Shame about you not being able to order from the US, but you can console yourself with the fact that you can buy the same meds as they have for less. So far as I know the music industry doesn't control Apps too... and some developers place language specific apps on the app store of each country which means some apps really are impossible to use for me.
Books though are a big problem. I can order books in English from amazon.co.uk and also get other items from amazon.de to send to Switzerland. But the Apple Bookstore will not let me see any books in English. So, if I were a foreigner trying to buy a book to practice my English with and I was not in an English language country I would have to buy through Amazon.
I guess you have never been to Quebec and experienced the distortion of sanity when it comes to cultural restrictions.
I'd rather see iTunes make use of multiple cores instead of adding stuff but I guess that's too much to ask.
iTunes is already multi-core and multi-threaded and 64-bit. Importing CDs already takes advantage of MMX/SSE2 for faster encoding performance. I encoded a CD and watched activity monitor. All 4 cores showed activity, but iTunes does not appear to max out the CPU cores because each core only maxed out at 32% and up to 30 threads. When the encoding was completed, CPU usage returned to 0-1%. So they coded iTunes not to take the entire Mac hostage by maxing out the CPU cores. It doesn't need to be like Handbrake in which you want each CPU core to utilize 100% to transcode a movie at high speed.
That's true for encoding. But when I rename files, import them, add artwork iTunes can choke, become unresponsive and the only thing I see moving is a single core in AM. No hyper threading, no multiple cores doing the work. And my .itl, .itdb and .xml are on SSD so that can't be the bottleneck. True, tags are written to the individual files and they're on HDD (RAID5 though).
Some things in iTunes are definitely single core, and I wish they'd address that. Still, your points are valid.
I guess you have never been to Quebec and experienced the distortion of sanity when it comes to cultural restrictions.
Les Quebecois ne sont pas difficile comme les Californiens... j'habite en Suisse avec quattre langues Nationales!
And of course, there is nothing so Nationalistic as an English speaker who expects the world to do things 'his' way... but some people cannot see from the viewpoint of others. :-)
I guess you have never been to Quebec and experienced the distortion of sanity when it comes to cultural restrictions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SwissMac2
Les Quebecois ne sont pas difficile comme les Californiens... j'habite en Suisse avec quattre langues Nationales!
And of course, there is nothing so Nationalistic as an English speaker who expects the world to do things 'his' way... but some people cannot see from the viewpoint of others. :-)
You misunderstood me. I did not make a comment on language or even culture. I was stating how insane the restrictions are. I think francophone parents should be allowed to send their kids to English schools if they choose. English and French should be allowed to order Directv if they wish. Companies wishing to do business in Quebec should not discouraged by so many restrictions. And yes, you are correct, there is nothing worse than someone who expects the world to do things 'their' way.
As an American in Spain, I can tell you that if not for my original American accounts, it would be a real pain to get certain content in English (or from home). Even if you have your Mac set up to English, because of the IP, you'll be served the stores and content in Spanish, most of which you cannot change (including the iTunes store) .... So much for the "Global Village" indeed.
Apple is actually not bad in their handling of all this for expats, as long as you still have a bank account in your original country. The problem comes up when you no longer have a British or American bank account and are forced to use a local bank account. Here you're forced to use and purchase the Spanish content and dubbed content (the horror). Apps thankfully are mostly multi-lingual (except for Microsoft software, but that's not a bug, it's a feature). Something should be done about this, but too many companies are making this impossible (especially content providers).
Amazon though, is the real hero of this story. I order things from AmazonUSA, AmazonUK, Amazon Spain, Amazon France, Germany, etc. and Amazon ships it here. Not everything is available for shipping of course, but most content is, and if you had a Kindle account in the UK or US before you moved, you can still buy from that store using your new, local credit card. Sometimes Amazon won't ship, but a marketplace provider will. It's something to look at for those that need it. Prime only works locally though, and they've eliminated free shipping from the UK to Spain to try to move residents to the Spanish Amazon. Amazon can be (and has been) a real life saver, especially if you live in a remote area or island that doesn't have big shops like El Corte Inglés, MediaMrkt, etc. apart from the fact that it's much, much cheaper.
Sorry, I kind of got stuck on the subject. It's something that's bothered me immensely for years.
I absolutely know what you mean and sympathise. Good luck to Amazon trying to switch all the UK expats to Amazon Spain though, I really don't think the million or so British retirees who moved there are that bothered about Spanish - they still read their British Daily Newspapers and watch the BBC and live in a little bubble. Haha! A bit like me I suppose! ;-)
You misunderstood me. I did not make a comment on language or even culture. I was stating how insane the restrictions are. I think francophone parents should be allowed to send their kids to English schools if they choose. English and French should be allowed to order Directv if they wish. Companies wishing to do business in Quebec should not discouraged by so many restrictions. And yes, you are correct, there is nothing worse than someone who expects the world to do things 'their' way.
Sorry if it came across like I was being snarky - that wasnt what I meant. I was thinking of the big companies really.
I absolutely know what you mean and sympathise. Good luck to Amazon trying to switch all the UK expats to Amazon Spain though, I really don't think the million or so British retirees who moved there are that bothered about Spanish - they still read their British Daily Newspapers and watch the BBC and live in a little bubble.
So true! I know some expats who've been living here for a hell of a long time and still haven't learned any Spanish. They would certainly refuse to use Amazon Spain, though I must say that if they do, the shipping is free, prime is available, and you can specify Great Britain or "Importación" and you'll get the same British item sometimes for much less than from UK (though the availability of products is still absurdly limited). iBooks does have some books in English in the Spanish store, but Amazon is still the best source.
Quote:
Haha! A bit like me I suppose! ;-)
I think we all want to still have our "home" news and items regardless of where we live. I guess I'll have to add myself to that to some degree as well. Hehehe.
As an American in Spain, I can tell you that if not for my original American accounts, it would be a real pain to get certain content in English (or from home). Even if you have your Mac set up to English, because of the IP, you'll be served the stores and content in Spanish, most of which you cannot change (including the iTunes store). An Xbox will be in English, but the moment you connect to the Xbox store it will be Spanish only with no language options. The Playstation will only allow Spanish and everything in Spanish. It's ridiculous to the extent that a friend of mine, having just moved here, wanted to learn Spanish and connected to Rosetta Stone in order to buy their Spanish program, but couldn't because the site was completely in Spanish with no possibility of a language change. How can he buy the program to learn the language if he can't understand the website? So much for the "Global Village" indeed.
Apple is actually not bad in their handling of all this for expats, as long as you still have a bank account in your original country. The problem comes up when you no longer have a British or American bank account and are forced to use a local bank account. Here you're forced to use and purchase the Spanish content and dubbed content (the horror). Apps thankfully are mostly multi-lingual (except for Microsoft software, but that's not a bug, it's a feature). Something should be done about this, but too many companies are making this impossible (especially content providers).
Amazon though, is the real hero of this story. I order things from AmazonUSA, AmazonUK, Amazon Spain, Amazon France, Germany, etc. and Amazon ships it here. Not everything is available for shipping of course, but most content is, and if you had a Kindle account in the UK or US before you moved, you can still buy from that store using your new, local credit card. Sometimes Amazon won't ship, but a marketplace provider will. It's something to look at for those that need it. Prime only works locally though, and they've eliminated free shipping from the UK to Spain to try to move residents to the Spanish Amazon. Amazon can be (and has been) a real life saver, especially if you live in a remote area or island that doesn't have big shops like El Corte Inglés, MediaMrkt, etc. apart from the fact that it's much, much cheaper.
As for live TV, it's gotten better in that some local channels offer language selection to view in the original language even on the free TDT over the air channels, though you still have to suffer through the absurdly long and horrible advert time (and it's still limited). Also, if you can afford it, Canal+ offers most everything in original language through satellite, including all the top U.S. and UK shows. The hottest shows are generally shown only a couple of days to a week after the U.S. airing, so not too bad.
Sorry, I kind of got stuck on the subject. It's something that's bothered me immensely for years.
I've had the same experience while in Europe, mainly Germany. Another nice point with Amazon is if you do use a foreign Amazon site, Amazon has a way to convert the local currency to dollars when charging to an America credit card. If you understand the local language go to Amazon Help, look for "Information for English speaking customers" > Payment Options > Related Topics > Amazon Currency Converter.
Also I found that I could go to a local video rental store for movies and sometimes TV series. DVD's for American films almost always have an English audio track.You do need to have a DVD drive that is set to the local region. A simple solution is to buy an inexpensive external USB drive. I preferred instead to use the somewhat riskier solution of flashing the firmware of my MBP's optical drive to make it region-free. I've been lucky enough to do this a couple of times without ever having bricked a drive but you do have to be VERY careful, do your homework beforehand, and follow the instructions exactly. Good place to start is http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php.
I can't see the Wish List feature anywhere except in the iTunes Store.
iTunes hung out the Beach Ball the first time I synced an iPod Touch after updating to 11.1.4 and had to Force Quit...
I have no idea if anyone will read this post but that wish list in the library has finally appeared in my iTunes. Don't what caused it to suddenly show up. Now in the library to left of the button for the iTunes Store is a new button with three short horizontal lines (a "hamburger" icon?) just like the one in the store that gets me my wish list. I can buy things or edit the list to delete items and there is a Preview feature.
Comments
Shame about you not being able to order from the US, but you can console yourself with the fact that you can buy the same meds as they have for less. So far as I know the music industry doesn't control Apps too... and some developers place language specific apps on the app store of each country which means some apps really are impossible to use for me.
Books though are a big problem. I can order books in English from amazon.co.uk and also get other items from amazon.de to send to Switzerland. But the Apple Bookstore will not let me see any books in English. So, if I were a foreigner trying to buy a book to practice my English with and I was not in an English language country I would have to buy through Amazon.
I guess you have never been to Quebec and experienced the distortion of sanity when it comes to cultural restrictions.
That's true for encoding. But when I rename files, import them, add artwork iTunes can choke, become unresponsive and the only thing I see moving is a single core in AM. No hyper threading, no multiple cores doing the work. And my .itl, .itdb and .xml are on SSD so that can't be the bottleneck. True, tags are written to the individual files and they're on HDD (RAID5 though).
Some things in iTunes are definitely single core, and I wish they'd address that. Still, your points are valid.
I guess you have never been to Quebec and experienced the distortion of sanity when it comes to cultural restrictions.
Les Quebecois ne sont pas difficile comme les Californiens... j'habite en Suisse avec quattre langues Nationales!
And of course, there is nothing so Nationalistic as an English speaker who expects the world to do things 'his' way... but some people cannot see from the viewpoint of others. :-)
I guess you have never been to Quebec and experienced the distortion of sanity when it comes to cultural restrictions.
Les Quebecois ne sont pas difficile comme les Californiens... j'habite en Suisse avec quattre langues Nationales!
And of course, there is nothing so Nationalistic as an English speaker who expects the world to do things 'his' way... but some people cannot see from the viewpoint of others. :-)
You misunderstood me. I did not make a comment on language or even culture. I was stating how insane the restrictions are. I think francophone parents should be allowed to send their kids to English schools if they choose. English and French should be allowed to order Directv if they wish. Companies wishing to do business in Quebec should not discouraged by so many restrictions. And yes, you are correct, there is nothing worse than someone who expects the world to do things 'their' way.
As an American in Spain, I can tell you that if not for my original American accounts, it would be a real pain to get certain content in English (or from home). Even if you have your Mac set up to English, because of the IP, you'll be served the stores and content in Spanish, most of which you cannot change (including the iTunes store) .... So much for the "Global Village" indeed.
Apple is actually not bad in their handling of all this for expats, as long as you still have a bank account in your original country. The problem comes up when you no longer have a British or American bank account and are forced to use a local bank account. Here you're forced to use and purchase the Spanish content and dubbed content (the horror). Apps thankfully are mostly multi-lingual (except for Microsoft software, but that's not a bug, it's a feature). Something should be done about this, but too many companies are making this impossible (especially content providers).
Amazon though, is the real hero of this story. I order things from AmazonUSA, AmazonUK, Amazon Spain, Amazon France, Germany, etc. and Amazon ships it here. Not everything is available for shipping of course, but most content is, and if you had a Kindle account in the UK or US before you moved, you can still buy from that store using your new, local credit card. Sometimes Amazon won't ship, but a marketplace provider will. It's something to look at for those that need it. Prime only works locally though, and they've eliminated free shipping from the UK to Spain to try to move residents to the Spanish Amazon. Amazon can be (and has been) a real life saver, especially if you live in a remote area or island that doesn't have big shops like El Corte Inglés, MediaMrkt, etc. apart from the fact that it's much, much cheaper.
Sorry, I kind of got stuck on the subject. It's something that's bothered me immensely for years.
I absolutely know what you mean and sympathise. Good luck to Amazon trying to switch all the UK expats to Amazon Spain though, I really don't think the million or so British retirees who moved there are that bothered about Spanish - they still read their British Daily Newspapers and watch the BBC and live in a little bubble. Haha! A bit like me I suppose! ;-)
You misunderstood me. I did not make a comment on language or even culture. I was stating how insane the restrictions are. I think francophone parents should be allowed to send their kids to English schools if they choose. English and French should be allowed to order Directv if they wish. Companies wishing to do business in Quebec should not discouraged by so many restrictions. And yes, you are correct, there is nothing worse than someone who expects the world to do things 'their' way.
Sorry if it came across like I was being snarky - that wasnt what I meant. I was thinking of the big companies really.
I absolutely know what you mean and sympathise. Good luck to Amazon trying to switch all the UK expats to Amazon Spain though, I really don't think the million or so British retirees who moved there are that bothered about Spanish - they still read their British Daily Newspapers and watch the BBC and live in a little bubble.
So true!
I know some expats who've been living here for a hell of a long time and still haven't learned any Spanish. They would certainly refuse to use Amazon Spain, though I must say that if they do, the shipping is free, prime is available, and you can specify Great Britain or "Importación" and you'll get the same British item sometimes for much less than from UK (though the availability of products is still absurdly limited). iBooks does have some books in English in the Spanish store, but Amazon is still the best source.
I think we all want to still have our "home" news and items regardless of where we live.
I guess I'll have to add myself to that to some degree as well. Hehehe.
Sorry if it came across like I was being snarky - that wasnt what I meant. I was thinking of the big companies really.
Hey no worries. We are all just exchanging ideas. No harm in that.
As an American in Spain, I can tell you that if not for my original American accounts, it would be a real pain to get certain content in English (or from home). Even if you have your Mac set up to English, because of the IP, you'll be served the stores and content in Spanish, most of which you cannot change (including the iTunes store). An Xbox will be in English, but the moment you connect to the Xbox store it will be Spanish only with no language options. The Playstation will only allow Spanish and everything in Spanish. It's ridiculous to the extent that a friend of mine, having just moved here, wanted to learn Spanish and connected to Rosetta Stone in order to buy their Spanish program, but couldn't because the site was completely in Spanish with no possibility of a language change. How can he buy the program to learn the language if he can't understand the website? So much for the "Global Village" indeed.
Apple is actually not bad in their handling of all this for expats, as long as you still have a bank account in your original country. The problem comes up when you no longer have a British or American bank account and are forced to use a local bank account. Here you're forced to use and purchase the Spanish content and dubbed content (the horror). Apps thankfully are mostly multi-lingual (except for Microsoft software, but that's not a bug, it's a feature). Something should be done about this, but too many companies are making this impossible (especially content providers).
Amazon though, is the real hero of this story. I order things from AmazonUSA, AmazonUK, Amazon Spain, Amazon France, Germany, etc. and Amazon ships it here. Not everything is available for shipping of course, but most content is, and if you had a Kindle account in the UK or US before you moved, you can still buy from that store using your new, local credit card. Sometimes Amazon won't ship, but a marketplace provider will. It's something to look at for those that need it. Prime only works locally though, and they've eliminated free shipping from the UK to Spain to try to move residents to the Spanish Amazon. Amazon can be (and has been) a real life saver, especially if you live in a remote area or island that doesn't have big shops like El Corte Inglés, MediaMrkt, etc. apart from the fact that it's much, much cheaper.
As for live TV, it's gotten better in that some local channels offer language selection to view in the original language even on the free TDT over the air channels, though you still have to suffer through the absurdly long and horrible advert time (and it's still limited). Also, if you can afford it, Canal+ offers most everything in original language through satellite, including all the top U.S. and UK shows. The hottest shows are generally shown only a couple of days to a week after the U.S. airing, so not too bad.
Sorry, I kind of got stuck on the subject. It's something that's bothered me immensely for years.
I've had the same experience while in Europe, mainly Germany. Another nice point with Amazon is if you do use a foreign Amazon site, Amazon has a way to convert the local currency to dollars when charging to an America credit card. If you understand the local language go to Amazon Help, look for "Information for English speaking customers" > Payment Options > Related Topics > Amazon Currency Converter.
Also I found that I could go to a local video rental store for movies and sometimes TV series. DVD's for American films almost always have an English audio track.You do need to have a DVD drive that is set to the local region. A simple solution is to buy an inexpensive external USB drive. I preferred instead to use the somewhat riskier solution of flashing the firmware of my MBP's optical drive to make it region-free. I've been lucky enough to do this a couple of times without ever having bricked a drive but you do have to be VERY careful, do your homework beforehand, and follow the instructions exactly. Good place to start is http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php.
I can't see the Wish List feature anywhere except in the iTunes Store.
iTunes hung out the Beach Ball the first time I synced an iPod Touch after updating to 11.1.4 and had to Force Quit...
I have no idea if anyone will read this post but that wish list in the library has finally appeared in my iTunes. Don't what caused it to suddenly show up. Now in the library to left of the button for the iTunes Store is a new button with three short horizontal lines (a "hamburger" icon?) just like the one in the store that gets me my wish list. I can buy things or edit the list to delete items and there is a Preview feature.