Please. Fix. That.

iTunes: Allow streaming of full trailers and short, free videos

Recently, I was browsing the iTunes TV catalog and decided to take in a one-minute video for HBO's True Detective series. So I click on the play button in iTunes to watch the trailer. Then, a gripping 30 seconds later, it stops. Why? Because iTunes is only showing me a preview of the trailer.

Here's an illustration of the problem:

This is stupid.

There are bright folks over at Apple, but I guess they haven't figured this out. So here's a simple algorithm for iTunes to implement:

1. Is the video free?
2. Is it less than 5 minutes?

If both conditions are met, just allow the video to be shown in it's entirety without requiring the user to download it to their iTunes library.

Apple, please fix that.

iOS: Bluetooth mouse pairing

Okay, hear me out. I don't think Apple would ever bring an actual mouse pointer to the iOS user interface. I hope not-- it might bring the beach ball cursor with it. And touch isn't going to take a back seat to the mouse on that platform. But I think there's still room for a mouse. I'm talking about games.

First person shooters are so much better with a keyboard/mouse combination. Sure, they're kinda playable with a decent game controller, but us die-hards will always prefer the "WASD" keys and a trusty gaming mouse over anything else. If Apple were to think of the mouse as a game controller, they might just warm to the notion of allowing them to pair with iOS devices (as they do for keyboards).

At the same time, I think Apple would be right to reject apps that would try to require a mouse to operate. You wouldn't want to allow apps to ignore touch altogether since it's the primary input method. But as a supplemental input device, I think the mouse would work well for certain apps.

Perhaps they are working on this already... Cringely thought so. Let's hope this year's WWDC and iOS 8 has a fix for this.