After moving to San Francisco, I decided to start and use all those web sites and services that are closed to people from the US. I realized how important is to try these kind of services myself, in order to really understand what kind of experience consumers expect here.
So after a few weeks, here is a short summery of my impressions of some of those services:
- iTunes - Still hate it. Really. I know it's not popular to say, but this is one of the worst media players out there. I hate the fact that I have to use it in order to synch my iPhone.
That said, after finally being able to log in to the iTunes store (you can't use it in Israel) I can see why apple sells so many songs and movies. It's just so easy and tempting to just buy and episode of your favorite series and get it in great quality in one second. - Amazon Prime - Simply Great. Change the all way I do shopping. I use Amazon for buying everything from books, a TV, basketball, silverware. Everything.
- Rhapsody Online - Very nice. Easy access to almost every album I want. Definitely worth the price although I still haven't decided if it's better than Yahoo Music Unlimited.
- Netflix - Now this was a surprise for me. The DVD rental by mail service is a great idea. In Israel the main reason I wasn't watching renting DVD is the fact that I never felt like going to the store and I always forget to return it on time.
But even better is the Netflix on demand streaming service. Basically, you can stream to your computer very high quality videos. True, the library is comprised of mainly oldies, but you can also find cool TV shows (like the third season of The Office). I connected my laptop the my HDTV set and got a great video experience.
Now all I ask is to make it work with their entire collection of DVD. I don't care if it will be DRM protected. Why should I get in mail something I can start watch in one click?
