloaded Transactions window.

Here's the real-world example that shows the bug, present in the 2012 Quickbooks Pro beta, is still present in the 2013 shipping versions of QuickBooks Pro.

Having taken an extended trip, where I didn't have time to download transactions every few days, but did have downtime to enter the credit card receipts into QuickBooks (on a few train rides in India and Europe where I didn't have always-on data connectivity), I felt good about keeping up with the expenses for various expense reports.

When I finally reached a place where I could pull down transactions from the past three weeks of multi-continent travel, I noticed that the Downloaded Transactions window had "matched" several earlier transactions with entries in my QuickBooks credit card account register. But rather than matching the ones closest to the date of the transaction, it was matching to transactions from several weeks prior.

In other words, it was a bug around first-in vs last-in (FIFO and LIFO, to use two old computer and Finance 101 terms). Where QuickBooks should have matched to older transactions (FIFO) it was actually matching to the more recent transactions (LIFO).

I was able to repeat this a few weeks later, with a new set of data, where the downloaded transactions contained two pairs of transactions that were both for the same dollar amount ($1.10 for the first set and $2.19 for the second set).

The earliest transactions, one each for $1.10 and $2.19,  had both been for McDonald's purchases, one day apart (12/4 and 12/5, respectively, for the $1.10 and $2.19 amounts). In the credit card account register, those two transactions had been entered, splitting out the tax and food, but equaling the total amounts noted above (although you'll never find those using the Find function in QuickBooks, but that's another bug story for another day).

In addition to the 12/4 and 12/5 McDonald's purchases, there were two other transactions already entered into the credit card account register, a 12/21 McDonald's purchase for $1.10 and a 12/23 Subway purchase for $2.19. The McDonald's is a repeat of an exact same order two weeks later, and the Subway was a promotional deal. Each were clearly entered as McDonald's and Subway, respectively.

When I checked the automated matching for the 12/4 and 12/5 McDonald's transactions, they did not show as marked in the credit card register, but they did show matched in the Downloaded Transactions.

On further inspection, QuickBooks had once again marked off two more recent charges, the 12/21 and 12/23 McDonald's and Subway duo.

To see the "matched" transactions side by side, note the check marks and orange dots in each of the next two images:

The average user of QuickBooks isn't going to pick this up, but will be seriously confused when automated matching mis-matches transactions, leaving the intended transactions without a mate and perhaps causing a QucikBooks user to assume a large check or credit card amount has cleared when in fact it's just's Intuit's ongoing matching error that's at fault.

I sense a liability issue for Intuit if someone's set of matching $9,013.42 transactions are inadvertently mis-matched, especially since the issue has been present for at least two shipping versions of QuickBooks Pro on both Mac and Windows platforms.

To iPad (only) or not to iPad? Introduction

As someone who makes a living—or at least pays the technology hobby bills—partly as a tech journalist and partly as a consultant to startups, extensive traveling is just part of the job.

Along with travel—including significant international travel—comes the requisite gaggle of gadgets, wires, chargers, and receptacle adapters.

For years, I've traveled with a laptop, trading up and down in size (and operating system) to find the perfect balance of power and compactness. From early 10" Sony Vaio laptops, to Apple Powerbooks, to 15" MacBooks and, finally, to the 13" MacBook Air, I've tried it all.

I've even done a few product reviews along the way, testing the use of a widescreen laptop in economy class to see just how much work can be done while staring down at a screen balanced on my ample tummy while trying to peck at the keys. Sometimes it works, at least when fingers fit between the screen and keyboard, until the passenger in front of me decides to kick back and sleep.

One of the last trips, to West Africa, proved the MacBook Air's worth: its thin wedge-shaped front lip could be stuffed down between piles of dirty clothes, virtually disappearing in to a roller-board suitcase during the never-ending stops (where local militia search vehicles for "bombs" or "explosives" while at the same time begging for money).

Could there be an even better approach, though, one that would include a tablet that could be separated from the physical keyboard, allowing for even greater flexibility (or better hiding places) while on the road?

That question, and the sale of my Apple MacBook Air just before last month's worldwide developer's conference, coalesced in to the perfect opportunity to try out the new iPad (iPad 3 for those of us who keep track) as the sole computing device.

Stay tuned in a few days for the outcome of week one of a four-week trip.

What Is Dan Hesse's Sprint Hiding?

The mild-mannered CEO of Sprint (formerly of Embarq and, before that, AT&T Wireless) is a reassuring figure in his TV ads for Sprint: if you have a problem with your service or any questions about Sprint, Hesse says, send an email to Dan@Sprint.com and let him know.

The inference from these commercials is that something will be done to address the problem. The reality is that Dan@Sprint.com is just a PR ploy by Sprint to cover up known problems the company has with various bits of its iPhone and other smartphone provisioning.

One issue in particular that keeps appearing (or disappearing as the case may be) could be called the Case of the Missing Voicemails. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, who tracks down the problem and then corrects it, Sprint is just content to say "we're sorry for the inconvenience, the problem is temporary, we're working on a solution".

The problem with these lines, and others that Sprint representatives use, is that they're not actually designed to find a solution for a customer. In fact, if you hear the words "we hate to lose you as a customer" it really means "yes, we know we can't get our stuff together and make services that we pitch as part of our iPhone or other smartphone packages actually work, but you'll still have to pay $340 per line to leave our service".

Turns out, in the Case of the Missing Voicemail, to use one widespread issue that Sprint is facing, that Dan's company is not just hiding something (a "known issue" that has plagued some users for more than three months) but is in fact obfuscating the facts that the problem is not a temporary one but one that will continue to plague its customers for the length of their contract.

Let's take a look at several ways the company uses "exhausting all options" as a way to create busy work for its customers, so that they'll give up in frustration and just toe the Sprint line.

BlackBerry Visual Voicemail problems. A user on the Sprint forums, known by the handle JTDAV8R, upgraded his device at Sprint's request, but then reported that "my visual voicemail has stopped functioning". (http://community.sprint.com/baw/message/420320)

Like many iPhone users who face the Visual Voicemail break down in service, JTDAV8R reports, "I get no alerts at all when a voicemail is recorded. However if I randomly check the Sprint system the messages are there."

So what is the Sprint response to this type of voicemail issue? Turns out it all revolves around a single button press (#1) to see if any voicemails might have been left in between the time you last checked and the current moment. Ignoring, for a moment, the fact that the phone itself doesn't show a voicemail, and that the visual voicemail (at least on the iPhone) shows NO MESSAGES at all, Sprint insists that randomly calling voicemail multiple times a day is a viable solution. It may be a narcissistic solution, but it's not a practical one and doesn't mesh with Sprint's policy of charging a premium for smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone.

Sure enough, JTDAV8R faces the same incompetence in technical support:

"Power off the device and remove and replace the battery and power back on," wrote forum contributor Abe (abe2020). "Update profile by hitting Menu – Settings – System Updates – Update profile (try to leave yourself a VM). Go into the visual voicemail application and compose a visual voicemail message (Hit Menu --- Compose) of 5+ seconds and send to activate@vvm.sprint.com".

Sounds complex enough that it might work, but turns out it's just busy work, as JTDAV8R responded to this suggestion back on May 11, 2012, and has yet to receive an answer to the problem. We know why: there is no solution to this "temporary issue" that Sprint is working to "resolve".

"I've been on the phone numerous times with Sprint customer service + their Blackberry tech group," wrote JTDAV8R in reply to Abe's suggestion. "Have tried a hard reset/data wipe, countless re-boots, another ALT + irmi and even downgraded to the previous version of OS 6. Unfortunately I still have the problem with my visual voicemail, and so far no one seems to be able to pinpoint the source".

"Visual Voicemail is still DOA," JTDAV8R concludes. "No alerts or indications of any kind when someone leaves a voicemail on the Sprint system."

Separating voicemail from phone service. Let's recap: the BlackBerry in question does not indicate in any way that a voicemail has been left, Sprint cannot pinpoint the reason, but the company maintains that there is no problem with their phone service.

The problem with this logic, of course, is one that the company does admit to but obfuscates in hopes of maintaining customers.

"Visual voicemail is not a separate service," a Sprint representative is taught to say. The implication is that the voicemail is just something that comes along with phone service. Yet that's also a point where customers can stress this point: if one part of the phone service is not working, why would customers pay for any part of the phone service over the course of a given service month.

iPhone Voicemail problems. So is this issue just limited to the BlackBerry? No, it is much more widespread than just BlackBerry, spreading to the flagship product that Sprint's Hesse expects to save his company from irrelevance behind AT&T and Verizon: the iPhone 4s.

Why use the term obfuscation when discussing Sprint's approach to voicemail issues on premium smartphones, such as the iPhone 4s? After all it's a term that denotes intentional shunting of responsibility off on to a third party. Turns out that's exactly what Sprint is doing.

"I am no longer getting voicemail notifications," wrote Apple forum user leldance. "Called Sprint and they said it was apple's problem and a software update was needed. Apple denied this and recommended a hard reset which did not work." (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3874341?start=0&tstart=0)

Again, no indications of voicemails at all, Sprint denies it has anything to do with their network, sends customer to Apple. What's the solution? Turns out there is no solution.

"I was having the same problems as well as a few others and it really is a Sprint problem caused by the iOS 5.1 update," wrote user EvLwMn. "Apparently something about visual voice mail isn't 100% compatible with their system. They know about it and 'are working on it' [eyeroll]."

EvLwMn wrote about this issue on an iPhone 4s back on April 14. Sprint has yet to respond to this user with a solution. Again, no surprise, because there is none.

A possible solution was suggested on one forum, and it may be the one reason that Sprint doesn't want to let customers know that this isn't a "temporary issue" that it tries to convince customers of: there are particular phones that do not work on Sprint's network in the way that it is currently provisioned.

After 9 days," wrote Sprint forum user mehca back on October 23, 2011, "tech support finally had me check my PRL. Settings>General>About>Carrier and tap to toggle to PRL. PRL51082 is a defective phone and needs to be returned. This is a known issue." (http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/79413)

If the known issue is a requirement to swap out the phone, Sprint could be in for a world of hurt if the issue reaches the average Sprint wireless subscriber.

My experience with Sprint. Having faced a similar issue with not just one but two iPhone 4s devices, starting in March, 2012, I've spent significant time with Sprint technicians on the phone and in store locations, and can attest that Dan's company knows there is a problem but is actively obfuscating in an attempt to maintain customers that are unable to receive a significant service.

After six sessions on the phone and in person in stores, I finally reached out to the "last resort" by writing Dan@Sprint.com.

Direct Contact. Not. Anyone who thinks that Dan Hesse actually reads his emails (at least the ones addressed to Dan@Sprint.com) will be sorely disappointed. An automated response is generated fairly quickly, saying that the company is looking in to the problem and will contact the customer, but the contact is from a general customer service representative. 

Calls to 757-223-3379, the phone number in the email, lands one in a department that is called--and not tongue in cheek, since telcos don't do irony well--the "Dan@Sprint.com" department.

In speaking to the "Dan@" representative, there are key phrases to look for: fancy terms like "partnering with upper management" or "exhausting all possible options" are used as an effective, albeit courteous smokescreen to fully address problems that are taking place at Sprint--ones the company is fully aware of but either not competent enough—or not willing—to fix.

That's an issue I wanted to address, but found that the representatives were trained to ignore that question.

A Similar Story. Rather than spending undue time on my specific story, let's look at one from an online forum that eerily matches my own, where a customer had two iPhone 4s devices (one his own, one his wife's) that not only was not receiving calls but also was not showing voicemails.

"We are not receiving our visual voicemail or notifications of voicemail at all," wrote forum user Medic_Coop. "Yesterday, we were not even getting our calls at all.  They would just go straight to voicemail, and we would get NO notification as to a missed call or a voicemail being received.  So, this is a BIG problem."

Similar to MedicCoop, our two phones don't show that calls have come in, and those that do come in do not show up in the visual voicemail, so there is NO WAY to know that a voicemail has been left.

The Sprint "solution" to a "known issue". Worse, as the "Dan@" representative witnessed, not all voicemails appear: on the sixth round of tech support on this issue, with the "Dan@" representative listening in, a Sprint tech support representative attempted to leave a voicemail.

Not only did the tech support rep's voicemail not appear, but her attempt to leave the voicemail triggered a previously left voicemail to appear, one that the "Dan@" representative had left TWO HOURS earlier.

Faced with that obvious flaw in Sprint's provisioning, what was the "Dan@" representative's response? She said would "partner with upper management" to see what possibilities existed to honor our request to leave Sprint and go to a service provider whose voicemail system actually worked (AT&T is one, Verizon is another).

She "couldn't promise" but she wanted to "exhaust all possible options" and would contact me again the next business day. There was a glimmer of hope because of the failure of Sprint's provisioning right in front of her.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the tech support supervisor brought in to solve the problem while the "Dan@" representative was on the phone DISCONNECTED us after almost two hours of tech support busy work. One moment the tech support supervisor was there, the next she was gone.

Fast forward to the next business day. Having heard nothing from the Sprint "Dan@" representative by 5 PM, I called and left a message. The representative returned the call, stated that she is "sorry for the inconvenience" and that she "would hate to lose me as a customer" but that the penalty for early termination still applies. So much for "partnering with upper management" to bring some common sense in to the discussion.

I've now asked to speak to a supervisor (upper, upper management, perhaps?) and am told I will receive a call tomorrow after the supervisor researches the issue and "exhausts all possible options" for the "known issue" of voicemail. I hold little hope that this will end well, but there are always next steps beyond the supervisor. Who knows, maybe Dan Hesse will actually read one of his emails...

The irony is that the unlocked iPhone 4s I'm having trouble with performs admirably on other networks, including its visual voicemail, in various parts of the United States and other countries. Even before Sprint representatives admitted there is a provisioning issue, and suggested I get another phone, I have been able to satisfy my own curiosity and know that the issue lies solely within Sprint's sphere of responsibility.

That assumes, of course, that Dan's company will take responsibility for an issue that various Sprint representatives told me required hard resets and soft resets (iPhone) partial resets and full resets (voicemail) and enough update attempts (##UPDATE# or ##873283#) to populate an entire army platoon

Medic_Coop summed up the insanity that is Sprint's obfuscation of a very real problem with basic service provider functionality, speaking of both his and his wife's issues with Sprint's provisioning:

"We both are on call at our jobs (Emergency Medicine) and rely on having phones work when we need them," he wrote. "I know everyone's situation is different, but I know everyone also wants their devices to work properly when needed."

"What is being done to fix this problem," he added, "and what is the time frame?  I have had multiple tech support calls and have 2 different tickets open with them."

That question was written back in October, 2011, almost eight months ago. Seems Sprint's "temporary" problem is on track to celebrate its first birthday in just a few months.

Brother, can you spare a card?

About six months ago, when Netflix was back on its heels after jettisoning some 800,000 angry customers, StreamingMedia.com received lots of traction around the whole story including a number of radio and television interviews on the story. One piece that got little attention, though, was our conjecture that Redbox and other kiosk-based DVD delivery systems might prove problematic for Netflix as the DVD-by-mail company morphed into a streaming media delivery giant.

Turns out the hunch about Redbox was right, and it's affecting not just Netflix but also Verizon and Blockbuster. 

Yesterday's announcement that Coinstar, the "coin-operated" company that runs the Redbox kiosks—among other types of entertainment stations—had tripled revenue for the year and was using some of that cash on hand to buy Blockbuster Express kiosks from another point-of-sale company, NCR of cash register fame.

The news sets the streaming world on edge a bit. The Blockbuster Express name was licensed out to cash-register maker NCR for the kiosk-based system NCR had cobbled together to compete against Redbox. The interesting irony here, of course, is that the Redbox name is now being licensed out to Verizon Communications for the streaming service (in much the same way that the Blockbuster name was licensed to NCR for Blockbuster Express).

As I mentioned in the KOMO interview around the Netflix debacle of late 2011, the problem with Blockbuster and Netflix is that neither offer—to steal a marketing phrase from Blockbuster—Total Access to their disparate DVD and streaming libraries.

Coinstar might just be on to something, though, with its simple-to-use kiosks popping up all over the USA (34,000 and counting, before the Blockbuster Express units are accounted for). If it can pull off an equally simple approach to streaming in its newfound partnership with Verizon Communications—especially a non-subscription model akin to the kiosk approach—there just might be hope yet for a "total access" option.

Out of all this comes one truth: the days of brick-and-mortar DVD rentals are well past being numbered, but the pax romana of physical DVD rentals is still ahead. Still, the other major difference between Netflix and Redbox is the one-off impulse rental nature of a kiosk delivery—available to anyone passing a Walgreens, 7-11 or Wal-Mart in any corner of the USA—versus the subscription-only nature of Netflix's DVD or streaming models.

Read the StreamingMedia.com article for more details.

What will the New Era of HP entail?

About this time of year, every other year, HP's workstation division unveils something new. A few years ago it was the z800 workstation, unveiled at a presentation at BMW Designworks, the agency that helped shape the unique design of the z-series cases.

This year, though, HP is moving the event to Las Vegas, and is teasing—complete with 2001:Space Odyssey "monolith" imagery— that a New Era is just over the horizon. We'll keep you informed as soon as we peek over the rainbow, or around the next planet...

Super streaming Bowl fail?

The fine folks at StreamingMedia.com have an article I wrote late last night, after the Super Bowl ended, about the failure of large-scale streaming for those trying to watch the big game on their desktop or laptop computers.

It's touched a nerve, apparently, and the article has rocketed to the top of the most popular list on this  Monday morning after the game. Some commenters are expressing embarrassment over having tried to show their friends the alternate angles offered by the online stream—that is, if you didn't mind waiting a full minute after the game play to actually view the "live" stream.

Something's gotta get better in this whole live streaming scenario...

[Update: The New York Times' Media Decoder blog from Brian Stetler quotes a bit from—and links to— the StreamingMedia.com article.

Stetler notes that NBC is blaming low-quality streams on last-mile issues or "connection issues" as Kevin Monaghan, managing director of digital media for the NBC Sports Group, calls them.  It's disingenuous for NBC to blame last mile issues when a) much higher-quality live content was also delivered across the same networks during our testing and b) there are many consistencies in the overall problems that viewers have commented on—from variable lag times to consistent poor quality at the height of the game's key moment, one of which Monaghan mentions.

It's as if, in the early days of TV, the broadcast engineer says "hey, the signal looked good when it left our building" and it's a reminder that we're in the early days of large, live events—enough so that we can all "blame it on the blockbuster" if the event has problems.

We look forward to eventually seeing the numbers from NBC Sports, which we suspect will show that the adaptive bitrate worked but only if measured by the fact that the number of viewers seeing sub-standard, low-bandwidth streams are considered an acceptable viewing experience.]

And you thought Paypal was bad...Amazon Payments reaches new low

This is one of those blog posts I've thought long and hard about; on one hand, I want to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt, since their customer service has always been top notch. On the other hand, I wish someone at Amazon would get a clue.

So one of the companies I'm involved with, Braintrust Digital, recently signed up for Amazon Payments using a business account. The system asked for a number of verifications, completely fine, including bank account information. A days after all these verifications were completed, the trouble started.

After receiving a large payment, the company sent one last verification, asking for the last four digits of the SSN (social security number)—an odd request for a business account, since corporations, while recently ruled to be people, still have FEIN (Federal Employee Identification Number). I enter the last four of the EIN, get an automated response thanking me for my entry, and then...Nothing.

A day later, I get an email saying I'd entered it wrong, and that I need to re-enter the information. Ok, fine, so I re-enter the last four digits, again get the automated response thanking me for successfully entering the information, and...

The account is now locked.  No worries, as the small warning at the top of the page tells me there are things that can be done with the account and things that can't be done with the account. Here's the warning:

Click on the "here" link (isn't that sort of 1990s linking, to use "here" for the link—but I digress) and here's what we see we're allowed to do:

So the corporation can't send money or receive money, but it can withdraw it, right? Yes, according to the list, the only thing we CAN do is withdraw the money. So we go through the process of performing a sweep into the corporate bank account, and...

No, it's not telling the truth. At all. The transfer fails, and fails fast.

So we try to launch an inquiry into the failure, using these two links ("Problem with this transaction?" and "click here to inquire about an error" to, well, inquire about the error.

We enter the transaction ID and asking, simply, why it failed. Very simply, as in: "It failed. Why?"

Apparently these are fighting words, because we're told that we're disputing the transaction. Really? Yep, says so here...

Ok, so now what? Can we find a live person to check in with to find out why it failed? Well, only between 7am - 4pm PST (did we mention this was Amazon, based in Seattle, WA, USA?) Says so right here, in a rather snarky way:

No number to call, just a call-back request, either now or five minutes from now, meaning we have to be online to make the call (a call back service, yes, but not so convenient for real business folks, but that's another story all together...)

Tomorrow's blog entry? The incessant requests by Amazon to send Social Security information, date of birth and full legal name by (drumroll, please) EMAIL.

Sony expands Google TV offerings while Google TV universe expands

The Google TV universe is expanding.

The whole universe was in question just a few weeks ago, when Logitech rapped the  Google TV mediaware as "beta" software and jettisoned its Revue set-top box unit as a "mistake" (although not enough of a mistake to cease sales throughout the US Christmas shopping season and in to 2012 as a highly sought after Amazon sale of  refurbished unit at $79.99 with Prime shipping) 

Now, out of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas comes news of not just one, or even two, but three new partners that will be launching products. LG, rival Samsung and upstart Vizio all will be launching internet-connected TVs that will contain at least the Android 3.1 (Google TV 2.0) operating system.

In addition, Sony tried to set the record straight about its ongoing decision to continue forward with Google TV based units. Sony announced that the NSZ-GT1 (a Wi-Fi-enabled 1080p Blu-ray disc player featuring Google TV) at almost twice the price of the Logitech Revue, had sold better than expected, and that the Sony Google TV-powered smart TVs (the 40" NSX-40GT1 and 46" NSX-46GT1) are the best selling TVs in Sony's stable of products.

“They’re among the best-selling TVs we have," Brian Siegel, Sony TV vice president told USA Today in a late 2011 interview. "Media has done a real good job of beating [Google TV] up." 

The one major change in all this, including Sony's newer devices (the Blu-Ray player equipped NSZ-GP9, and its Logitech Revue mimicking NSZ-GS7 set-top box may both use an ARM chip from Marvell rather than the Intel Atom chip that Intel offers for the set-top box market but discontinued support for in the internet-connected or Smart TV market.

As reported in a recent StreamingMedia.com article on the Logitech Revue, the Intel Atom CE4100 chipset powers both the Sony NSZ-GT1 Google TV box and the Logitech Revue. Google's reference platform for all Google TV-powered set-top boxes was based on the Atom chipset, so that the original Google TV firmware—and subsequent updates—would run consistently across all consumer devices.

Sony used the CE4100 chipset to its maximum advantage—selling a significant number of NSZ-GT1 set-top boxes and smart TVs in the process—while Logitech opted to hold back on the CE4100's capabilities, as we reported in the Workflowed blog on Logitech's refusal to support the MPEG-2 codec and MPEG-2 transport streams.

The new chipsets provide some interesting opportunities, and we think Google TV-powered products, especially Smart TV products, will gain an advantage using these new ARM processors.

"You're in luck" -- Pinger TextFree and the fatal flaw

Sometimes a company makes a product or service that is *almost* perfect, but has a fatal flaw.

Pinger.com's TextFree is just one such service: its apps for Android and iPhone are fairly decent; even with the buggy interface within the newer TextFree with Voice, the call quality is great and the texting is, well, something to text or tweet about.

Yet the web version lags considerably, especially in one key area: the web service is inaccessible from an iPhone's browser.

Typing in www.pinger.com/textfree yields the typical CSS redirect to http://m.pinger.com/content/tf_web.html with the "You're in luck" tagline displaying the iPhone app.

What if you can't download the app or are in a situation where the app doesn't work, as I found myself in today, where a restricted network only allowed access via http in the browser?

You're out of luck: choosing "full site" yields the full site page in the iPhone Safari browser, as it should, but choosing "login" from the main page's top right corner tosses the user back into the endless loop of http://m.pinger.com/content/tf_web.html

Great idea, poorly executed.

iPhoned

This is Your Father's iPhone

[Editor's note: see additional analysis on the topic at StreamingMedia.com]

After years of desire and months of speculation, today Verizon Wireless announced that the iPhone would be available on their network in February. This is of course really good news for those who either can’t get or don’t want ATT service here in the US. Verizon said that they have been working on supporting the iPhone since 2008, so, they are anticipating a great success for them and their customers with this thoroughbred device in their stables. All current iPhone features will be available in the Verizon iPhone, with two notable exceptions.

First, there is the network technology this device will be using. During the almost constant tea leaf analysis that was occurring over the past several weeks in anticipation of this announcement, there was debate over which network technology would be built into the Verizon-flavored iPhone. That speculation has now been put to rest.

The Verizon iPhone will be CDMA and EVDO only, making this iPhone a device built for Verizon’s legacy 3G network. What this means is that you cannot use data while you are on a voice call, unless, perhaps your iPhone has a WiFi connection. Good for the home or office, but not while you are out and about, which is where most iPhones are used. For those of you keeping score at home, the iPhone on non-CDMA carriers such as ATT’s 3G GSM network in the US can use voice and data at the same time, which, I believe is a large part of the iPhone’s functionality appeal. You don’t have to hang up your voice call to check your email.

When Apple’s Tim Cook was asked why the phone was not taking advantage of nascent Verizon’s 4G network (aka LTE), he basically said that folks really want a Verizon iPhone, and will be willing to make the functionality trade-off. Mr. Cook also stated that incorporating LTE into the current iPhone design would not be possible without design trade offs they were not willing to make. Given the comments that Verizon’s Lowell Macadam made about being the hub of collaboration, there will likely be an LTE version of the iPhone in the future so that it can be a true collaboration hub. Until then, this phone will be a single tasking device, unable to truly multitask.

Second on the feature front, there is one interesting bright spot in today’s announcement. The Verizon iPhone provides WiFi hotspot functionality for up to five devices, which is a feature that is not available on other carriers. This will allow WiFi enabled devices, such as the iPad’s that Verizon has been selling since late 2010, to be able to use the iPhone’s Verizon 3G data connection to get on the Internet. So, expect there to be a much demanding by current non-Verizon iPhone owners to bring this connectivity feature to their phones.

During Q&A, Verizon and Apple indicated that this is a non-exclusive agreement with Verizon, so, one could expect that Sprint could get the phone after some period of time here in the US. And, there are a handful of carriers overseas that don’t use the GSM technology the iPhone has sported to date, so, they will likely get their own iPhone in the not too distant future.

All in all, it is certainly good news that the iPhone has come to Verizon, as many more people can experience the game changing benefits of this device. However, the lack of data connectivity when on a call almost makes the Verizon iPhone feel like “your father’s iPhone,” not “your son or daughter’s iPhone.” After all, what twenty something wants to hang up to tweet? Anyway, ATT should not be sweating the shift in the gravitational pull of the iPhone from another carrier. Yet.

Plantronics shows off personal speakerphone

Renee Niemi, SVP, Communication Solutions with Plantronics presented a few new (or soon-to-be available) products.

To set the stage, she mentioned that there's a disconnect (no pun) between the message, tone of voice and body language between face-to-face meetings and voice-only calls. 

Face-to-Face / Video, she says, breaks down this way: 7% message, 38% tone of voice and 55% body language, while voice-only / phone call communication is 13% message and 87% tone of voice.

Niemi then showed off Calysto 825, a new personal speakerphone that connects the mobile phone and PC phone (Skype) with a unified user interface. 

"Because it works with both the PC phone and your mobile phone, it lets you focus on the conversation, not the tool," said Niemi. "It also has a wireless microphone, which allows you clip the microphone on and still remain part of the conference if you need to step away from the speakerphone."

The latter feature assumes you stay within distance of the speaker, of course, and will hopefully have a mute button for those times you need to stay connected but muted.

Another tool is a software app that Plantronics is launching called Instant Meeting, an Android and Blackberry app that allows one-touch connection to conference calls. 

It searches through the Outlook calendar [and hopefully other CalDav calendars such as Google Calendar or iCal] and then prompts to join the meeting at the appropriate time. 

When confirmed, it will dial the number, enter the passcode and directly put you in to the conference call with a single touch. Diemi didn't really describe what happens in those systems in which you have to say your name and push the # on the keypad before joining the conference, but perhaps there's magic happening there, too, which we'll find out when the app is released.

Finally, she showed off the Voyager Pro UC, a new headset that allows synchronized presence between the PC phone and the mobile phone. In addition, it has sensor capability, or the ability to know whether a headset is being worn or not. 

This sensor capability eliminates the issue of having a phone call go to your Bluetooth connected headset that may have slipped down between the seat or is in your coat pocket. If you find it and then put it on, the call will switch over to the headset. Anot

Has Fujitsu Abandoned the Macintosh Platform? ScanSnap Snow Leopard Issues

Fujitsu had a good thing going, with the ScanSnap for Mac offering one of the best scan-to-PDF options.

But like all good things, this one looks like it's coming to an end, as ScanSnap on the Snow Leopard platform is walking around gingerly on only two paws.

Consider this:

1. The S1500M is the only current Mac-based ScanSnap scanner; all the others (S300M, S500M, S510M) are on Fujitsu's discontinued list.

2. CardIris 3.6, which ships with the S1500M, is not compatible with Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6). CardIris 4.0 is compatible, but you don't receive that version when buying an S1500M

3. Adobe Acrobat is now at version 10 with Acrobat X. Which version ships with the S1500M? Acrobat 8. Yes, that's right, the only Fujitsu Mac ScanSnap has a version of Acrobat Pro that's TWO versions old.

When I asked Fujitsu about upgrading to Acrobat 9, six months after it launched, I was told that what you buy is what you get. Meaning that anyone buying an S1500M today will get Acrobat 8.

Fujistu is clearly choosing to abandon the Mac platform, as they've not made a ScanSnap unit that's Mac compatible since 2008.

How's that for progress?

PDF viewing in Apple's Preview looking fuzzy? Welcome to Acrobat X on Snow Leopard

I'm working through a few workflow scenarios for workflowed.com with Acrobat X's scanning and optical character recognition (OCR). Along the way, though, I noticed two quick insights in to Acrobat X.

First, it does a great job of shrinking the file size automatically after the text recognition is run. In many cases, I don't even have to run the "reduce file size" feature to bring multi-page documents to a manageable file size.

Second, the issue that cropped up under Apple's Preview in Acrobat 9, after I'd applied the "reduced file size" to shrink the file size, remains. The image will look blocky and jagged, as if a great bit of information has been abandoned. 

I initially chalked the issue up to an error in the file reduction algorithms, but the advent of Acrobat X—with its better-than-average standard compression—brings the issue back to the forefront. Even without running the "reduce file size" feature in Acrobat X, any file that's been OCRed will appear jagged and blocky within Apple's Preview application.

Researching the topic online didn't turn up any clues, probably because Acrobat X is so new; since I couldn't ignore this issue, as it affects all the scans I was applying OCR to, I turned to my contact at Adobe's PR agency to get insight in to the issue.

It turns out that Adobe X's new rendering engine may steal a few pages from Acrobat 9's file size reduction score. In doing so, this presents a potential rendering issue in Apple's Preview.  According to my contact:

Acrobat X's new scan compression technology divides the image into 3 layers - Background (BG), Foreground (FG) & Mask. BG, FG images are highly down sampled while mask is kept at a higher resolution (to maintain text readability). 

The layering makes sense, as Adobe has always had the ability to choose Image-Text (where the image overlays the underlying OCR text) or Text-Image (where the text attempts to lay out in a patter closely resembling the image, but the text is the top layer). 

I've always opted for Image-Text, as it allows the human looking at the document to read what's actually on the page, should he or she find the OCR text they copied from the PDF a bit, well, lacking.

My contact went on to provide some reasoning behind the miss-match of Preview and Acrobat Reader X, the latter of which seems to display the images in a much higher quality output:

Here is our hypothesis on the reason of low quality rendering by Preview. In order to render a page, it down samples mask to the resolution of FG (or maybe BG), so it loses on text crispness or quality that a high resolution mask provides. Adobe Reader/Acrobat, on the other hand, up samples images to the highest of the resolution of BG, FG and mask to get the rendered bitmap.

Is this the reality? I guess we'll have to see whether Apple issues an update to Preview in the near term. If not, I'm stuck either suggesting that every client upgrade to Acrobat Reader X, or choosing to completely forego the workflow of using QuickLook to view text-heavy OCRed documents.

Does Adobe Elements 9 Plays Well With All?

Adobe today announced its Elements 9 consumer image- and video-manipulation products (editing sounds so 1990s) in the form of Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9.

Over the past few releases, Elements has begun to move toward parity on both the Macintosh and Windows platform, but the Mac version had always lagged behind.

It appears the days of second-class citizenry for Mac users may be over, though, as Adobe lists an equal feature set between the Mac and Windows versions of both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements.

Premiere Elements, in particular, now has the sharing and access to the Plus service, which gives up to 20 GB of storage for approximately $50.00 per year.

In addition, Premiere Elements 9 addresses the ability to use tapeless workflows—from Flip cameras to D-SLR consumer and pro cameras—a feature that's only recently been added to Adobe's flagship editing tools, Adobe Premiere Pro, as part of the much more expensive Creative Suite 5 software bundle.

Speaking of pricing, that has also dropped for Elements 9 bundles with Amazon reporting the combo pack—Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements—that's pictured below clocking in at $149.00 but with a rebate that drops the price to $119.00 (after waiting for several weeks to receive the mail-in rebate check, of course).

We look forward to testing the two products, on both platforms, to compare the feature sets, before the product's release date of November 1, 2010. [Update: Adobe's PR reps say that the product is available now, even though Amazon still lists the availability at November 1]

Trackpad Possession - Time for an Apple Exorcism?

A few weeks ago, after updating to OS X 10.6.4, I noticed my cursor has begun to move around on its own.

Sliding slowly a bit to the right, then back a bit to the left, it will make its way across the screen. It appears as if an invisible hand (from Babylon to Dunstan to Smith) is controlling the cursor.

Trying to wrest control back will only result in pain, although it occasionally responds to a firm swipe and then behaves for a few seconds to a few minutes.

The problem sometimes manifests itself as an invisible finger on the trackpad, in which case attempting to move the cursor in the opposite direction only results in enlarging a browser window or all the icons on one's desktop (as if the user's one finger on the trackpad is working in unison with the un-helpful invisible finger).

Other times it begins to alt-tab through icons, switching between programs, or jumps to a previous page in the browser window. These last two are keyboard commands, not multi-finger swipes. Since they can happen without any hands being placed on the keyboard or trackpad, these multi-key commands are being issued consistently without user intervention.

During the course of writing this blog post, my Macbook Pro exhibited all three effects, eliminating an almost-complete draft of this blog post in the process and jumping between various programs. The only way to get out of the alt-tab is to hit the Return button, since clicking on the proper program is impossible.

Given the nature of this random, devilish behavior, I typed "possessed trackpad unibody" into Google and got back a large number of hits, many occurring within the last few weeks since 10.6.4 was dropped on the unsuspecting masses.

A little more digging and I found that Apple is well aware of this problem, with many discussions on their support forums, including one with over 1000 responses. Yet tech support can't seem to diagnose the problem, or gives the standard Apple line that they've never seen the issue before.

As some posters have noted, it's so randomly intermittent, it's hard to demonstrate. Imagine trying to take it into a Genius Bar and know that it's going to work (or not work) at the allotted reserved time.

For me, it's gotten significantly worse over the past week, occurring every 4-5 minutes and lasting for 10-20 minutes at a time. Then, as quickly as the possession overtakes my machine, it disappears, leaving me mentally exhausted from battling the Apple demons. Just when I get comfortable that I am in control again, the possession occurs.

Where's an exorcist when I need one?

Suggested fixes abound from a clean reinstall of the OS (doesn't work) to trashing the com.apple.bluetooth.plist preferences (doesn't work) to resetting the PRAM (doesn't work) to turning on/off Airport (works temporarily). In the "works temporarily" category, some users will post that the problem went away when they did one of the above, only to post later that the problem has re-occurred.

One poster also said it only affects machines with certain video cards, except many other users have reported it with other video cards (mine doesn't have the Radeon HD 4870 the poster mentioned) and the solution Apple gave him was to keep the laptop plugged into an external monitor. Hello?!

If Apple can't exorcise its invisible helping hand, it may be time to switch back to Windows. I've got to get some work done without fighting the invisible forces of the evil unhelpful hand.

Hulu - Plus or Minus?

With the advent of the iPad / iPhone 4 came the excuse the Hulu has been waiting for to charge for content that it had claimed would be free.

You know, Hulu.com, the website with the banner at the top of the page that says "Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free." Here's an example from today, August 13, 2010, several weeks after Hulu Plus was launched:

Except, now that we have Hulu Plus, your favorites aren't available at anytime for free.

I was overseas while this happened (in other words, in the vast swathes of the world where no one, not even US citizens, can watch their favorites, anytime, for free) so it wasn't until this week that I had a chance to explore Hulu's approach to its three-part slogan.

The company put up a blog post that set off warning bells in the first few paragraphs with terms like:

Hulu Plus is a new, revolutionary ad-supported subscription product that is incremental and complementary to the existing Hulu service.

Follow that? Here's a breakdown of the wording

On first blush, it's ad-supported, just like Hulu is. So far so good. I might be able to tolerate an ad or two, but not the 10-15 that seem to be popping up in each episode (as Hulu execs keep experimenting with odd pre-roll vs interstitial ad models every few weeks).

What's revolutionary about it, though? Apparently the revolution is that Hulu Plus is a PAID subscription service that REQUIRES one to watch advertisements.

Wait, so I get to pay to watch ads?

Yes, apparently so. That must be the complementary part of Hulu Plus: both serve ads, possibly some of the exact same ads.

So what's the incremental way Hulu is enticing the average Hulu viewer to pay for the subscription?  Show them a past episode, then yank it.

Seriously, a committee on bad marketing couldn't make this stuff up. On second thought maybe only a committee could.

Here's an example of what you see if you try to watch a video that's been yanked back into the dark recesses of Hulu Plus. This example is courtesy of Safari crashing a few days after I'd watched an episode that was free (just not anytime) and then restoring all the windows after the crash.

The Hulu Plus blog advocates the reasoning behind all of this ad-supported revolutionary approach to paying to watch advertisements is because of all the devices you'll get to watch those ads on: the iPhone 4, iPad, set-top boxes, Macs, PCs, etc.

Except, on July 29, 2010, a month after the blog post, the iPhone 4 upgraders were upset that they weren't able to view these ads on the iPhone 4. Says one commenter (unaltered):

I upgraded to a Iphone because of Hulu plus. I’m disappointed in hulu for not letting my use the service after it was announced. I’m probally now going to return the Iphone 4 and go back to my 3GS and purchase slingbox and watch for free each month off my dvr and direct tv. Better do something quick our your going to loose me for good $120 a year . . . . 

On second thought, maybe this is a brilliant scheme, undercutting the SlingBox concept of free viewing of these same episodes from television or your DVR.

So, please, someone inform the committee that the chance to pay-per-view-advertisements is brilliant, but they're underselling it.