I blogged about this album a few months back and now that it’s been out for a while [iTunes, Amazon], I’ve been playing it a lot and have to say I am enjoying it very much. It’s a two disc set that takes you way back at the beginning and brings you forward to present day.

Here is the track listing:

Disc 1

1. “Release” (live in Verona, Italy, September 16 2006)
2. “Alive” (live in Seattle, WA, December 22 1990)
3. “Garden” (live in Zurich, Switzerland, February 19 1992)
4. “Why Go” (live in Hamburg, Germany, March 10 1992)
5. “Black” (MTV Unplugged in New York, NY, March 16 1992)
6. “Blood” (live in Auckland, New Zealand, March 25 1995)
7. “Last Exit” (live in Taipei, Taiwan, February 24 1995)
8. “Not for You” (live in Manila, Philippines, February 26 1995)
9. “Do the Evolution” (Monkeywrench Radio, Seattle, WA, January 31 1998)
10. “Thumbing My Way” (take 2, Seattle, WA, September 6 2002)
11. “Crown of Thorns” (live in Las Vegas, NV, October 22 2000)
12. “Let Me Sleep (Christmas Time)” (Verona, Italy, September 16 2006)
13. “Walk with Me” (live with Neil Young, Mountain View, CA, October 23 2010)
14. “Just Breathe” (live in New York, NY, March 13 2010)

Disc 2

15. “Say Hello 2 Heaven” (Temple of the Dog demo, 1990)
16. “Times of Trouble” (demo, 1990)
17. “Acoustic #1″ (demo, 1991)
18. “It Ain’t Like That” (Alice In Chains cover, demo, 1990)
19. “Need to Know” (Matt Cameron demo, 2007)
20. “Be Like Wind” (Mike McCready score, 2010)
21. “Given to Fly” (Mike McCready acoustic instrumental, July 29 2010)
22. “Nothing as It Seems” (Jeff Ament Montana demo, 1999)
23. “Nothing as It Seems” (live in Seattle, WA, October 22 2001)
24. “Indifference” (live in Bologna, Italy, September 14 2006)
25. “Of the Girl” (instrumental, 2000)
26. “Faithfull” (soundcheck in Pistoia, Italy, September 20 2006)
27. “Bu$hleaguer” (live in Uniondale, NY, April 30 2003)
28. “Better Man” (live in New York, NY, May 21 2010)
29. “Rearviewmirror” (live in Universal City, CA, October 1 2009)

Tracks that are getting a lot of multiple plays are #6 “Blood”, #11 “Crown Of Thorns”, #26 “Faithful” and #29 “Rearviewmirror”. These songs are so strong as live cuts, demos and sound checks. Track 11 in particular was played at the 10th anniversary performance, which if you know the history of Pearl Jam, you will really appreciate how well this cover was done live. And track 29 was during their last major tour in 2009, which was the last time I saw them live.

Pearl Jam Twenty on DVD

So after you listen to these songs, you need to go and seek out the documentary, which is so well done [it was done by Cameron Crowe, so it has brilliance already written on it]. It’s on DVD and Netflix Instant Watch. You won’t be disappointed.

And we are back to being just Netflix.

After a few months of wacky and idiotic decisions that have cost the online streaming/DVD rental by mail company a lot of value and almost a million subscribers, Netflix is back to being just Netflix.

Back a few weeks ago, Netflix announced they were spinning off their DVD rental service to a separate site called Qwikster. Whatever prompted this split [my guess is the studios and license owners had a small, but significant part in this], it wasn’t the most thought out of decisions. Two webs sites. Two logins. Who came up with this idea?

Other Missteps

It seems that this once “can’t do no wrong” company has made a lot of major changes to its business, that personally didn’t need to be made. I’ve already blogged about their price hikes and separation of DVD and streaming subscription plans. But this next misstep is one that’s confusing, to say the least.

There was a saved list at the bottom of the instant queue where movies that were not available could be added, and when they became available, would be added to your instant queue. Well, while this list is still available, it’s not being shown on the Netflix queue. To the average user, it’s gone and appears to be deleted. They did address the decision in an official blog post, but that doesn’t help the subscribers that used that list now that it’s effectively gone.

Turns out that if you do some digging, you will find a web site called Feed Fliks that can show you this list.

The question is: why would Netflix keep this data yet take away the ability to see it on their own site? Baffled is the nicest word I can use here. Fucking with your loyal users is the term I would equate this decision with. While they may have their reasons, it’s just a dumb decision.

So now that they have corrected some of their illogical decisions, can they return to the glory they once knew? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if they can stabilize their business model – and hopefully without losing more subscribers in the process

The last time I blogged about Netflix, it was over a price increase. And once again, I blog about Netflix as they raise their prices.

On Tuesday, Netflix announced their new pricing and plan structures. Instead of continuing to offer a combo plan of both DVD rentals and Instant Watch streaming, they have separated the services into two plans – DVD only and streaming only. Here’s a summary of the new plans:

• Streaming only (unlimited views): $7.99
• 1 DVDs out at a time (unlimited rentals): $7.99
• 2 DVDs out at a time (unlimited rentals): $11.99
• 3 DVDs out at a time (unlimited rentals): $15.99
• 4 DVDs out at a time (unlimited rentals): $21.99
• 5 DVDs out at a time (unlimited rentals): $27.99
• 6 DVDs out at a time (unlimited rentals): $32.99
• 7 DVDs out at a time (unlimited rentals): $37.99
• 8 DVDs out at a time (unlimited rentals): $43.99

The above prices are billed to a credit card you have on file with Netflix once a month. You can combine streaming and DVD rental plans by simply adding $7.99 to each of the above plans.

Before The Increase

I am currently on the 1 DVD out at a time plus streaming plan for $9.99 a month plus local sales tax [I get billed $10.62 every month on my credit card] This was only $7.99 for the 1 DVD out plan, but then they combined the streaming with it, which was nice. But in hindsight, it got me used to getting more for less. And so here is where the outrage and rub down starts.

Netflix has done this before with the Blu-Ray… give you it for free for a while, get you hooked on it and used to it, then start charging for it. While this is a great way to promote a new service, it’s a terrible way to deal with the price increase. It’s almost a bait and switch, on a media viewing level. Get you in for the cheap stuff, then once you get it and enjoy it, raise the price on you. No different than many other businesses, but for Netflix, the darling of the tech and consumer world, they take it on the chin rather harshly.

Netflix gives the reason for this latest increase in plans as “Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs” And I happen to agree. The extra $2 a month for unlimited DVD rentals was a killer deal, just not financially viable for the long term.

Like Coasters

The constant scene on our TV stand (this was when we had the 2 DVD plan)

Which brings me to my decision here. Do I continue the 1 DVD out plan with streaming and have my bill go up $6 a month? I see those red envelopes on my TV stand often – sometimes there for weeks at a time and it makes me think about how many DVDs do I watch. The last DVD, the movie Black Swan, sat on the stand for 3 weeks before I watched it last night. Meanwhile, I can watch a streaming movie or TV show on my laptop, Sony PS3 or iPad whenever.

Limited

Too limited for me

Ok, so if these price increases are too much, Netflix does still have too very limited plans for those who really don’t watch a lot of movies each month. As per the above graphic, they don’t give you much, but you also are not paying much, either. Neither of these plans interest me in the least, but to some they may be a great fit for the budget minded.

Streaming Stays

To summarize and given my history and patterns, it’s pretty much been decided that I’m going to downsize my Netflix plan to just the $7.99 a month unlimited streaming. For new release DVDs, Redbox has been finding it’s way into my life. I get free rental codes once a month and at $1 a day, I find that I don’t let the DVD sit around for more than just a few hours before watching it. Netflix’s lack of late charges has made me a lazy DVD viewer. Redbox may retrain me to be more prompt. Plus, I could add the DVD rental to my account anytime if I wanted it for a month or two, not affecting my streaming plan.

I know Ren has chimed in on his thoughts on the Netflix price hikes. How about anyone else? How do you use Netflix? Or do you use Redbox? Or maybe you are still with *shudder* Blockbuster. Speak up, readers.

It’s now been over five months since I bought my iPad and started integrating it into my daily life.

To some, it’s just a giant iPod touch. To others, it’s a limited device that can’t view Flash websites. To me, it’s been a really cool device that’s not only fun to use, but has changed some of my productivity, how I view media, a solid and fast device to check email and another option to tweet.

I bought the 16gb WiFi model on the first day – April 3, 2010. Since the official unveiling in January 2010, I thought of this device as something that could feasibly replace a netbook I don’t use because it’s too slow, runs Windows and didn’t fulfill the promise of me using it to write. My MacBook Pro has always been used more often for writing. And while I am still working on a workable solution using the iPad for writing, I’ve been able to use it for more than I had originally intended, given the many apps that are now available for the device.

Here’s a summary, with screen shots, of the apps I use on my iPad.

BlogPress

BlogPress

Thanks to a Twitter mention from Kim, I found an app that I can actually work on blog posts while on the iPad. I still do the final post from my laptop, but I can now do a majority of the writing from my iPad. The WordPress official app is pure crap and added more frustration to my post creations. So I deleted it and now use BlogPress. Plus, this app also supports more than just WordPress, like Google’s Blogger, which helps for my other blog that I rarely post on. And at a cost of $2.99, it’s priced just right for all of it’s features.

Echofon

Echofon

This is my main Twitter app for my Mac, iPhone and now iPad. I’ve tried all of the other apps and found that Echofon really has everything that I need. My favorite feature is typing a Twitter username and having it pop up with a list that matches, which I can easily pick from. Very nice for adding multiple recipients in the same tweet. Plus, the same app supports both iPhone and iPad, eliminating the need to maintain more than one app for both iOS devices. Worth the $4.99 without question.

Evernote

Evernote

I keep lots of notes, but there was never a solution that synced my notes between my Palm Pre, the Mac, the iPhone and the iPad. Until I found Evernote. While most of my notes are still kept on my laptop (and synced to my Palm Pre), all of the main notes I need to see each day have been moved to Evernote. In addition to basic text notes, it has a simple list with checkbox format that allows me to keep my LEGO minifig collection in check. And for free, you get 40mb of data per month, which is way more than I’ll ever need for a long time. Highly recommended even if you don’t use an iPad.

GoodReader

GoodReader

Simply put, this is the best app for viewing PDF files on the iPad. I’ve not pushed all of my PDF files over to it just yet, but as I need a document, it’s just a simply sync from iTunes to have it on my iPad. There’s support for Dropbox and Google Docs and other remote file storage systems. And for 99 cents, it’s feature set exceeds the cost the of the app.

Apple Mail

Apple Mail

Built in to the iPad, this app is similar to the one found on all Macs. I’m able to keep on top of my personal email (not including my Gmail) and reply as needed. Each morning, I check my email from the iPad, then leaving messages that need more attention to my laptop for later. This has helped reduce how much time I spend managing my email on my laptop.

Reeder

Reeder

This is a dedicated Google Reader app, which is my main feed reader for all of the blogs I read. I’m able to read and comment on a regular basis and it’s easy to mark all as read [not that I would do that ] and mark as unread for those posts I want to read later on my laptop. The interface is easy to use, it’s fast and I’ve never had any issues getting around the 120 or so blogs that I am subscribed to. The iPad app is $4.99 and for what it has done to help me read blogs, it’s worth every penny.

Some Adjustments

For the most part, the iPad is awesome. But there have been some adjustments. Typing on the on-screen keyboard produces lots of errors. I’ve been able to eliminate many of the errors over the last 5 months, but still have some frustration trying to type. My next step is to hook up a physical keyboard for dedicated writing, which will help a lot. Also, any web page with Flash doesn’t display, but that’s not been that big of an adjustment. I simply take note of the link and load it up on my laptop later. Finding Wifi access points have gotten better, but still, there’s a good number of apps that I use that need an internet connection.

Overall

So is it worth the $500 I spent? Yes, without hesitation. I’ve been very happy with how well this device has changed how I access the daily data I use. Plus, the ability to watch video via Netflix and Hulu, it’s helped me catch up on TV shows I hardly watch anymore.

So do you have an iPad? If so, how do you use it? What apps do you have installed?

On October 8, 2008, Netflix sent out an announcement to subscribers that they will be charging an extra $1 per month for Blu-Ray rentals. Here’s the announcement:

“Thanks for a being a loyal customer. Now we want another $1 per month.”
 

Upon reading this, I thought, “Ok, it’s time to quit!” I mean, Netflix offers Blu-Ray delivery as a free option earlier in 2008 [with no extra cost to mail the disc], then ends up charging us Blu-Ray owners an extra fee each month later in the year. Get me hooked, then tack on an extra buck. I don’t think so. Where’s that cancel button?

Okay, so maybe I’m making a big deal out this. I’ve been with Netflix since November 1999. That’s almost 10 years. Plus, thinking about the actual dollar amount, that extra $1 per month (plus taxes) isn’t really that much, at least when compared to the extra fees that my cell phone company [Sprint] finds a way to add to my cell phone bill every few months. On top of that, it’s not a requirement, as I can remove the Blu-Ray option from my account [shaving off that $1 fee in the process], leaving normal DVD mail delivery and Instant Watch, which at the time were only viewable under Windows. [which I don't like, since I am a Mac user and rarely run Windows for personal tasks]

Instant Change

Instantly Mac – it’s about time

But then came another email on December 3, 2008. This time with good news. Instant Watch is now on the Mac. It’s using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology [similar to Flash], which is actually not that bad and has a very small footprint. Movies are pretty decent in quality and on a decent broadband connection, I only get one or two buffering segments. And I’m watching a movie per week, which is progress for me.

Stick It Out

So while I almost pulled the plug on my Netflix account, I’ve decided I’m going to keep it around for a bit longer. I like getting Blu-Ray discs, plus now having the option to watch movies instantly on my Mac fits my distraction habits. All that’s left now for Netflix to do is offer Instant Watch over my PlayStation 3. One can hope it will happen sooner than later in an effort to keep this Netflix subscriber happier for the long haul.