I'm a Mac family and I'm begining to hate Apple, and possibly Amazon prime as well

AAAggghhhh. Last night was the Grand Tour Ep. 5. The family all sat down to watch it with dinner and Amazon kept crashing on our Roku. We tried at least 6 or 7 times, sometimes it would crash as soon as we opened Prime and sometimes we got all the way to selecting TGT ep% and it would crash then. No problem, we’ll run prime through one of the computers. Oh, borking no we won’t. Prime tells us our version of Silverlight is out of date. No problem we’ll just update Silverlight, but oh no the ghost of Steve Job’s won’t allow that anymore. I checked out version of Silverlight and it’s 18 months out of date so I down load the latest version then try to run it. This is where Job’s earns his horns. Apple will no longer allow me to download from third party sources. It says I have to download it from the app store (this is a Mac book air, not a tablet or phone). But I can’t find how the berk to do that. Goggling Apple App store take you to apple.com and there is no way to apparently down load from there. Using the Apple.com search function for Silverlight gets nothing.

So, pretend I’m really really dumb which shouldn’t be too hard. Mac people out there, how the ever berking hell do I now update Silverlight or is the ghost of Jobs trying to ban anything Microsoft from working on a Mac again?

I'm glad I never drank that Kool-Aid.

You can install the Google Chrome browser on your Mac and watch Netflix or Prime without Silverlight... or go whole hog and free yourself from the shackles of oppression!

Don't know, but I'm having an issue cancelling a subscription to an app. Keeps running me in circles. I got to apple.com too when I was trying to get somewhere.

FWIW, our Vizio tv that has Amazon Video built in also has issues with it. But it is a crappy tv anyways.

The easy solution would be to have a browser that supports html 5 playback on amazon, like Firefox or Chrome.

Linux Mint 18 and Chrome. No issues. Plus the hardware it runs on is more bang for the buck.

Cool, I never thought of running Chrome rather than Safari. I should have mentioned that it's out daughters Mac as someone in the family who shall remain nameless other than they seem to be typing this spilled coffee on our (me and SWMBO) Mac book air and it's in for repair, otherwise I would have been using Chrome on it already.

The Amazon Prime interface is the.worst. I'm not sure I could think of a less intuitive way of organizing things or pair it with a less responsive interface.

I just recently ran into something that wouldn't install on my 6 yr old Macbook Pro (running Sierra). The old way was to open System Preferences, Security and Privay, and click the 3rd radio button to allow apps from anywhere.
Now they only give you two buttons (the got rid of the Allow from Anywhere option...though strangely my work Mac desktop, also on Sierra, has the third option still...must be a discrepency of versions), but...when I tried to run the program and it told me "NO!", I went back to System Preferences and along the bottom of the box was a message that I could click to allow that app specifically.
I don't know if it needs to be in the "trying to open" state for that message to appear, but it did work in my case. The specific app I was trying to run was something else ( TuxGuitar, a tablature reading application), but maybe it will work with Silverlight too ?

Appleseed wrote: I'm glad I never drank that Kool-Aid.

We are stuck with it. Up until 5 years ago Apple was head and shoulders above anything shuttered windows based, but in the last few years they've gone so far down their own rabbit hole and up their own a$$ hole that they are almost impossible to use. For example, try retrieving photos from a Time Machine back up on a different computer when you just can't remember your old password. If you ever figure that one out let me know.

The issue is SWMBO. She is one step away from being computer illiterate. Literally if I've shown her how to tab between different programs or browser windows once I've done it a thousand times. She will open 20 or 30 windows as she can't get back to an old one. Once a week for E36 M3s and giggles I or our daughter will grab her phone and count (then close) how many apps (with many multiples of the same one open) she has open and running. Right now she's really proud that she can print on her own. She thinks I'm an IT genius because I can do basic stuff. I tell her she's the equivalent of getting in the car every morning, starting it then calling me to ask how to engage gear every freaking day.

What little ability she has is with Mac's and IOS. The times she uses a PC or Android she's back to standing outside the car with the key in her hand and asking me how to unlock it. Trying to get her to use a non MAc is just a non-starter.

Rant over, possible divorce proceedings underway and I'm definitely on the couch for the next month

Just FYI - There's an App Store application that should be on the Mac. Icon looks like this:

Amazon video on our Roku's were having trouble last night as well. I didn't try running it on my computer as I figured it was overwhelmed with the release of TGT.

So I just popped open Hulu and watched something else since its just TV and it isn't critical.

In reply to ProDarwin:

I see you haven't used Motor Trend On-Demand...

I'm about to abandon windows for apple, because W10. Hate it.

I'm also not going to build my own, so no Linux based anything. Just want to buy a computer that works.

So then what?

ProDarwin wrote: The Amazon Prime interface is the.worst. I'm not sure I could think of a less intuitive way of organizing things or pair it with a less responsive interface.

Have you looked at the HBO Go app on Roku? It's worse.

Ade, sounds like your original problem may have been internet connectivity, so going to a different platform might not have helped anyhow. But yes, try Chrome. And stop being so hard on all your electronics!

Tom_Spangler wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: The Amazon Prime interface is the.worst. I'm not sure I could think of a less intuitive way of organizing things or pair it with a less responsive interface.

Have you looked at the HBO Go app on Roku? It's worse. Ade, sounds like your original problem may have been internet connectivity, so going to a different platform might not have helped anyhow. But yes, try Chrome. And stop being so hard on all your electronics!

Nope, Netflix was working both on the Roku and the same Mac we had issues with, plus I was web surfing. I went back and fourth and it was only Amazon that was a PIA.

I've retired our Mac Mini HPTC hooked to our projector and replaced it with a hacked Amazon Fire Stick with Kodi sideloaded. It gives me problems sometimes running Kodi, but after I pried the case off it the overheating problems stopped.

slefain wrote: I've retired our Mac Mini HPTC hooked to our projector and replaced it with a hacked Amazon Fire Stick with Kodi sideloaded. It gives me problems sometimes running Kodi, but after I pried the case off it the overheating problems stopped.

You lost me at 'hacked' All I want is computers and electronics that just work. Apple was there from about 2000 to 2010 or 2012ish, now just like everyone else they are a PIA. What the berk is wrong with something that just works when you want it how you want it.

Cars jsut work. You buy it, get in and drive it with almost no worries until it gets old. Old for a car (given oil and tire changes) is at least 100K miles. If cars were as reliable as consumer electronics we'd all be using public transport instead.

alfadriver wrote: I'm about to abandon windows for apple, because W10. Hate it. I'm also not going to build my own, so no Linux based anything. Just want to buy a computer that works. So then what?

Don't use Microsoft's piss-poor attempt at Flash called Silverlight on your Mac.

If you have problems with a plug-in, try a different browser like Chrome or Firefox instead of Safari.

I have the same issues with Netflix and Prime on my PC, so not just an Apple issue. I usually just watch on my Kindle or stream through my Xbox if I want to see it on the big TV.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

slefain wrote: I've retired our Mac Mini HPTC hooked to our projector and replaced it with a hacked Amazon Fire Stick with Kodi sideloaded. It gives me problems sometimes running Kodi, but after I pried the case off it the overheating problems stopped.

You lost me at 'hacked' All I want is computers and electronics that just work. Apple was there from about 2000 to 2010 or 2012ish, now just like everyone else they are a PIA. What the berk is wrong with something that just works when you want it how you want it. Cars jsut work. You buy it, get in and drive it with almost no worries until it gets old. Old for a car (given oil and tire changes) is at least 100K miles (unless it says Toyota Highlander on the trunk, then it makes a porn infected 10 year old PC look reliable) If cars were as reliable as consumer electronics we'd all be using public transport instead.

Don't use Microsoft products on your Apple and they'll be more reliable.

BTW, our 01 Highlander is still trucking along at about 220k and is only now starting to show its age a bit, but parts are cheap and easy to replace.

Either way, they are complex pieces of technology built by humans, some get built better than others from time to time.

I run all my streaming apps (Netflix/Prime) from my old Xbox360. Never really had many issues with doing it this way. I also have an older HP Netbook that has DVI out so it is setup as my little media PC. I stream all my movies that I have obtained from a bay full of scallywags off it. It's also my backup for the Netflix and Prime streaming and works good for that also. It's running Win10 without issue.

Stefan wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

slefain wrote: I've retired our Mac Mini HPTC hooked to our projector and replaced it with a hacked Amazon Fire Stick with Kodi sideloaded. It gives me problems sometimes running Kodi, but after I pried the case off it the overheating problems stopped.

You lost me at 'hacked' All I want is computers and electronics that just work. Apple was there from about 2000 to 2010 or 2012ish, now just like everyone else they are a PIA. What the berk is wrong with something that just works when you want it how you want it. Cars jsut work. You buy it, get in and drive it with almost no worries until it gets old. Old for a car (given oil and tire changes) is at least 100K miles (unless it says Toyota Highlander on the trunk, then it makes a porn infected 10 year old PC look reliable) If cars were as reliable as consumer electronics we'd all be using public transport instead.

Don't use Microsoft products on your Apple and they'll be more reliable. BTW, our 01 Highlander is still trucking along at about 220k and is only now starting to show its age a bit, but parts are cheap and easy to replace. Either way, they are complex pieces of technology built by humans, some get built better than others from time to time.

I edited and deleted that bit really fast, but you caught it. I've stated before our Highlander was the biggest POS ever, but I understand others have had better results, I promise not to bring it up again.

Did you try to stream the video from the Amazon Prime app on one of your phones or tablets? I'm curious to know whether that would also cause your Roku to crash.

PS - Which Roku version do you have? I've noticed that the older/cheaper models with lower hardware specs seem to be more problematic lately.