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Now this is big news for all you parents out there! Free official Full Length Disney classics streaming on the Internet this summer.

I think this is a sign of things to come, and Disney are just running a fancy “beta” test this summer to test capacity and do some calculations of how much bandwidth per viewer, etc. Seriously, how far are we from every station out there putting up their entire shows/movies/etc archive on the Web, and making it advertiser supported, with perhaps Ads inserted every 15 minutes or so, as we are so used to now with traditional model.

Only one small difference! You choose When to Watch, and What to Watch, and of course feel free to Pause TV, and get back to that pesky Real Life.

[via EngadgetHD]

I’ve been reading all the live blogging just like the rest of us, all too excited about “what’s next” from the over-hyped Apple brand. Finally Starts at $199 now, finally has built-in GPS (pretty much standard nowadays), and seems to have improved 3rd party apps support. Also looking especially lucrative is the 7 hour battery time when playing video, that should be awesome on long flights and overall most impressive. Internet always was a great feature, and with 3G speeds, it’s finally very viable. Plus, more and more popular web-sites coming up with iPhone optimized edition.

But, looking at my own usage patterns, my current phone, though over 2 years old, is doing just fine for me. It provides occasional Internet via Opera Mini. It gives me full screen video via Mobile Divx Player, and of course Audio MP3’s are no-brainer. My Zune gives me full range of Podcasts access, and probably with miniscule 16GB on even the premium $299 model (what gives, flash memory is cheap nowadays!!!), it wouldn’t suffice for my needs there. I got my Bluetooth and my external Bluetooth GPS, if need be, on that phone also.

Big feature would be push email, especially my Yahoo! and Gmail, though meanwhile I get those on my work-issued blackberry, so no concerns there. Come to think of it, the email would probably be the biggest excuse I can find to switch phones, if my work decided to save some dough and take away our blackberries…

Meanwhile, the rest of you will charge forth and purchase this toy, I’m sure

PS: After I typed it up, I saw this little video, and looks like this one is a Solid reason to get an iPhone!

PPS: And here’s a shocker reason not to get the iPhone, somehow I felt this was coming…

I am just outraged now, so that is usually when I do my best writing

I’ll try to keep it brief, if possible. My son and I came across a strategically positioned CD in local GameStop about a month and a half ago, showing Final Fantasy XI Demo for PC for $2 . At a moment of weakness, we decided to give Final Fantasy XI a try, since we generally enjoy online play, as you probably know by now.

Upon arrival at home, we promptly attempted to install the game. Strangely, the process wanted us to submit a Credit Card. Granted, I should have stopped right there and read the 100 page User Agreement, but thinking of Sony and Square-Enix brand names, I decided that I can really trust these companies to do Right by their customers.

However, on a first attempt to play, it failed after half an hour of trying to "patch" itself. We tried to install on another computer, but with the same sad results. As much as I hate to, I was forced to spend some time online with their Tech support, who after silly troubleshooting attempts simply assured me that we must be having Internet connectivity issues and try again later. Obviously our high speed Internet had no such issues, which was also obvious by the fact that half the patch was downloading successfully prior to failure. Long story short, since my son kept begging, after various attempts and more calls, I left a laptop overnight connected to Internet directly (bypassing the router) which somehow did let the patch through…

After about half a day of play, he complained that there was no Tutorial at all to understand how to play. There were also no obvious ways to understand Who to see to start off in the world, and How to do Anything. He also had computer hang and forced a restart in the first few minutes of play, and I am certain it isn’t our computer’s fault… Mind you, this is the dude that tried almost every MMO out there, free and paid!

So, after he promptly stopped playing, I tried to remove this horrible ordeal from my memory, and disregard the hours and effort spent to just make the darn game work. Until this weekend, when my online Credit Card showed a charge of almost $18 from Square-Enix/PlayOnline.

I promptly called them and explained the situation. The answer I got was: The charge represents pro-rated part of March after 30 days expired plus a charge for April. And, although they can help me cancel the account (which hasn’t been used for over 40 days, but they insist that they have "no way of checking usage" ), the Charges CANNOT be refunded EVER and IT IS stated in the agreement?! I didn’t find it in the agreement, and the representative insisted that Manager is unavailable and I need to call again. Well I did call again, and got the same Answer, albeit this time with some assurances that "someone will call you back"……..

The ridiculous part is that we never purchased the game, just the silly demo, so I didn’t expect charges. In contrast, World of Warcraft gives you 30 days trial and even though you also need a credit card for the trial, they will never charge you until you Choose to subscribe and continue after the trial!

Another ridiculous part is the supposed pro-ration, the charge for the Future month (April) and refusal to refund even the future month only. Plus, no Emails What So Ever to say "You were charged" or simple courtesy reminder that "Your 30 Day Demo has Expired".

Sorry to bore you with this, but I think all companies should learn something here. Here is what my son said when he heard about the ordeal: Lesson Learned – Never Buy Anything Sony. I definitely join him in this profound realization, plus I will be thinking twice or more before considering future Square-Enix games as well… Maybe there’s truth to all those articles saying that Sony is in financial trouble and going downhill fast…

I hope your $18 was worth this for you, Sony!

PS: For your reading pleasure, the PlayOnline Member Agreement, which is weird since you can even have PlayOnline account for free… Where is the part in which it says we charge "whatever" and keep the money no matter what, for future services not granted?

In light of most recent RIAA suicide attempt (which finally may be a successful one), I thought it would be a good opportunity to tell everyone about a great music site I discovered some time ago.

Amie Street is an online marketplace of independent artists. It works as a massive self guiding social network, with pricing which starts near zero, and then raises as popularity of a song increases. This way true quality music that everyone downloads raises in price, and becomes reasonable way to compensate the artist and support their further music endeavors. While new, undiscovered, or lower quality works, cost very little (few cents or so), and often stay that way. That’s not to say that there aren’t some gems in the few-cents-per-song crowd, there often is, in fact.

I have only had little time to dig around for gems there, but one example is Amanda Kaletsky, check out her Say You Believe song. Or, want more mainstream, try the world famous band Barenaked Ladies. One thing to watch out for is their built-in media player, it isn’t that good, I found interface unfriendly and confusing at times.

Of course, all Amie Street music is DRM free, as all music should be! Thus, between this and Amazon’s MP3 music store, which keeps adding major labels, there’s hope yet. So, lets work together to Free the Music, while we continue to pay for it, to the artist and not RIAA…

I want to apologize for light blogging this past week.

Without going into too much detail, I’ll just say that our Plasma TV of long had some troubles that could not be repaired. Thanks to Costco and their Concierge Service, we now have brand new TV that everyone loves.

Now that this crisis is resolved, I promise to go back to regularly scheduled blogging!

My family is happy again, so here is one more time: Thanks Costco!