I really didn’t see this one coming, but there’s no denying that it actually happened. Suddenly every box under my TV streams video. I feel a little bit behind the times with this one because there have been streaming video products available for a long time, it’s just that now it seems everything is a streaming video player, and more importantly, that there are lots of places to get the video.

For a little while you’ve been able to put your hands on things like a PS3, or XBox 360 that had some sort of video rental service. To be fair the PS3 has always been ahead of the XBox in terms of the available video services. The PS3 has had LoveFilm and BBC iPlayer for some time. Smart TVs and higher end BluRay players have had similar functionality.

Now that functionality has expanded all over the place. With the recent dashboard update the XBox did what so many people are doing these days and added apps. You can now download the Netflix app, the LoveFilm app, the 4OD app, and the list goes on. There’s even streaming live TV from Sky.

In addition to that it isn’t just high end BluRay players that have all the streaming services any more. I just got a Sony S380 for just £89 from Amazon and that comes with pretty much everything you’ll find on a PS3 except the ability to play the games of course.

And there’s more. Today Sky announced that their Anytime+ service is now available to all Sky+HD customers. Before it was only available if you had Sky’s broadband service, but now that’s no longer necessary. On hearing that I did rush to stick an ethernet cable into the back of our Sky box but I don’t know how to make the Anytime+ thing work so I can’t tell you if it’s any good or not. I’ll write something else about it when I get it working. Perhaps the most surprising part of their announcement is that they’re going to have BBC iPlayer content available over the system.

Through all of this iPlayer is a service that is now conspicuous in its absence. We’re told that it is coming sometime this year to XBox, just as Sky say the content is coming to their system sometime this year. the fact remains that unless you’re a Sony fan (hello to that person) putting iPlayer on your TV is one of the hardest things to do. Before the BluRay player, I was doing it with a hacked AppleTV.

Ah but what of Apple? For a long time they have had a much loved but maybe undersold runner in this race. The Apple TV. The product that some people love so much, they think that there’s going to be an actual TV set made by Apple. I have just seen my Apple TV die this last week, not too upsetting as it is so old that it must have been part of the first run of the device. The current model is very small and very cheap. It streams content from your iTunes library to your television more easily than any other device on the market, although others can perform the same basic task. It will even let you rent movies from the iTunes store, which has the same basic new movie selection as the XBox, PS3 or the growing number of smarter TVs and BluRay players. It also has Netflix and YouTube functionality much like all the other streaming video players.

The Apple TV is in danger of becoming irrelevant as more and more devices replicate its functionality. For a long time the Apple TV has been the cheapest of all the streaming video options, at £99 it is a great little device. However that simply isn’t true any more, and it does face another bigger problem. Look at that Sony BluRay player. For a start it cost me £10 less than an Apple TV would have. If I was just looking for a streaming video player then it wins on price alone. The important thing is that I didn’t buy the BluRay player as a streaming video player. I bought it as a BluRay player. That really means that I now have no reason to replace my Apple TV.

On top of that, I didn’t buy my XBox as a streaming video player either, that was bought as a gaming machine, and now it does more video than the Apple TV ever dreamed of. So with all of these devices I’ll not bother replacing the broken Apple TV. There’s just nothing that it does that need to do.

Right now we’re also lucky enough to see the start of a streaming service battle in the UK. We just got Netflix and they are aggressively standing toe to toe with LoveFilm, which is effectively Amazon’s UK based video offering. Both cost around a fiver each month and offer an impressive selection of video content, with more being added to each service all the time. At the moment I feel like Netflix has the edge on functionality, you can happily enjoy your online content through iOS and Android apps, LoveFilm don’t offer such a thing. However LoveFilm has a larger selection of content at the moment, but you’re locked to your TV or computer. Nether are perfect, and they both use Silverlight on their websites which just makes me angry.

So now we’re at the point where if you’ve got some sort of box plugged into your TV then the chances are that you can stick an internet cable into it and get yourself some streaming video. I suppose this stuff still impresses me because I remember our first VCR arriving at the house. Now I can pretty much be watching any film I can think of in the next 30 seconds. We truly do live in the future now.

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Nothing could be further from the truth. I explained everything in great detail on SHaFT last night, which will be available to download as of Sunday night.

Like I said in my last post, I can’t and am not leaving Simply Syndicated. What I do intend to do however, is turn the whole thing upside down and inside out. Everything must change, but that doesn’t mean I have to suddenly start work in a completely new field. I’m a new media creative, it’s what I do, and I have to keep doing that. The best place for me to do that is Simply Syndicated. It’s just that it’s time to change what Simply Syndicated does.

This is not a sad day, or an end to shows. I’m very grateful for your kind words of encouragement, it keeps me going.

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I’ve been running a podcast network, full time, for about six years now. While it is true that a lot was achieved, it’s also true that things have fallen short. If there’s a way to get rich from podcasting, I haven’t found it yet, or at least haven’t actually done it yet. Allison claims you can set your watch to my “second week in December breakdown”, and she’s right. This time of year puts a lot of financial pressure on all of us, and really helps to make me regret what I do. Breaking point, is usually the second week of December. What makes things feel worse, is the knowledge that I’m only so badly off financially because of either my own failings, or lack of action. I really only have myself to blame. I’m well educated, well supported. I come from a stable family home, where both parents were professional people. From birth I was set good examples of hard work, and the rewards it brings. People that come from where I come from, generally do far far better than I do. Of all the people who completed my sixth form, I’m one of very few to not be very well off. In short, I should be doing better in life than I am.

I have managed to make it through the last few years by reminding myself of the following quote:

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” – Steve Jobs

The money doesn’t matter as long as you’re doing something you’re proud of. Yeah? That’s absolutely brilliant if you’ve got millions of dollars in the bank, but it sucks when there’s nothing there. My cupboard is bare, and really it’s my fault. If I’m honest, I had a little success, let it go to my head, then let it wallow. If you want to see a straight line, I’ll show you a graph of Simply Syndicated’s web stats. If there was a board of directors, I’d have been fired.

Emotionally, I have fired myself. I think I kind of gave up on things a while ago because they weren’t going how I wanted. The silly thing was that they weren’t going how I wanted because I wasn’t making it happen. Without knowing it, I was making myself the the worlds foremost mind on how to not run a podcast network. I keep reading that last sentence back and it is correct. It thought it should be “how not to run a podcast network” but “hot to not run a podcast network” is more correct. I haven’t made any mistakes. I haven’t failed at anything. I haven’t been told no. At the same time, I haven’t made headway with sponsorship for shows. I haven’t done shows. I haven’t fixed websites. And I haven’t moved forward. Saying that I know how to not run a podcast network is very correct.

So what caused this and why should it change, and why should I get another go? Well, it was caused by me thinking things would just keep growing, and panicing when I turned out to be wrong. I managed to convince myself that I had been successful and had no need to concern myself with things like growing an audience. When new podcasters were inspired to create shows, I then managed to convince myself that I was some sort of person who had “made it”. I haven’t made it at all yet, and I stopped trying.

Working alone all day, not having things turn out how you hoped, that’s demotivating and depressing. Then before you know it, you’re in a downward spiral of lack of motivation and depression about your lack of motivation.

My initial reaction to this is to convince myself that I need to get a “proper job”. Because I think I’m qualified for nothing, I convince myself further that this job should be in some sort of shop or call centre. That’s even more depressing. Last night I realised how stupid that is. I needed to take long hard look at myself and decide what it is I am and what it is I do. What am I good at? I’m a creative person. That can be writing, talking, joking, websites, whatever. It’s what I enjoy, and I’m good at it. When buying car insurance, I selected Broadcaster as my occupation. That’s such a broad word that can mean so much, and it definitely applies to me. Just because Simply Syndicated isn’t doing as well as I’d like, doesn’t mean I suddenly have to go and work in a shop. That brings me to what will change.

There’s just no way that I can suddenly have nothing further to do with Simply Syndicated. So many reasons why I could never just shut it down, or stop appearing on shows. Besides, I very much enjoy Tech It Or Leave It, and having a show with your name in the title is cool. What’s very important is that things change, a lot, very quickly. For a while I was toying with the idea of just starting again with something else. But seeing as I can’t walk away from Simply Syndicated it makes more sense to use what is there and build it up again. Different this time. I have plans.

I also need to spend some more time on myself. Spend more time with my own audience, and spend more time working for them. There should be more stuff on my own website. I realise that’s a very general statement, but again, I have plans.

Everything has to change.

So why will it change? Because it has to. It simply HAS to. I can’t live like this anymore, and I’m not sure what the alternative to that is, but I’m sure I don’t like it. I have to be who I am and do what I do. I also need to be able to live. I have spent so long thinking about what I’d like to achieve that I didn’t get on and achieve it. The time is now. If I don’t take hold of my life and get my money’s worth, I may as well just go out and find a big thing to fall off.

Everything has to change.

Do me a favour to help me out here. Go get your copy of A Christmas Story and watch the scene where they go to see Santa. The whole thing is a wonderful metaphor for the last six years of my life. All the anticipation, waiting in line, knowing exactly what I’m going to ask for. Then the moment comes, it’s all just too much and you end up on Santa’s lap mumbling something about a football. Then, just as I started to fall down that slide with a dumb look on my face, a little voice in my head woke me up. I am presently clawing my way back up that slide to shout at Santa.

In some places my focus has been to wide, and in other places too narrow. I am no longer a podcaster, and I no longer run a podcast network. Everything has to change.

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Not long ago I found that my debit card wasn’t working in a lot of ATMs. It always worked in shops, it just had the problems with ATMs. I was calling the bank to order a new card, when a recorded message told me something interesting.

I was directed to call a number so it could be explained to me why my card wasn’t working. I called and they explained. Apparently Natwest has asked its customers what they want from their bank account, and what they want is a more basic account. My account has been changed to be one of these new accounts, and the inability to use anything other than Natwest ATMs is a feature. That’s right, Natwest customers were finding their money too easy to get hold of, so they asked to have things restricted. Natwest are only responding to customer demand.
And so I enquired what kind of account I need to be able to use ATMs. It turns out I need to have an account that comes with an overdraft. Full ATM use is only available to customers who borrow money from the bank. But if gets worse.

Even if I get that kind of account that has to come with an overdraft, and just don’t use the overdraft, I still need to be depositing £1500 per month to get the account. To give you some context for that, the wages from my full time job running a podcast network this month came to £200. Not quite what the bank are looking for.

So, long story short, I no longer earn enough money to be allowed to use all the cash machines that are available to people who earn more than me, and borrow more than me.

It’s just a shame that when Natwest asked their customers what they want, they didn’t ask me. I have considered changing banks, but I’m told that Natwest are actually one of the last banks to introduce this rule.

It’s good to be a bank.

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iPhone Owner 2: Yeah, iPhones are better because their batteries last for ages!

iPhone Owner 1: Actually my iPhone 4S is getting terrible battery life.

iPhone Owner 2: I think it might be to do with those new location services we got?

iPhone Owner 1: Really?

Android Owner: [FACEPALM]

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However, what I’m interested in today, is the digital copy of the film. So why include a digital copy? I presume it’s so I don’t rip the DVD. Soon in the UK we’ll be legally allowed to transfer media from one medium to another, which will apply to ripping both CDs and DVDs. If the movie company are happy for me to have a digital copy, then why not include some software that would rip the DVD to a format of my choosing? DRM.

Saying that there is a digital copy included is true, but not the whole story. Each triple play set comes with a code which allows you to download the movie from iTunes. The digital copy included on the disc is encoded with Windows Plays For Sure DRM, which at this point means you can play it on a Windows PC and nothing else. I’m struggling to think of a popular portable device that can play this particular flavour of DRM. iOS can’t, Android can’t. As far as I know, even Windows Phone 7 can play Plays For Sure files. It’s safe to say that most people who buy triple play sets, are going to download the iTunes copy. It’s the only option I’ve ever taken because there’s just no way the Windows version will play on my Mac.

What I find most interesting about all this, is what this does for Apple. Making the iTunes version of the film be the digital copy, means that every triple play set is a reason to buy an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Mac. It’s safe to assume that if you’re buying a Blu-Ray that comes with a digital version, then you intend to watch that movie on a portable device. Whether it’s your phone, or tablet. The only phones or tablets available that play the digital copy, are i devices. Genius.

This little move by Apple does something very special. It changes iTunes from being a store like Amazon or Play, into a format like DVD or Blu-Ray. Steve Jobs once described Blu-Ray as a bag of hurt. I don’t think he always felt that way.

Anyway, while we’re talking about this, isn’t it obvious that Google have to do something about this? I don’t doubt that iOS will become the default standard for people who buy tablets, but the closest competitors will be running Android. There are also more Android phones out there in the world, than there are iPhones. Wouldn’t it make the most sense if the two files that were available to you in your triple play set, were the iTunes copy, and something that runs on Android? Because, well, here’s the thing. I want a copy of my film that plays on my Android phone, so I’m ripping the DVD, which is what they didn’t want me to do in the first place. And I plan on getting an iPad so I’m downloading the iTunes versions too. Why not? I payed for them.

But HANG ON! I just thought of something else. That code for the iTunes movie, only works once. As soon as I use it, the code becomes useless. That means that I no longer own a triple play Blu-Ray set, I own a double play one. At least as far as anyone buying my used copy is concerned. By making the digital copy on the disc totally pointless, and by giving you a code for a one time only download of the useful copy, they give a swift kick to the second hand film market. Movie companies hate it when normal people sell their old DVDs and Blu-Rays to each other, because somebody new sees the movie, and they don’t make any money off it. I suddenly feeling dumb for going through all my discs and making sure I’ve downloaded the digital version from iTunes. Just rip the DVD.

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First of all, my handset was free. I get 500 minutes, 5000 texts, and 1GB of data for £30 per month, on a 24 month contract.

Then to compare that to the iPhone 4S. I’m comparing the 32GB model, because that’s what my S2 has. You can get the 4S on the same tariff that I’m currently on, except that the monthly fee is £35, not £30. £5 per month extra for 24 months is £120. And on this particular tariff, the handset costs £139. That means that over the life of the contract you’re paying £259 more to own the iPhone 4S.

I know some of you out there have actually gone and pre-ordered the phone, so I have to ask. What feature in particular do you think is worth an extra £259 over what Android has to offer? What makes the iPhone 4S that much better than everything else. Is it Siri? If Siri came out as an Android app, and offered exactly the same functionality as the iPhone version, but cost £259, would you think it was worth it?

Maybe it’s the camera? Maybe the camera is worth £259, even though you can pick up a Panasonic Lumix TX20, the best point and shoot camera available, for £229.99.

Maybe it’s the retina display? Event though the Nexus Prime has the same 320dpi pixel density, on a much larger screen, and will almost certainly be available for free.

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We’ll all miss you Steve.

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- Philip W  Shiller, “Let’s Talk iPhone” event 2011.

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