I’ve been using Netflix again on the Apple TV, results have been getting worse, we tried to watch the pilot of Twin Peaks a couple of nights ago, and it cut out several times, sometimes a couple of times with 10 minutes, but sometimes it would go 45  minutes without a glitch. In some ways, this isn’t too bad, but it’s difficult to relax and get absorbed if you know a random disturbance is about to happen, maybe in 30 seconds, maybe in 30 minutes, but it will happen.

So, onto the PS3, which also supports Netflix, I installed the app, which was pretty much automatic, and so far, have a watched a full length film and several TV episodes, and a not a single problem, fingers crossed…

It’s a shame, the Apple TV is cheaper, quieter, smaller, but it’s just not up to the job.

I don’t know why people making devices don’t realize the internet isn’t reliable enough for direct streaming, it just isn’t.

I’ve owned my Kindle for a year now, here is what I think…

Really glad I got the 3G one, use that capability all the time, WiFi is not widespread enough.

Over the air delivery is awesome, I’ve used it all over the UK, in Honolulu airport, it works every time, don’t consider getting an eReader without it.

Range of books is only OK, but improving, and there are less and less books I want to read but aren’t available.

Book pricing is really odd, sometimes, they are a fraction of the paperback price, which is a fair price, as there isn’t the overhead of a printed book. But some are the same price, which just seems like gouging to me, there is a difference between profiting and profiteering. Especially when Amazon is the only serious source of books for the Kindle, it’s exploring a monopoly, and it’s not right.

I also own an iPad, but it’s not a device for serious readers (in the space of a year, I’ve read about 30 books on the Kindle), the battery life isn’t good enough, and it’s hard on the eyes compared to a Kindle, it’s super glossy screen looks pretty but terrible in daylight.

I recommend the Kindle, if they took away the profiteering aspect, it would be close to perfect.

Setup Netflix on my Apple TV, very easy, but if you get a spinning wheel, just pull the power lead, restart it, and it’ll work then, no problem.

So far it’s been great, good range of TV and films, more reliable than any streaming service I’ve tried, and I don’t have to have my Mac and home sharing enabled.

I’m actually really surprised it works on the Apple TV considering its a direct competitor to iTunes, and a much better system too, never mind being very cheap, for price of 2 iTunes movies, I get a full month of unlimited movies and TV series, the range isn’t as good as iTunes, so I’ll still use iTunes for stuff Netflix doesn’t have, but other than that, I can’t see myself buying a film from iTunes again.

It’s early days, but so far, very positive experience, the iPad version is good too.

I’m reading a lot about companies, even in the run up to christmas, struggling, blaming the economy for “tough” trading conditions (Clinton Cards Chief Exec), and other high street retailers going bust or shutting down a large number of stores.

It strikes me that CEOs and boards are blaming the economy, which is beyond their control, for their own poor performance.

John Lewis (a nice UK department store)  however, saw a 6.2% INCREASE in sales, it’s sister company, Waitrose (UK supermarket) had a 3.8% rise, (waitrose.com, it’s online operation, had a 49% rise).

What does this tell us… Clinton Cards is an anachronism, why would I walk to a scabby little shop on the high street to buy the same shitty cards I can buy ANYWHERE else?

The economy is not good, but it’s not stopping John Lewis, Apple, or a number of other companies, so if I was a shareholder in Clinton, I’d be asking the board why aren’t they doing as well?

Thorntons, a chocolate shop in the UK, has had to shut down a lot of branches, Hotel Chocolat, a competitor, is expanding, not just the  UK, but overseas too. Why?

Thorntons is crap, it’s being selling the same average quality chocolates for as long as I can remember, we are talking over 10 years with no significant changes, Hotel Chocolat offers a premium experience, with prices similar to Thorntons.

If you have a failing retail chain, it’s not the economy, it’s you.

This time, no problems at all, I think me the ATV may start a uneasy friendship, it’s actually doing the job as advertised. I think the switching from HD to SD is the cause of this unexpected reliability.

The Apple TV is starting to impress, especially combined with the iPad, where, since iOS 5,I can mirror BBC iPlayer onto my big telly. It’s always worked for YouTube of course, but YouTube doesn’t actually have anything worth watching.

If you want to know, the film was “Brooklyns Finest” which was actually pretty good.

For the first time ever, after owning the Apple TV for nearly a year, I managed to watch a film (streamed!) start to finish with no problems. Maybe it’s the OS updates, maybe I was just lucky, but it DID happen!

One problem did occur in the setup though, after changed the Apple ID, I had to pull the power on it and restart for the ‘Movies’ menu to appear, but other than that, success!

One tip though, I changed the resolution to standard, and not HD, far less to download, less to go wrong.

If you are interested, the film was ‘Monsters’, it was alright.

It was Ok.

Just finished reading this book, and although I enjoyed it, the author was out of his depth technically, which sometimes annoyed, maybe a little lazy.

Some other reviews have not been so generous, but a lot of that bad feeling about this book I think stems from its honesty. To some people, Steve Jobs is beyond criticism.

For me, the book was much more “Steve Jobs : the human being” , rather than “Steve Jobs : the CEO/demigod.” , which is a really good thing.

I apologise for not referencing any of my comments here, but I’m writing on the iPad, and Safari lost my writing after switching to another page, so I didn’t want to risk it again.

Quick summary of the stuff I’ve used…

Safari - Tabs like a desktop browser, not bothered either way really. A boatload faster, you know the checkerboard pattern that comes up when the page hasn’t quite rendered, I haven’t seen that again since iOS 5, and I’ve tried.

iCloud - In some ways, it’s about bloody time, using DropBox to move across songs I’ve purchased through iTunes, or if I’m moving a lot, a USB stick is dark ages, iCloud solves this, well, for iTunes purchased songs, we need to wait for iTunes Match to take care of the others ($25 a year is reasonable, but I already pay for DropBox, which is a more labour intensive version of the same thing, but I can share ANYTHING).

But enough moaning, iCloud make my life easier and simpler, so thumbs up.

iCloud also syncs Safari bookmarks, I don’t use Safari on the Mac, but this could sway me, until I realized, the iPad is single user, my Mac has a couple of accounts on it, so my girlfriends iPad bookmarks get synced to my Mac account, this is a bit shit, and shows the need to multiple user accounts or someting more lightweight on the iPad.

BTW Home Sharing has the same problem on the Apple TV, it sucks.

Notifications look cool, but I don’t use them, I just don’t want to be disturbed in that way, they are much less intrusive now though.

Haven’t noticed much else, iCloud is the biggie, more on my Mac than the iPad, but if I was an iPhone user,it would be awesome.

As, I believe, the only Mac developer who doesn’t use an iPhone, I’m in the position of not receiving mobile email at the moment, or actually, the last few days. It’s not the end of the world, but I do a lot of customer service on the go, as any Londoner will tell you, you spend most of the day on the train. Or waiting for a train.

The BlackBerry service is actually generally, pretty spectacularly reliable, I treated it like a tap (or faucet for you Americans), if I turned it, water would come out, end of story.

The problem for RIM, is that people won’t remember the 362 days of the year it worked perfectly, they’ll remember the few days it didn’t.

I still think I’ll stick with the BlackBerry, I’m not a virtual keyboard guy, and I find Android, well, kinda dull. I think Apple is doing the right thing keeping the number of models down, but I think the iPhone is a step too far, some people want a proper keyboard, they just do.

Note : Siri looks amazing, but I don’t want to be that guy talking at his phone on the train.