accidentaldesign

I’ve spent the past few days tearing my hair out over a bug with the Netflix app on the Apple TV 2 version 4.4.3. Solution: rolled back/reverted/downgraded to the previous firmware version.

The specific bug I was experiencing was that after signing into the Netflix app I was presented with only two menu options: ‘Search’ and ‘Sign Out’. The search function wouldn’t work, so my only option was to sign out. The Netflix thumbnails on the home screen of the Apple TV were still being loaded normally and if I got my password wrong I couldn’t sign in, so the Apple TV was contacting Netflix servers OK as far as I could tell.

I tried resetting all the settings, changing regions, changing my account email address, ‘deactivating all devices’ via the Netflix website, restoring the Apple TV in iTunes, changing my network settings and refreshing my router. Nothing worked.

I wasn’t sure that it was a bug with the latest Apple TV firmware because I upgraded on 17 November and the bug only surfaced now. But my last resort was to try to find an older version of the firmware and restore to that.

You can find all past versions of the firmware here at iClarified.com. I downloaded the previous version 4.4.2.

In order to restore to this version you must connect the Apple TV to your computer only by a Micro USB cable. Select it in the iTunes sidebar. Option-click the ‘Restore’ button on the device page and browse to the .ipsw file that you’ve just downloaded.

After doing that everything is back to normal, just one version behind.

Update, January 10:

It turns out it was a problem with the DNS service I was using provided by Unblock-US.com. I have since switched to OverPlay.net which works just fine with the latest Apple TV update and the latest version of the iOS Netflix app. They also provide a VPN service which is a handy extra.

I Don't Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:58:18 +1300

I Don't Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore:

Dan Pallotta on how ridiculous business conversation has become.

(Via Ben Brooks)

"Apple didn’t invent the iPad or the iPhone, another company did. That company however..."

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:41:32 +1300

“Apple didn’t invent the iPad or the iPhone, another company did. That company however couldn’t make batteries last in their devices. Apple saw the company and went, well we’ve learned lots about batteries with our iPod (through other companies again) so bought the company. Slap their batteries in and take over the world. It’s good business, no denying that, but it’s strength lies in business, not creative technology.”

- Best reader comment I’ve seen in a while. Stuff.co.nz always brings out the loonies.

"Sometimes the truth of a thing is not so much in the think of it, but in the feel of it."

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:47:29 +1300

“Sometimes the truth of a thing is not so much in the think of it, but in the feel of it.”

- Stanley Kubrick when asked for an explanation of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.

Steve Jobs « The New Adventures of Stephen Fry

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:56:37 +1300

Steve Jobs « The New Adventures of Stephen Fry:

(via Instapaper)

Steve Jobs Solved the Innovator's Dilemma - James Allworth - Harvard Business Review

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:06:23 +1300

Steve Jobs Solved the Innovator's Dilemma - James Allworth - Harvard Business Review:

(via Instapaper)

m.guardian.co.uk

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:54:33 +1300

m.guardian.co.uk:

(via Instapaper)

gladwell dot com - creation myth

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:51:53 +1300

gladwell dot com - creation myth:

(via Instapaper)

Lock screen improvements in iOS5

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:21:00 +1300

There’s a lot of new stuff to discover in iOS5. I like these improvements to the lock screen:

All notifications received while the phone was locked are shown in a list. They’re actionable by swiping across them while the screen is locked.
Before iOS5 you could double-tap the home button to bring up volume controls while listening to audio. It always drove me nuts that the double-tap was only registered after the screen turned on so, really, it took one tap to turn on the screen, and a double-tap to bring up the controls. In iOS5 the double-tap is registered from when the screen is off, so now it really only takes a double-tap to access the volume controls.
This action brings up a camera button so that you can start taking photos right away without unlocking the screen. And the + volume button now acts as a shutter button.

"There are two kinds of people in this world: people who touch their screens, and people who do not..."

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:33:01 +1300

“There are two kinds of people in this world: people who touch their screens, and people who do not want anyone to ever touch their screen—and you can guess which one I am”

- John Siracusa on episode 35 of 5by5’s Hypercritical podcast

"Worst movie iv ever seen, no plot, no character development and half of it is just listening to a..."

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:36:24 +1300

“Worst movie iv ever seen, no plot, no character development and half of it is just listening to a mans heavy breathing while he flies around in the SLOWEST SPACE CRAFT EVER!!! the other half is just confusing scenes which make no sense. 0/10”

- My favourite iTunes customer review of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Arrested Development returns!

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:15:05 +1300

Arrested Development returns!:

What is possibly my favourite TV comedy which, sadly, only ran for three seasons, will be returning for another season and a movie.

EXCITED.

Game Review—El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:56:00 +1300

You probably haven’t heard of the apocryphal Book of Enoch before, but it sure makes good source material for a video game.

Seven angels from Heaven went to earth to get with the human women. Their offspring, called nephilim, turned the world into a nightmarish place, eating each other and growing into giant fire nephilim capable of mass destruction. God wanted to sort this mess out before resorting to the Great Flood, so he sent Enoch to earth with the task of capturing the fallen angels and destroying the nephilim. In the game, Enoch is aided by the archangel Lucifel who lives outside of time but is especially fond of ours—sporting denim jeans, black shirt and spiked hair, and he saves your progress by talking to God on his mobile phone.

El Shaddai (which is a Judaic name of God) is a third-person action game—in the vein of God of War or Devil May Cry—wrapped with the most incredible art style you’ve ever seen. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise when you learn that the developer is Ignition Entertainment Tokyo which is led by former members of Clover Studio, best known for other games with famously unique art styles such as Okami and Viewtiful Joe.

Each chapter of the game is one floor of the Tower of Babel which is one angel’s interpretation of their ideal world. This premise means that each chapter is completely different from the next, and they look mind-blowingly gorgeous and confusingly bizarre. You experience a constant mash-up of art styles and gameplay styles as well as some clever playable storytelling techniques, incorporating painted timeline sequences and ephemeral subconscious moments. El Shaddai’s primary weakness is in its platforming. The camera system often favours showing off the art rather than helping you traverse some of the platforming-heavy environments later in the game.

The artistic experience alone is strong enough to pull you through the game but, thankfully, the combat is also excellent. The development team has a strong pedigree of fighting systems and El Shaddai is no exception—employing a simple but deep single-button fighting system. Your enemies have stolen weapons of God’s wisdom and Enoch has been given the power to purify and wield these corrupted weapons. There are three types: a bladed weapon called the Arch, a long-range weapon called the Gale, a heavy melee weapon called the Veil. Enoch is equipped with none of these by default, but steals them from stunned enemies so there is a strong strategic element to deciding which order to defeat them.

The fighting system might appear shallow at first but the difficulty ramps up quickly as you discover the subtleties of the combat and the boss fights remain satisfying and challenging throughout. If you don’t consider yourself an experienced gamer, pick the ‘easy’ difficulty level.

The storytelling in El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is way off the charts—the story is as crazy as the art. Your brain won’t know what’s going on half the time but your eyes won’t care. Play this on an HDTV if you can.

Android is Forked

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:24:59 +1300

An interesting thing to know about the Kindle Fire is that it’s an Amazon tablet. You’ll notice that Amazon never mentions this anywhere. This is because they’ve taken the ‘Open’ Android source code and forked it to make their own OS.

Such is Google’s downside of making Android open source.

So far they’ve had phenomenal success entering the mobile market and offering a free OS to anyone who’ll take it, and driving incumbents out of business (Nokia, RIM, Palm/HP). But the very thing that made this possible is also enabling Amazon to possibly turn the tables on Google. At least in the tablet space.

I can see The Kindle Fire doing far better than any Android tablet, and the Android App Store becoming the go-to place for apps on all Android devices.

The main reason mobile device makers have been going obeying Google’s rules with Android is so they can have all of Google’s services on their devices Most importantly: the Android Marketplace. This new generation of mobile devices is all about apps, after all.

If Amazon can offer more popular equivalents of these free services, compatible with any version of Android (forked or not), then device makers will no longer have much of an incentive to obey Google’s rules.

It would be ironic to see Google left out in the cold watching the android they created ride off into the sunset with all their competitors at the helm. There is a lot that needs to play out for this to happen, but with the release of Kindle Fire the possibility is becoming more real.

The Kindle Fire

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:06:55 +1300

So Amazon finally unveiled their long-rumoured and recently-confirmed entry to the tablet market, the Kindle Fire.

Priced at $199 USD it’s less than half the price of an iPad. It appears to be about half as capable as an iPad though: half the storage, no cameras, slower hardware, less than half the screen real-estate. Even so, it’s a good price. Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray estimates that Amazon is losing $50 on each tablet. They’re taking the gaming console approach with the Kindle Fire: lose money on the device to get a large audience, and make money on selling content.

It’s unlikely steer many customers away from buying an iPad, but it could make things much harder for Android tablets to gain the traction they’ve been trying to get for the last 18 months or so. Amazon should have no trouble selling this device, after all they’re promoting it at the top of every page on their website—the largest online store in the world. I look forward to Amazon showing all the other iPad competitors that the way to success isn’t copying, it’s doing something different.

There’s one catch for anyone outside the US: Most of Amazon’s digital content is available to US customers only.

Here is Amazon can’t offer outside the US:

Amazon MP3 store
Amazon AppStore (this is apparently being changed soon)
Amazon Instant Video Movies and TV

Most of their Kindle books are available outside the US but that’s about it.
No music. No movies. No TV shows. No apps.
Until all of this changes, it’s as good as useless to anyone outside the US.