A few weeks back, we decided to watch Bruno. (It’s a… not particularly long story.) More recently, we decided to watch The Italian Job. These two movies seemingly have nothing in common (well, Italy, in a way) aside from the fact that I paid to rent both of them even though I actually didn’t have to. Such is the state of streaming in 2020.
To be clear, this is not a big deal. I’m out a total of something south of $10. Still, it is a little ridiculous that I could have watched both of these titles for “free” given that I’m already paying for streaming services on which they’re offered. The Italian Job is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Bruno is on Peacock.
What’s really annoying is that I consider myself pretty savvy at such things. And yet there I was paying for movies that I had already “paid” for. So I can’t help but wonder how many people are getting fleeced in such a way. It’s not nefarious. It’s because there are now so many streaming services and yet the mechanisms to unify them in some way is complete and utter crap. The state of the art is the Apple TV app on the Apple TV device (yes, this is incredibly confusing) and it sucks. It’s enough to make one yearn for the TV Guide interface of old…
Yes, I know there are other third-party services that do this. And some are quite good. But it’s no less ridiculous that you have to resort to yet another service to do this in 2020. And the problem is only getting worse, not better.
It’s a plot worthy of The Italian Job. Though not necessarily of Bruno.
Hope everyone has a good, relaxing Labor Day.
Links
Speaking of Amazon, they’ve launched a device and service called Halo which… wants you to upload semi-nude pictures of yourself as well as continuously monitor your tone of voice throughout a day. I mean, I know Amazon likes to launch wild, half-baked ideas but… read the room? 🤨
The story of a supernova explosion in 1987 is… far out there. Literally. Figuratively. 😲
What if the key to solving COVID-19 is getting people to shut up? Again, literally. This is not as crazy as it sounds. 🤐
Speaking of shutting up… in the opposite realm, you can now pay for gas with Alexa. Which would seem to make a lot of sense in our pandemic. 🗣
It sure seems like the new iPhone is going to come in… blue steel. 💙
I’m shocked — SHOCKED — that Warner is having a hard time figuring out how to shove ads into HBO. Go. Now. Max. Whatever. 📺
Apple allowing developers to hand out subscription codes seems like a bigger deal than people are (not) making it out to be? 📲
Do I think WGN’s new neutral NewsNation program is going to work? No. But I think it’s a worthy attempt. Myself, I would probably go the opposite way with ‘Nor’ as in, “neither, nor” and just make relentless fun of both sides. 🎭
But the powers-that-be in news are perhaps more worried about their app cut, just like everyone else. 📰
One company probably not worried about such things: MGA, which just seems to print money despite no one really knowing who they are. LOL Surprise! Fascinating read. 👀
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Remember when Tim Cook said: The future of TV is apps? Well, they had one app they had to do right, the TV app, and they fucked up. The fact that they have a hard time bringing "competing" streaming services on it explains why unifying streaming services is not yet a done deal.