Netflix streaming customers who happen to share their account with other family members are having a frustrated Labor Day weekend as Netflix completes implementation of strict new limits on the number of concurrent video streams available for viewing.
Netflix Multiple-Stream Error screen
Netflix has always unofficially had streaming limitations:
Some membership plans allow you to watch simultaneously on more than one personal computer or Netflix ready device at the same time. If you are on the 1 disc out at-a-time plan [or stream-only plan], you may watch only one device at a time. If you are on the 2 discs out at-a-time plan, you may watch on up to two devices at the same time. Members on the 3 disc plan can watch on up to three devices. The maximum is four devices simultaneously, and that is available for members on the 4 or greater discs out at-a-time plans.
But many of our readers have told us they have never had problems running two or even three concurrent streams at the same time on a “stream-only” plan… until recently. What Netflix’s “official policy” was and what customers could actually do were two different things.
“Netflix never liked two streams at the same time on the same browser, but if you have several family members, two or three people could watch different shows on their own devices at the same time, but no more,” says Stop the Cap! reader Jared Ustel. “As of this weekend, streaming customers can only watch one show at a time.”
Stop the Cap! was able to verify this ourselves this weekend. Sure enough, while in the recent past we were able to support up to three video streams running at the same time, now it is just one.
This new restriction seems timed to coincide with Netflix’s recent price increases, which took effect Sept. 1. Now, large families sharing a Netflix account will either have to reserve time to watch their respective favorites or:
Pay considerably more for a combo disc-rental/streaming plan which unlocks a corresponding number of concurrent streams. If you want two concurrent video streams, you will need to pay $19.98 a month, which also allows you two mailed DVD’s out at a time. Three streams and DVD’s runs $23.98, four: $29.98;
Sign up for a second Unlimited Streaming account at an additional $7.99 a month;
Forget about Netflix.
While Netflix may have been hoping to cut down on the number of “shared accounts” with friends and distant family members, their policy change will hit families hard.
With the controversial Sept. 1 price increase effectively near-doubling the cost to watch video streams and rent one DVD at a time by mail, now may not be the best time to further antagonize loyal customers.
There’s been a lot of talk about how to get the OS X Lion Installer after you installed Lion. The main purpose of this may be to get the Installer dmg to create a bootable Installer disk, as described elsewhere. Many missed doing that before installation, me included.
But actually this hint will work to force download any purchase on the Mac App Store.
There’s an easy method to force a download within the Mac App Store without any tinkering. It seems to be the official method, although I found no description of this in any of Apple’s documentation.
So here’s how to do it:
Open the Mac App Store.
Navigate to your Purchased page.
Hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click on your ‘OS X Lion’ purchase link (not on the ‘installed’ button).
You see the Lion product page. It should say ‘Installed,’ but that button is clickable. Hold down the Option key again and click on ‘Installed.’ If you don’t hold the option key it will tell you there’s already a newer version installed.
Enter your login credentials.
Download.
It’s important to hold down the Option key twice. Once on the Purchased page, once on the Lion page. You also can’t navigate to Lion directly, you need to open it from the purchases page. But if you follow this procedure you should find the Lion Installer within your Applications folder.
In 2006, Google was internally testing a project codenamed “Platypus”, an online storage service. When it was accidentally disclosed during an analyst meeting as “GDrive”, it quickly captured the web’s imagination. Google seemed on the verge of transforming their servers into our own personal hard drives in the cloud. Plenty of startups were working on this (and still are), but the presumption was that Google would be able to scale this beyond anyone else and do it for free, or very cheap. Google refused to talk about it, but story after story after story kept coming.
Then something weird happened: GDrive never actually launched.
It wasn’t until earlier this year that we found out what happened, thanks to Steven Levy’s book In The Plex. In 2008, GDrive was about to launch under Bradley Horowitz (now a lead on Google+), but Sundar Pichai (now the SVP of Chrome) convinced Google’s top executives not to launch it. The reason? He felt like the concept of a “file” was outdated (sounds more than a bit Jobsian) in the cloud-based universe that Google was trying to build. After some debate, the powers that be at Google agreed and GDrive was shelved, and the team moved over to the Chrome team.
End of story, right? Not so fast.
Something curious appeared this evening in the Chromium Code Reviews issue list. As first noted by Nick Semenkovich on Twitter, there was a ticket to add the URL drive.google.com to a list in the browser’s code. This URL (which is not yet live) lead to a Hacker News thread wondering: “Google Drive coming soon?“
Diving a bit deeper into the code reviews, what’s most striking is that drive.google.com doesn’t appear to be referenced anywhere besides this one exposed ticket. This suggests that it’s either no big deal, or that Google is keeping this very secret.
I don’t think it’s the former because the messaging in the one ticket indicates that drive.google.com has been added to the HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) list alongside other key Google apps like docs.google.com and spreadsheets.google.com. Another bit of code puts it alongside Android Market and Google Analytics.
Google information security engineer, Chris Evans, completed the ticket this evening. And Chrome engineer Adam Langley approved it with the message “LGTM” (Looks Good To Me).
I reached out to Pichai (who again, is now a Google senior executive in charge of Chrome), but he declined to comment. A Google spokesperson would only say, “The team is always testing out new features, but we don’t have any details to share at this time.”
It sure seems like something is up. At the very least, Google does appear to be close to doing something with the drive.google.com domain. My best guess — which is pure speculation — is that it will be some sort of new Google app for syncing files over the web across a range of devices. PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, Android phones, iOS, you name it. Think: Dropbox.
But wait, doesn’t Google already offer cloud storage functionality as a part of Google Docs? Sort of. But since that functionality launched almost two years ago, it seems that very few people use it like they use Dropbox — hence, Dropbox’s $4 billion valuation and Box.net’s $550 million valuation.
Google is putting a lot of weight behind Chrome OS and Chromebooks. So far, it seems they haven’t exactly caught fire in the sales department. But they’re iterating fast, and one area of focus has been the file system (despite Pichai’s hope they wouldn’t need one — remember, they’re going after PC users here). One that is built into the core of the OS and tied to the cloud could be very useful to those hoping to switch from traditional PCs. That’s especially true now that Google is finally making their apps fully available offline as well, as they did with Gmail, Docs, etc, this morning.
Google is launching a new Gmail web app and updates to Calendar and Docs, in an effort to increase its products’ offline utility.
Google users have called bringing Gmail, Calendar and Docs offline an essential step for improving productivity, Group Product Manager Rajen Sheth told Mashable. The problem, he explained, is that when users need offline access to their email or calendar, they really need it.
To that end, Google is launching a new Chrome app called Gmail Offline. Separate from Gmail itself, the new app is designed for accessing, managing and sending email while you’re disconnected from the web. “We can build on top of a lot of HTML5 standards, which gives us the capabilities to make it work offline,” Sheth said.
The HTML5 app looks and feels a lot like the Gmail app for tablets. That’s because Gmail Offline is based off the tablet version, which was designed to function with or without Internet access. It focuses on the key features users need to access while offline, including organizing, starring, labeling, archiving and responding to email. It won’t give you access to Gmail Labs features, but it will get the job done.
In addition to the Gmail Offline app, Google is rolling out the ability to access Calendar and Docs offline. The feature, available by clicking the gear icon at the top of the page, lets you view events and RSVP to appointments in Calendar and view documents in Docs. Offline document editing isn’t available yet, but Google promises to find a way to make it work. Part of the problem is finding a way to make sure document edits made offline don’t override edits made by online collaborators.
The apps are only available through the Chrome Web Store at the moment. If you try to use the Calendar or Docs offline features, you will be prompted to first install Chrome. Google says that it intends to roll out its offline apps to other browsers once they support the functionality.
Now hold ‘alt’ on the keyboard and right click on the Finder icon
Click on Relaunch
You should find you will now be able to see any hidden files or folders. One you are done, perform the steps above however, replace the terminal command in step 4 with:
1
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
Just a couple days ago, an RUU version 2.10.605.1 was leaked for the HTC Thunderbolt. Well the gifts keep coming, and over at XDA, a user has leaked another RUU. The newest version is 2.11.605.0, and it is only pointing at the still imminent release of Gingerbread for all you extremely patient Thunderbolt owners.If you flash, you will lose root, and it will wipe your device.
If you want to save root, wait for a little while until a developer can work on it, and package it up properly. Be safe.
A new version of the Android Market has unexpectedly started rolling out to handsets this morning as version 3.1.3. The update includes a couple of nifty new features to add to this already snazzy new store – most notably is the +1 button in app pages and the ability to set a PIN to prevent unwanted purchases of apps on your phone. A nice feature for those of you out there with little ones who like to grab ahold of your phone and frantically hammer on buttons.
To install, simply download the file from above. When it finishes, tap on it from the notifications bar, tap “Install”, allow it to replace your current market. Enjoy!
The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:
Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari
Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out
Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections
Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion
Resolve an issue where MacBook Air may boot up when MagSafe Adapter is attached
Resolve an issue causing intermittent display flickering on MacBook Air
Resolve an issue that causes the SD card slot in Mac mini to run at reduced speed with SD and SDHC media
For those who are unable to use the web-based recovery tool for OS X Lion, Apple has released a new Mac application that allows users to create their own OS X Lion recovery/installation external drives. Specifically, this drive lets you reinstall Lion, repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup, or browse the web with Safari. You need a recovery HD already setup to create this new drive. Here are the instruction straight from Apple:
The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant will erase all data on the external drive when creating the Recovery HD. You should either backup your data before running the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, or create a new partition on the external drive.
1. Open Disk Utility, located in the Utilities folder in Launchpad.
2. Select the drive on which you would like to install the Recovery HD and add a partition. Note: Partition should be at least 1 GB in size.
3. Click Options and make sure GUID Partition Table is selected.
4. Make sure the format for the partition is Mac OS Extended Journaled.
5. Click Apply.
Open Lion Recovery Disk Assistant and follow the on screen instructions to create a Recovery HD on the external drive.
When the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant completes, the new partition will not be visible in the Finder or Disk Utility. To access the external Recovery HD, connect the drive, then restart the computer and hold the Option key. Select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager.
The Lion Recover Disk Assistant download is available here.
With Apple revealing iCloud price details along with the beta version of iCloud.com, now seems like a good time to explain what the service is to anyone who missed Apple’s announcement in June.
iCloud basics
iCloud does not replace local storage on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. What it does is keep your data in sync between any Apple device or PC that you own. For example, if you’re writing a document in Pages on an iPad, that document will automatically be available for editing on your iPhone or a PC, with no need to transfer files by e-mail or USB.
iCloud also remembers your device’s settings, apps, home screen layouts, ring tones and text messages, so all of that information is available if you upgrade or replace your iPhone or iPad. Think of it like the backup function in iTunes, but through the Internet instead.
Which apps use iCloud?
Apple’s iWork productivity software — Pages, Numbers and Keynote — can sync documents through iCloud. Contacts, Calendar and Mail will also be updated automatically across multiple devices. A new service called Photo Stream allows you to download your 1,000 most recent photos to a computer or other iOS device for 30 days. You can also store a device’s entire camera roll in iCloud for longer.
Third-party apps will be able to use iCloud as well. Rovio, for instance, could make Angry Birds data available across devices so your iPhone and iPad will show the same progress through the game. It’s up to developers to implement these kinds of features.
What’s included for free, and what costs extra?
Apple will provide 5 GB of iCloud storage for free, but iTunes music, apps, books and Photo Stream don’t count against that total. iCloud storage is consumed by documents, mail, app data, your full camera roll, settings and other device information. Additional storage costs $20 per year for 10 GB, $40 per year for 20 GB and $100 per year for 50 GB.
Apple suggests that 5 GB of storage should suffice, but that depends largely on whether you’re storing lots of photos and videos on your Camera Roll, and how much app data you’re backing up. The former should be easy to determine — you can already see in iTunes how much data is used by photos and video — but the latter will be harder to pin down until we see how many developers adopt the service.
Who is this for?
People who own multiple iOS devices will get the most out of iCloud, because it saves the hassle of manually transferring data between iPhones, iPads and so on. Owners of a single Apple device may still appreciate iCloud’s automatic backup function, which makes replacing hardware easier.
iTunes is separate
One possible point of confusion with iCloud is how iTunes purchases factor into the service. When you buy music from iTunes, it can be automatically synced to all of your iOS devices, and it won’t count against your free storage. A paid service called iTunes Match is completely separate from iCloud, and syncs any music you haven’t purchased from iTunes for $25 per year.
