Idle Time

Well, there’s supposed to be. This is linked on the front page of the TV Shows section: The Andy Milonakis Show, season 2. The season premiere is supposed to be there for free. But there are no episodes listed and the show isn’t even in the Browse listing of TV Shows. You can even buy the whole season — $1.99 for 0 episodes.

The customer reviews are pretty negative, so maybe MTV got so embarrassed that they simply asked Apple to pull the season.

UPDATE 2006-04-05 00:11 PST: It’s up now.

In case you’re curious, season 1 is available for money. The only way to get there is by clicking the parent segment in the breadcrumb trail when you visit season 2 (or by clicking my link).

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTMS, iTunes Video Store, iTVS, Andy Milonakis, iTVS, MTV.

This bug is iTMS: “Isms” is actually “Talisman”. It was submitted on 2006-03-31 at 23:59 PST.

Summary:

iTMS sells two albums by Divinorum. But these two albums are actually both the same one.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Buy “Isms” from iTMS.
2. Listen to all of the tracks.

Expected Results:

You hear “Isms”.

Actual Results:

You hear “Talisman”.

Regression:

As far as I known, “Isms” has always been wrong. I submitted feedback when I bought “Isms” from iTMS in 2005-06. It’s still wrong.

Notes:

Bjorn Lynne distributes a number of his tracks for free, including two Divinorum tracks. One is “Antigravity”, the first track of “Isms”.

Listening to the iTMS previews of “Isms” and “Talisman” makes clear that they are the same. Listen to both “Antigravity” (track 1 of “Isms”) and “The Human Male” (track 1 of “Talisman”), for example.

Another demonstration is the track times. The “Antigravity” MP3 that Lynne distributes for free is 8 minutes and 14 seconds long. The version on iTMS is 7 minutes and 6 seconds long — the same length as “The Human Male”. All of the track lengths are the same between the two albums, except for track 11 (“Talisman” has 11 tracks; “Isms” has only 10 tracks).

Technorati tags: Apple Bug Friday, applebugfriday.

This feature request is iTunes should offer menu items to sort the selection. It was filed on 2006-03-31 at 23:35 PST.

Summary:

iTunes should allow [the user to specify — oops! —the Bored Zo] the order in which playlist items are stored in the playlist.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Right-click on a selection, or click in the Edit menu.
2. In the ‘Sort by’ submenu, choose one of the criteria listed.

Expected Results:

The selected items are repositioned within the playlist (that is, the order in which they are stored changes).

Actual Results:

No results, because no such submenu exists.

Regression:

None known.

Notes:

iTunes does currently allow the user to change the order in which items are displayed by clicking a column header. But it offers no quick and easy way to sort items within the playlist itself (that is, to change the order in which the items are stored).

When a display sort (one of the column headers besides the far-left one) is selected, iTunes could run a dialog box: “The order in which the selected items are stored in the playlist was changed. The order in which they are displayed and will be played has not changed, because you have a different sort (^0) selected for display (in the column headers).” (^0 = name of selected column).

At 23:45, I added the following information:

Summary should read: iTunes should allow +the user to specify+ the order in which playlist items are stored in the playlist.

I had edited it and didn’t notice that I removed that part. Sorry.

Technorati tags: Apple Bug Friday, applebugfriday.

As usual, it’s video:

• Sci Fi Inside – Battlestar Galactica
• Best of Ghost Hunters, Vol. 1 (a recap of season 1)

The Conviction pilot costs money now, BTW. But the feelies are still free.

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTMS, iTunes Video Store, iTVS, Battlestar Galactica, Ghost Hunters.

Two videos, no songs (aside from the SOTW — there isn’t even a Discovery Download this week, though):

• A March Madness Preview Show went up sometime last week. 18 minutes of something presumably basketball-related. But what can they show before the games have happened? Last year’s? Anyway, it’s free.
• The premiere episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County (YA reality show) is also free.

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTMS, iTunes Video Store, iTVS, NCAA, Basketball.

This bug is iTunes should have a “Free Downloads” section on other front pages. It was filed on 2006-03-17 at 21:19.

Summary:

iTunes Video Store front pages don’t have a “Free Downloads” section like the Music Store’s does.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Launch iTunes.
2. If the Music Store source is not already selected, select it.
3. Click on Movie Trailers, Music Videos, or TV Shows.
4. Click on the background inside the Music Store view (to the right of the source list).
5. Hit End.

Expected Results:

You see a “Free Downloads” section in the bottom-left corner.

Actual Results:

You don’t see a “Free Downloads” section in the bottom-left corner.

Regression:

None known.

Notes:

The Video Store (especially the TV Shows section) has had a number of free downloads lately, such as the free pilot and feelies for Conviction and the free “This is SportsCenter” commercials. There is no centralized place on any Video Store front pages where people can easily find these free downloads. One must look at all the values for the rotating poster views at the top of the page, and the non-rotating poster views in the middle of the page (below the first middle row).

And yes, this feature request does go toward making it easier for me to compile the “Free Stuff on iTunes” posts. ;)

Technorati tags: Apple Bug Friday, applebugfriday, iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTMS, iTunes Video Store, iTVS.

I don’t remember this being up before, and it’s enough extra stuff that I think it merits an extra post. iTVS now has SportsCenter ads. they are 15 and 30 seconds, they are free, and they are not on the front page of iTMS.

there are apparently other commercials at the ESPN website. if you want more, you’ll have to go there.

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTMS, iTunes Video Store, iTVS, ESPN, SportsCenter.

multi-pass notification emails are clearer now about how you would go about getting the new episodes that are waiting for you. this is what they used to say:

The latest episode of The Daily Show is now available for you to download. Simply sign in to iTunes and it will begin downloading immediately.

… which, as I said before, is not the whole story. if you stay signed in all the time, like I do, you must sign out first.

then patr1ck suggested (in the comments on that post) that I try the “Check for Purchases” menu item in iTunes. that worked, and now Apple backs the same suggestion:

The latest episode of The Daily Show is now available for you to download. Click here and it will begin downloading immediately. You can also select ‘Get Purchases’ from the Advanced menu of iTunes.

the link, interestingly enough, appears to be equivalent to the “Check for Purchases” menu item. I get the idea that every feature of iTMS, even those features that don’t appear in the iTunes window, can be expressed as some kind of URL.

and yes, the email gives the name of the menu item inaccurately, but it’s a huge step up from where they were.

UPDATE 2006-03-16: they fixed it. it says “Check for Purchases…”, which is close enough. the actual title is “Check for Purchases…”, with the Unicode HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS character instead of three FULL STOPs. (that’s the correct way to write a menu item title, BTW, and it has been since the HIG were first written in 1984.)

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTunes Video Store, iTMS, iTVS.

nothing was up initially, but there’s now one free item on iTMS that’s not listed on the front page. as usual, it’s a video: NASCAR Daytona 500 Preview.

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTMS, iTunes Video Store, iTVS.

iTunes added “season passes”. it’s mentioned on the iTVS page, as well as on the front page of the TV Shows section.

ah, but it doesn’t work. there are two three episodes there, and they total $4. the price of a season is $25. not much of a discount, hm?

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTMS, iTunes Video Store, iTVS.

part two of a two-fer. I did this one with proper capitals because the last paragraph was pretty long and I couldn’t think of a good way to break it up. the capitals were my second-choice clean-up method.

this bug is iTunes provides no UI for downloading a new episode on a multi-pass.

UPDATE 2006-03-11: Simone Manganelli mentioned in the comments that I failed to mention that you can Check for Purchases to get new updates (see Multi-pass implementation sucks). everything he said there is correct. mea culpa. :)

I also noticed when I went to edit this that I did not link to the bug report. oops. fixed.

UPDATE 2006-03-14: somebody has put “ITMS: ” in front of the bug’s title.

Summary:

iTunes needs to provide explicit UI for downloading new episodes of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Receive the email notification that a new episode is available.
2. Launch iTunes.

Expected Results:

one or more of:

1. iTunes presents a dialog box that you have episodes waiting to be downloaded, offering to add them to your shopping cart if that is enabled, offering to download them immediately otherwise.
2. iTunes presents a Growl notification that you have episodes waiting to be downloaded. (OK, so I wasn’t expecting it, but it would be nice. :)
3. The iTunes Music Store offers a section listing episodes you haven’t downloaded yet. Perhaps on the Account Information page, being that the notification email tells you to “sign in”. If you try to do this while already signed in, you go to the Account Information page.

Actual Results:

You must sign out and then sign in again to receive the new episode(s).

Regression:

None known.

Notes:

At the very least, the email should point out that you must sign out before signing in if you are already signed in (because signing in does work when you are already signed in, and it has a different result that doesn’t include checking for new multi-pass episodes).

Even better would be a clearer, more explicit UI for checking for and downloading multi-pass episodes. Such UI should include the shopping cart if it is turned on. Though a multi-pass is similar in operation to a podcast, it is not present in the Podcasts source at all; it is, instead, in the Music Store, so multi-pass downloads should behave as any other Music Store download, i.e. go through the shopping cart.

Technorati tags: Apple Bug Friday, applebugfriday.

part one of a two-fer.

this bug is The Daily Show and The Colbert Report not listed among iTunes TV Shows.

UPDATE 2006-03-11: forgot to link to the bug report. oops. fixed.

Summary:

in iTunes’ Browse view, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are not listed.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. click on Music Store. you do not need to load the front page; if you don’t want to, click .
2. click Browse.
3. click TV Shows.

Expected Results:

The Daily Show is listed between Conviction and Desperate Housewives. The Colbert Report is listed between The Biggest Loser and Comedy Central Stand-Up.

Actual Results:

neither The Daily Show nor The Colbert Report is anywhere in the list.

Regression:

none known.

Notes:

rdar://4407769 is a previous instance of missing TV shows.

Technorati tags: Apple Bug Friday, applebugfriday.

So I bought a multi-pass for The Daily Show last night. I was waiting all last night for iTunes to give me a dialog box or something (a Growl notification would have been nice, but that’s just wishing on my part), but it didn’t do anything.

Finally, when I checked my email, I got this:

The latest episode of The Daily Show is now available for you to download. Simply sign in to iTunes and it will begin downloading immediately.

1. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 3/08/06

Sign in? But I’m already signed in! I’m always signed in!

I tried quitting iTunes, accessing the front page, accessing the TV Shows page, accessing the Daily Show page — nothing worked. There was no notification in iTunes that a new episode was available, and not even a place I could poll to see if a new episode was available, much less get it.

Finally I signed out, then signed in again. And then, finally, it downloads. But it didn’t get added to my shopping cart (I still use one — holdover from my dial-up days); it simply downloaded immediately. This would be fine if it were listed among the podcasts, but it’s a component of the Music Store, and Music Store downloads should use the shopping cart if it’s enabled.

So if you buy the multi-pass, you have to sign out and back in to make it download any new episodes. Lame, Apple, lame.

I think I’ll file a bug on this tomorrow.

UPDATE 2006-03-10: Patr1ck suggested in the comments that I should try “Check for Purchases”. This works, but it isn’t documented anywhere. I’ll still file a bug today.

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTunes Video Store, iTMS, iTVS.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog announces that the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are now in iTunes:

The sale of these shows is being handled a bit differently. You can buy a “multi-pass” for both The Colbert Report and The Daily Show for $9.99US. This gets you the current episode, and sets up iTunes to automatically download future episodes as they become available (up to 16 episodes).

this is equal to paying 62.4375¢ per episode. that’s cheaper than music. especially when you consider that 20 minutes of music will usually cost you at least $10 (because songs over 8 minutes are usually album-only).

TUAW says that there weren’t any episodes. there is one now (of each), and it is $1.99, the same as all other TV show episodes on iTVS. there is no reason to buy single episodes of The Daily Show — get the multi-pass and save yourself $21.85.

• The Daily Show
• The Colbert Report

UPDATE 14:29: I should clarify that you can buy these shows an episode at a time if you want to. there is just no reason to, because the multi-pass costs so much less.

Technorati tags: iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTunes Video Store, iTMS, iTVS, The Daily Show.

there’s only one download this week that doesn’t appear in the free section of the front page. it’s Access Hollywood Year 10: Oscar Preview. a little late, but what do you want for free?

UPDATE 2006-03-09: well, I don’t know if this wasn’t up Tuesday or if I just missed it, but there are two other free videos, under Project Runway:

• Project Runway Trailer: ‘Overview of Emmy-nominated series “Project Runway”.’
• Project Runway Trailer: ‘A 22-minute overview of Project Runway Season 2 leading up to the finale.’

here’s a list of free downloads on iTunes that aren’t listed in the “Free Downloads” section on the front page, for the week of 2006-02-28.

Music

• Dolly Parton – Travelin’ Thru — OK, never mind that — I just checked the front page again and they’ve added it now. it wasn’t listed there earlier.

Videos

• Conviction – Conviction (Pilot) — this was up last week as well. it’s the new series from “D**k Wolf” (as he was referred to last week — now all the descriptions have been changed to not mention him by name). I think this airs on actual TV this week.
• Gabe Dixon Band – All Will Be Well — also up last week. problem with this music video is that the characters from the show talk over it. the actual song isn’t available on iTunes. somebody needs to place a call to the Gabe Dixon Band’s recording company.
• Conviction – Behind the Scenes — also up last week.
• Top Chef – Top Chef Trailer — two-minute trailer for a reality show.

my first ever. yay!

in iTunes, there is a ‘Browse’ display, activated by clicking a ‘Browse’ button in the upper-right corner of the ⌘1 window. this provides a hierarchical display of the contents of the currently-selected source. in the iTunes Music Store, one of the top-level selections is ‘TV Shows’.

you would expect that selecting ‘TV Shows’ here would show you a list of all the TV shows available to be bought on the iTunes Video Store. and you would be wrong, because it only lists some of them.

the full list of displayed shows is:

• Adam 12
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Battlestar Galactica
• Commander in Chief
• Desperate Housewives
• Dragnet
• Knight Rider
• Law & Order
• Lost
• Monk
• Night Stalker
• The Office
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
• Surface
• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

this leaves out a number of shows, including well-known ones like Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Saturday Night Live.

filed as rdar://4407769.

UPDATE 2006-01-30: it seems fixed now, although the bug isn’t closed yet.

In case you don’t normally follow iTMS’s free music, both of the free songs this week are good. And if you get Angelina, you should get the original version as well.