adrianh's Techdirt Profile

adrianh

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  • Jun 24, 2025 @ 08:35pm

    I think it's also time to do a deep dive on YouTube Premium

    YouTube Premium has rapidly increased in cost over the few couple of years. All the content is freely produced by content creators - nothing is paid for directly upfront any more as far as I know. The content creators are constantly complaining about the lack of revenue. Alphabet keeps promising "improvements" for the increasing price. But as a user I struggle to think of a single improvement, let alone one that benefits me. There are heaps of features I'd love to see but there is no process for users to offer feedback, the only feedback is from content creators and advertisers. If the price increases don't benefit me or the content creators , that leave one last beneficiary of the price hikes... Over the years I have successfully "voted with my wallet" away from so many services but YouTube really feels like a monopoly - I paid for Pandora for a year but its just too small and found myself just going back to YT. I think only an antitrust action can save the users from Alphabets unbridled greed.

  • Feb 08, 2024 @ 04:09pm

    Innovation in stream services

    It would be cheaper and quicker to be trying new things in the UI for netflix than to work our new sources of content. There are some obvious innovations they could pickup from their competitors, but I cannot recall an single change in the last couple of years. Why can't I add a song to my streaming play list from a movie? Amazon prime let you see songs and actors that are in the scene. Why are my recommendation so static when I almost never select any of them. Why can't I mark certain shows/topics as being of no interest to me. Why can't I have a watch party on netflix? Why can't I share show recommendations with my friends? Why can't is see what's popular with viewers with similar tastes to me? Where is the reminder that I should complete watching a series before it leaves netflix?

  • May 15, 2023 @ 06:55pm

    Punch down

    Elon likes fighting people with less power than him. As soon as the fight looks hard he pisses his pants and retreats to his safe space. Elon vs ElonJet Elon vs Tesla staff Elon vs Twitter staff Elon vs Richard Stanton Elon vs Haraldur Thorleifsson Also, it's hard to fight in court when you have no lawyers. And it's hard to find lawyers when you have a epically failing business which is known for not paying bills.

  • May 23, 2021 @ 11:49pm

    AMAZON AMAZON AMAZON

    So many of the issues that are now negatively affect Twitch were brewing when Amazon bought it. It's disappointing they had no real strategy on how they were going to tackle them. I realise the copyright is a hard one, but there was some hope that Amazon was powerful enough to help standup to the copyright bullies. For they to be even weaker than Alphabet is just wow. These there is this garbage which makes no sense at all. Sometime I start to wonder whether these new mega-rich oligopolistic tech companies are really as good for the world as they tell us they are... I might even cancel my Amazon prime. No, on second thought, lets all write to our politicians about anti-trust.

  • Apr 28, 2017 @ 04:41pm

    ESPN in Oz

    I've been watching a bit of the NBA playoffs on ESPN in Australia. It's a channel on our sole cable provider, Foxtel (yes it's owned by Muroch). During the half time analysis, Australian ESPN viewers just get extra ads! You can get rid of journos and replace them with ads, the executive behind that descision deserves something...

  • May 26, 2016 @ 03:17pm

    This book is not available for purchase

    Amazon won't let me buy this book. Either the digital store is running short of electrons or its region blocked. Nice play Amazon, who needs money...

  • Apr 28, 2016 @ 05:46pm

    Also recommended under "annoying Windows 10 'features'"

    The "you're running low on disk space" which cannot be turned off.
    "Yes you've already told me two hundred times. I get it. Now f*ck off!"

  • Nov 14, 2015 @ 02:15pm

    Twitch tv

    This is a huge problem with twitch TV. That and the fact that the stream often breaks after the ad, in which case you need to reload the stream and watch another ad. As blockers are an absolute requirement.

  • Oct 16, 2015 @ 08:23pm

    How the hell did they think blanket surveillance/data collection works? So full of their own self importance to put too much thought into legislation.

  • Apr 28, 2015 @ 04:27pm

    Re: As an Aussie consumer...

    As a fellow Aussie :)
    I can vouch for the the high price of data in Australia. If it was uncapped this would not have been an issue at all.

    The local media (which are quite partisan given their competing interests) gave the impression that Netflix was also regretful due to so many users trying the free month and getting a poor quality experience.

    Also as a background, Aussie ISP have often offered "un-metered" content for stuff stored on their local mirror/proxy sites. For example if they have the latest 10Gb game patch on their local mirror they don't charge you for the bandwidth to download it. Theory being, the highest cost of data is via the expensive undersea cables that connect Oz to the our neighbours so pass on the savings to your customers.

  • May 28, 2014 @ 07:20pm

    I think youtubers should be wary of Nintendo. Here are three big reasons:
    1/ regardless of any agreement you come to with Nintendo there is no way to present this agreement to youtube via the DCMA reporting system prior to getting strikes against you.
    2/ The marketing departments, legal department and different world regions are often not on the same page as each other, so coming to an agreement with the North American Nintendo marketing departments wont necessarily stop the Japanese Nintendo legal department from flagging your content.
    3/ Automated DCMA flagging doesn't care about written agreements you have with anyone.

  • Feb 26, 2013 @ 02:00pm

    Funny story...

    That's crazy. When I saw that website I ordered the complete Calvin and Hobbes on Amazon (~$58). If that website was not created I probably would not have done that.... Free became paid and I chose to do so. Weird that. I wonder if Amazon has some stats on increase in Calvin and Hobbes sales since the website became popular?