Apple Posts "An Inconvenient Price" for Gore Documentary

Aside from a single presidential race, Al Gore has won quite a bit over the last few years, including an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize. He won by getting on Apple's board of directors, and he won by being a high profile advisor to Google. He's winning by being affiliated with Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers and is winning by not being a part of the 2008 presidential race, already crowded with good candidates. But his ground-breaking film, "An Inconvenient Truth", is losing opportunities on Apple's iTunes store, both by being too highly priced, and by being incorrectly labeled.

Most Apple films are $9.99 apiece, unless they are a new release, in which case they are usually $12.99. Other sought after films gain a $14.99 price tag, as Gore's film has.

Amusingly, if you go the Movie channel in Apple's iTunes store, and select "$9.99 Movies", "An Inconvenient Truth" is included, with its $14.99 price.


So are a number of other titles, including "Babel", "Freedom Writers", "Glastonbury", "Jackass 2", "Jump In!", "Nacho Libre", "The Prestige", "An Unreasonable Man", and possibly more, all of which retail for $14.99.

So what is the criteria for being listed in the "$9.99 Movies" category, if not price? Is it arbitrary? Is it a bad script that just says (price ≠ $12.99)?

Whatever it is, it's fairly inconvenient that Al Gore's great documentary is included here, as potential buyers are turned away, seeing the quintessential movie of the generation on the environment remind us instead of waste - that of money.

Valleywag Thinks My Old Posts are Breaking News

Valleywag at first sounded like a great idea - a rumors site focused on the Silicon Valley, covering all things geek, mixed with a flair for gossip, sex and innuendo. What could be more fun?

But, to be honest, the site's daily postings are getting tired. Rather than posting one or two stories a day of really good, insightful stuff, backed by anonymous sources, inside scoops and top-notch writing, the site has gone flaccid. Valleywag now is posting items to the tune of six to eight posts a day, and with the added frequency comes a complete void of new information. Today, I was slightly amused to see they took a pair of stories I covered over the last year and blasted them to their front page as hot off the press scandal.

Exhibit 1

In August of 2006, I commented that Web 2.0 companies were "playing with error messages", covering a few choice errors from YouTube and MySpace who toyed with users during downtime:

Web 2.0 Companies Play With Error Messages

January 31 of 2007, I specifically called out Technorati for not scaling to beat Google, instead entertaining customers with fun graphical error messages.

Scoble's Right: Technorati Isn't Scaling to Beat Google

I also noted other Web 2.0 error messages on January 24 (Silly YouTube - Where's The Redundancy?) and on March 2, when LinkedIn pulled a similar stunt. (LinkedIn Provides Another Silly Web 2.0 "Error" Page)

Yet, today Valleywag pulls a banner story, trumpeting "Error messages", saying "Could we all make a resolution? When a site is down, as Technorati is right now, please cut the cute jokes." Wow - Technorati plays with error messages. Shocker.

Exhibit 2

On Saturday, I noted how Steve Jobs had endorsed Al Gore for president in a rare interview with Time Magazine, where he wasn't promoting Apple, but instead his good friend and board member. (Steve Jobs Nominates Al Gore for President)

But again, Valleywag follows along, saying "While Apple fanatics usually jump on every word out of Jobs' mouth, they appear content to keep this political endorsement as quiet as... well, as quiet as Al Gore kept the internal Apple options investigation..." 'We need somebody who knows how to build a ladder'

I'm not used to seeing a breaking news rumor site be so far behind my pedestrian notes. So, Valleywag, if you want to be a little faster on the draw, simply subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up via e-mail, so you can keep getting those scoops!

Steve Jobs Nominates Al Gore for President

Tucked away in a strong Time story on Al Gore, on the inevitable call by many Democrats for the former vice president and disputed 2000 presidential election loser to throw his hat in the ring in 2008 is a rare quote by Steve Jobs, promoting his friend and board member as a candidate. As many Apple watchers know, to catch Steve Jobs in a quote outside of Macworld or a press release is a rare thing, but in this case, Steve makes his hopes fully known.

"We have dug ourselves into a 20-ft. hole, and we need somebody who knows how to build a ladder. Al's the guy," says Steve Jobs of Apple. "Like many others, I have tried my best to convince him. So far, no luck."

Gore, pictured in his messy office, featuring a Mac with not one, but three, Apple Cinema Displays, is now being seen as the ultimate Democratic candidate, with the grassroots appeal of Barack Obama and toughness of Hillary Clinton. But after the debacle of 2000, he keeps saying he's not interested, that he's had it with politics and the process. But with friends like Jobs and others sounding the siren song, it will be very interesting to see if he remains on the sidelines, especially if one of the front-runners falters, or if the race ends up too close to call.