iTunes is currently running a sale called the Disney Princess Collection. There are a variety of books, soundtracks (does anyone not own Frozen?), and apps that could help fill out your library. More importantly, however, is the sale on certain Disney movies (something that is pretty rare on iTunes). The following movies are all marked down to $14.99:
The Disney Parks Blog is doing another live stream tonight at 8:00PM. What’s different about this stream, however, is that it’s not dedicated to just 1 event. Instead, it’s supposed to give looks at things like Mickey’s Not-so-Scary Halloween Party and the Food & Wine festival. I’m interested to see how it works.
Can Disney send me a couple of these to enjoy during the live stream?
UPDATE: Cases specifically designed for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7+ are now available at D-Tech.
If you’re like me, you might have “invested” in one of Disney’s customized D-Tech cases for your smartphone. Unlike in the past when Apple has decided to use the same body design for its updated phones, previous D-Tech cases (i.e., those designed for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (or 6s and 6s Plus) will not really work with the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models. I say “really work”, because it looks like this:
Disney D-Tech iPhone 6 Case on an iPhone 7
Since the body size of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 is the same, the case fits the phone, but the camera on the new phone is positioned differently than it was on the iPhone 6. (I thought the problem might be the size of the lens, but it’s actually the lens’ position that causes the issue.) The interesting thing is the camera doesn’t actually seem to be impacted by the weird case over it. Here are 2 pictures of a white wall, 1 taken horizontally and 1 taken vertically, and you can see the only issue is some minor darkness in the the corner covered by the lens.
HorizontalVertical
That said, having a case cover part of the camera like this looks ridiculous (and I don’t plan on doing it.) (There’s also the issue of the bottom cutout looking funny over the place where the headphone jack used to be. That’s so minor, that I didn’t really even consider it.)
Such a lengthy explanation isn’t necessary for the iPhone 7 Plus models. The dual camera setup on that phone is just too big to fit the existing iPhone 6 Plus case. (I’m sure most people didn’t need me to tell them that.)
So, with that question answer, my next question is: What case, if any, should I get for my new iPhone 7? Let me know on Twitter if you have any suggestions.
If you’re the type of person who rushes out to install the latest version of software for your iPhone or iPad that you have probably already installed iOS 10 and have started playing around with the new stickers in iMessage (technically, iMessage is branded “Messages” by Apple, but whatever…)
If you’re reading this site than the first sticker packs you’ll probably want to buy are Disney related. Since the iMessage store can be a little confusing to use to locate them, I’ve provided my favorite, below. Be careful, though, each one of these sticker packs is $1.99.
At 3am Eastern today, I–like many a technology geek–was loading and reloading the Apple Store on my existing iPhone in hopes of securing a new iPhone on next Friday’s launch day. The store was supposed to go live at 3:01am, but at 3:08am I was still getting the “check back soon” message that Apple puts up when it’s updating its store. People on Twitter were–justifiably–complaining about how frustrating things were. When I finally got into the store, I received a generic “unable to complete transaction at this time” error on 6 different attempts before my order went through on my phone (during which time I–unnecessarily–went to my computer as a backup, in case I was doing something wrong on my phone). A basic online order that should have probably been completed by 3:04am wrapped up at 3:37am.
When the process was completed, I tweeted about how much the whole experience made me long for Disney’s ADR system. I know there are differences in scale–orders of magnitude differences, probably–but, every day of the year Disney enables its ADR system at exactly 6:00am to allow thousands of people to make their 180-day reservations. Every day. I’ve gone through that process at least 25 times, sometimes making tens of reservations, and it usually works pretty well. The same goes for making new Fastpass+ selections, changing ADRs, and otherwise using My Disney Experience (these days, anyway).
Before you start sending me pictures of your Donald Duck error message (or Stitch in the rain), let me be clear: I am not saying Disney is perfect. I’ve had problems–sometimes very annoying and difficult to correct problems–using Disney’s web services, as I am sure many of you have. What I am trying to say, however, is that making web services which have to support the kind of activity that Disney and Apple receive through their websites and apps is hard. I know that from both my experience as a developer of them and as a consumer of them. Programing at this kind of scale isn’t easy–just ask Apple after last night–, but, overall, Disney does a pretty good job with it.
ASIDE (for people who care): I bought a 128GB Gold iPhone 7. I like a white screen, since it’s easier to find when I leave it on the coach or my dark furniture, and I prefer gold to silver or pink. I chose the in-store pickup option so I can get it first thing in the morning next Friday, and I bought it in the Apple Upgrade Program, since it’s kind of stupid not to.
Capture of Disney’s “Server is Busy” Error Message
