Insanity Part 2.0

Proto for Mac OS X :: Firefox Add-ons

Awesome new theme for Firefox 3 Mac users – only works for the latest nightly builds. Much more Leopard-like than the default theme. It’s hoping to be included as the default theme for OS X Firefox builds, but it’s only a preview at this point.

Apple Making Deals for Web Video Rentals – New York Times

MacWorld 2008 could be very interesting indeed…

Here’s my wishlist/realistic expectations out of an Apple rental service:

• 48 hour or 5 day rental after first playback, with a 2 week hard deadline. 24 hours is possible (this is what Movielink does), but that kind of sucks compared to a BB rental.
• Unlimited plays within active rental period.
• Plays on any of your authorised iTunes, iPod, iPhone or tv device. This is the stuff that vertically integrated market dreams are made of! Authorisation limits will be kept the same as currently (5 computers, unlimited iPods).
• $4.99 US for SD/HD. There’s a possibility of tiering here (e.g. $4.99 for SD, $6.99 for HD) a la iTunes Plus at release. This also matches a typical Blockbuster store rental but beats it on convenience and speed terms (assuming you can start playing midway through the download).
• Purchases can be made through either iTunes Store and tv, and will sync back and forth to either. I wouldn’t expect iTunes Wifi Store just yet but that would be an interesting twist.
• No DVD burning. Duh.

There was a rumor running about a while ago, suggesting that to get this Fox deal Apple will raise the price of movie purchases. This sounds reasonable to me, and I could see this tradeoff being done. It’d be a hard lump to swallow though, so who knows.

The June Financial Times rumor put pricing at $2.99 for 30 days, but I have a feeling that through negotiations the movie studios probably managed to squeeze out a little more because that’s a long time period and a really low price. Remember that the real competition is Blockbuster and Movielink. That same rumor also mentions a transfer to only one device, but I think it’s important to note that right now iTunes doesn’t have any restrictions on how many devices you can copy to, and for the sake of uniformity I’d hope they won’t change this. In order to restrict the time limits it might be necessary though.

If they offer an HD service for the tv, this could be the start of a tiered service like with the original iTunes Plus. You might have to turn on HD in your preferences (or HD might be exclusive to tv owners only) before you can buy it; otherwise it’s all SD 640×480 for the iPod crowd. Call it iTunes HD or something. Keeping it exclusive to tv might be an appealing lure for that device – not like anyone with a 320×240 iPod is going to enjoy HD anyway.

Usual disclaimer applies: complete prognostication and fabrication on my part, with no knowledge of any real information other than what’s been printed in NYT, WSJ, MacRumors, and the like. I wouldn’t be trading any stocks based on these guesses.

Updated (2008/01/12): Recent rumors have the price and rental period pegged at $3.99/24 hours. That time period is shorter than I was wishing for, but it’s pretty realistic and not too bad. The price is actually lower than I was thinking and beats out Blockbuster retail, so that’s a plus.

Steam rating – Valve Developer Community

In case anyone was wondering what the Steam Rating meant on your Steam Community page.

Buy.com – Low Price Guarantee

Something I ran into this week while ordering a bluetooth headset: Buy.com’s “Low Price Guarantee” is nearly all but useless. See below:

When requesting a price match, please be aware that prices will be compared on the following criteria:

• Price comparisons include the product price plus shipping & handling charges when calculating the competitor’s total price in comparison to Buy.com’s product price and lowest priced shipping method for that item.
• Our Low Price Guarantee does not apply when you use coupons, rebates, promotional offers, free shipping, or product-bundle pricing on the order.
• Our Low Price Guarantee does not apply to membership pricing.
• Our Low Price Guarantee is limited to up to three (3) of the same product, shipped to the same address.
• The Low Price Guarantee is subject to change at any time.

In short, if you use free shipping on your order, such as their equivalent of Amazon’s super saver shipping, nuts to you if your order pricing changes after it ships! Compare that with Amazon’s policy:

Amazon.com Price Guarantee

Amazon.com’s prices for released items will change from time to time based on a variety of factors. If Amazon.com’s price for an already-released item decreases within 30 days after we ship the item to you, we’ll be glad to refund the difference in price if you contact us. Please click one of the buttons on the right, and be sure to have your order number handy so we can assist you.

This Post-Order Price Guarantee is subject to the following restrictions:

• Applies only to products that have already been released. Products that have not yet been released but that are available for pre-order from Amazon.com are not covered by this guarantee, but do benefit from our Pre-Order Price Protection program (see section above).
• Applies only to items sold by Amazon.com, and not to items (or prices) offered by other sellers on our site.
• Item prices that are affected by a promotion such as “Buy one, get one free” are not eligible.
• The price of an item after rebate is not considered to be the Amazon.com price.

Amazon’s system sounds a lot more reasonable to me. Buy.com’s isn’t a deal breaker, but be aware if/when they run some ridiculous sale one week after you bought an item!