Rentals that don't download and movies that don't play
A client that constantly phones home and media that doesn't play greet some Amazon Unbox customers...
This week Amazon.com unveiled the company’s long anticipated
video download service called ‘Unbox.’ The new movie download service mirrors other
product already on the market such as Google video and MovieLink allowing users
to purchase movies and TV shows as well as “rent” select movies. TV shows are
priced at 1.99 per episode and movies average around 12.50 to purchase or
4.50 to rent.
The service has already been met with criticism from users
due to Amazon’s proprietary client, which regularly
phones home. Furthermore, the service's absurd
license agreement gives the company complete control over the content
that you’ve purchased, allowing the company to revoke your permission to view
your content and delete it from your computer without warning.
DailyTech tried the service with less than pleasant results. First we tried to rent a video from the store, but the software insisted
that our hard drive was full even though it also indicated that we had over
40GB free. The client refused to download the content while still charging us for the
rental… twice. We then tried purchasing a movie through the service, but the media refused to play in the
Unbox client or through Windows Media Player, again charging our credit card. We then contacted Amazon.com about
our issues via e-mail and requested the company call us using the call back
feature. It has been 36 hours and we have yet to hear from the company or
receive a refund.
Apple is expected to unveil an update to its popular iTunes
music store that will also allow users to purchase movies through the service
on September 12th at a special event held in San Francisco.
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