Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Blocks Video Streaming On BlackBerry Tablet, Blames Apple
AZA43 writes "Amazon.com has blocked its Instant Video streaming service on BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, in an apparent effort to make its Kindle Fire device more attractive to tablet buyers. And it says Apple is the reason why it blocked the service. But the company hasn't blocked comparable Android tablets from streaming Instant Video, and Android tablets hold a much larger portion of the overall tablet market than PlayBooks. Amazon will likely succeed only in alienating customer with PlayBooks who have already purchased lots of streaming video content."
Indeed. I hear both Playbook owners are absolutely livid about this.
"And it says Apple is the reason why it blocked the service."
????? Is someone from Slashdot running Amazon now??
OK, this doesn't smell right. This allegation is based upon one email from customer service, and given the context it's even quite possible that "Apple" (mentioned once in the message) was a brainfart with the customer service agent intending to write "Adobe". Lest anyone think I'm grasping at straws, the entire email makes no sense whatsoever if taken literally (as it kind of implies Apple wrote Flash!), but makes perfect sense if you read "Apple" as "Adobe".
After waiting less than a day for confirmation from Amazon the author of the article decides to go ahead and make the claim despite the somewhat dubious circumstances. I don't believe it for a second, and I think the author's an idiot.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Looking at the situation, I would say that the message about it being Apples fault is a canned response to people asking about playback on the iPad that got miss-routed as a response to this new issue with the PlayBook. I suspect that Amazon does not know why its not working on the PlayBook, or at least does not have a fix. I also would not be shocked if they did not fix it as the PlayBook seems like a dead platform from a development standpoint. Lets remember that a PlayBook native player would require dedicated development time since the whole Android apps on PlayBook thing never really panned out. Coupled with the out of date flash player, there's not a lot Amazon can do.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
No, RIM's customer has more than one, he's a big fan of the platform as it happens!
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
You buy ACCESS to data, and the moment the supplier doesn't like you, some obscure line in the EULA is found and used to deny the User ACCESS to the Data. But the user never actually owns the Data, in that the data is resident on machines of their possession.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Indeed. I hear both Playbook owners are absolutely livid about this.
The guy has a multiple personality disorder? Didn't know that.
Ezekiel 23:20
I have one! It is an excellently designed tablet, with a nice feel in the hand, physical buttons for media and volume, cameras, a great screen.
I sincerely wish I had paid more and bought a cheap android tablet instead.
... Amazon blamed the PlayBook's Flash player for the issue, saying the Flash software needed to be update, even though my Adobe Flash software is up to date (v11.1.122.4) ...
So its Adobe not Apple?
FWIW being current and needing an update is plausible. Amazon may have learned of an exploit in Flash and will only resume streaming after the security problem is fixed. OK, plausible but not terribly likely.
... Apple owns the rights to the hardware and software that would allow Amazon video content to be played on the BlackBerry PlayBook? Yet Amazon has allowed Instant Video customers to play video content on RIM's tablet for the past year, and just now the company decided to block the functionality? Something isn't right here, and I reached out to Amazon.com's media relations team more than 24 hours ago for clarification, but I haven't received a response. The above response from Amazon customer service could simply be misinformation sent by an irresponsible customer representative ...
Then maybe a better title for your article would have been "Amazon Blocks Instant Video on BlackBerry PlayBook, Customer Service Rep Blames Apple"
I hear both Playbook owners are absolutely livid about this.
Well to be fair the second guy has not got word to us yet, still trying to find his Blackberry so he can get an email out about his fury.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I agree with you and think we should give them the benefit of the doubt. Still, the way I see it, the "blaming on Apple" part is not really the important one. What matters here is that we have hardware and software that can perform a task, and that Amazon prevents this from happening so that they can sell more of their own hardware (or so they think). Whoever they blame this on is secondary, and focusing on this secondary aspect would make you miss the important bit here: Amazon is evil for blocking its streaming service.
...as if 4 voices suddenly cried out in terror and then went on with their lives.
Total Playbook activations are closer to the 1M mark actually...
I think the user is doesn't understand the phrase "does not support" This does not mean Amazon is blocking the device. I means they don't test their service on Playbooks and don't fix bugs that occur on Playbooks. The error message is "Playback Error: Sorry we were unable to stream the video. This is likely because your Flash Player needs to be updated." That doesn't look like the message they would return if they were blocking the device.
Hence there is no technical reason why the videos shouldnt work on the Playbook. Also you cannot assume the CSR meant Adobe instead of Apple with any certainty unless you are Mr Mantri himself. The CS email is a buch of garbage that makes no sense. But Amazon has already gone back on their promise of a kindle app so im not too surprised.
$ unzip, strip, touch, finger, grep, mount, fsck, more, yes,fsck,fsck,fsck,umount, sleep
I've seen quite a few playbooks, but then, I live in Ottawa. And go past 2 RIM offices on the bus ride from work. I'm pretty sure however, that I haven't seen anybody who doesn't work for RIM with a playbook.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Since it only makes sense when you replace Apple with Adobe, then yes, you can assume they meant Adobe.
You might want to look up what "assume" means.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Well in a two income family, I'm sure they can rustle up the cash for an ipad if they are so inconvenienced by it.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
So... pretty much like every other customer service email from any major company that asks any sort of question more complex than "Where do I click to [insert action here]?" Just saying.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
The author is asserting that Amazon.com, on the basis of one CSR email that doesn't make sense, has deliberately decided to prevent its videos from running on the Playbook.
BTW, the situation gets even more obvious when he explains what happens. The video starts to play, and then the player crashes out with a generic error about requiring a Flash upgrade. Does that sound like how it would act if Amazon had told its developers to stop allowing Playbook users access to Amazon's Video?
It's fairly obvious what's going on here. The Blackberry version of Flash is broken. Amazon can't support that. Amazon's CSR, in a garbled way, tried to point the finger at Adobe, or Apple, or someone who he thinks is responsible for the player in the Blackberry. Rather than wait for an communication from Amazon.com, the author went off half-cocked with a far fetched conspiracy theory that in an effort to improve Kindle Fire sales, Amazon.com found the tablet platform that's got the smallest market share, and banned them from using Amazon Prime Video.
As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon."
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
If you install the 2.0 OS beta (or wait a couple weeks for the full release) you can have full email, contact and calendar apps which includes integration with other social networks like Twitter and Linkedin.
As for Android apps, with OS 2.0 you can sideload almost anything right now. You can also load the Marketplace directly onto a cracked playbook but that tends to have extremely unstable results. For new apps you don't even need to develop specifically for the Blackberry OS, the compiler translates most Android library calls for you so you simply compile your Android app twice and then list it directly in the BB Appworld. There's at least one Andorid market in the process of doing this right now for their entire library.
I picked up a playbook just before Christmas (it's the only BB device I own) and barely put it down the entire holiday season. It was hooked up to my parents TV for almost the entire 3 weeks I was visiting, streaming whatever I had downloaded or copied to it, and when my brother or nephews wanted to watch something I didn't I could still stream it and continue playing Angry Birds or read a ebook. I'm still using it every day. It's the perfect size to just lay down on and end table and grab to play a quick game of Monopoly or search for some useless tidbit of information.
My 66 year old mother loved hers and still comments on it whenever I'm talking to her. I just wish I didn't who her how easy the video chat was to use.
Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
Minor correction: you don't really compile the app twice, rather RIM provides a postprocessor to convert APKs into their own format.
Using their web-based converter it literally took 10min to get one of my apps to run on a friends Playbook.
But everyone blames Apple, it's the chic thing to do. 300 workers at an XBox assembly line threaten suicide? Blame Apple! Sony upping the price on Whitney's albums after her death, including on iTunes? Blame Apple! I am waiting for Apple to get the blame for the swine flu epidemic and Steven Tyler's horrid rendition of the U.S. national anthem next.
I came here to point out the stupid end of the summary, only to find it's the primary discussion point. Good job. Carry on.
Let me know when you find someone under 40 who uses a blackberry that isn't crammed down their throat against their will.