When Forced "Upgrades" Bring You Down

Viadd sent us an interesting article about unwanted upgrades. Its a little ranty, but it basically surrounds ReplayTV "Upgrading" their units by changing a feature in a way that Tog thinks is worse (and I'd tend to agree). With more software becoming subscription based, the line between bug fix, feature enhancement, and removal of features is going to get more blurry. I don't think that this particular example is the best, but this is really important to think about. Should we pay to remove bugs? What about when "Features" are trojaned along with the bugfix that we don't want? And what about when every device in your house is computerized? How does that amplify the problem? And what about when its a device like your tivo which upgrades automatically, leaving you no way out?

Comments

Forced Upgrades/Obsolescence

[LoCoPuff]

This has been happening for years outside of the computer industry. I have a Stereo system built in 1974 that sounds better than just about anything on the market today. And it is still pumping bass. Anything you buy now is designed to die in a matter of months. This began in the mid-80's with the yuppies having more disposable income, manufacturers realized they could make stuff disposable. That is the same idea here. Everything will be disposable eventually, including computers.

Re:Forced Upgrades/Obsolescence

[GoofyBoy]

I think his point wasn't directly related to the article but just an interesting sidenote.

His opinion:Stereos today are not built to last more than a few months. So you have to go and upgrade ever few months. Replay is sort of like this, upgrade to something else.

Can't wait.

[Black Parrot]

I can't wait until we hear about the first "upgrade virus", an infection that gets on a shoveware server and then tells all the suckers they need to download an "upgrade" with the hostile payload in it.

Think of the thrill of destroying millions of computers in a matter of hours.

OK, pedantics will note that what I'm describing isn't stricly a virus or a worm, so call it what you will.

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Re:Can't wait.

[BarMeister]

What I really want to see is a virus that updates itself. I am so sick of having to wait for someone to send me an email attachment with the latest virus. Let's cut out the middleman.

ReplayTV has *already* fixed this

[Krelnik]

Although the question raised by this article is still valid, the basic facts that provoked it are already obsolete. ReplayTV has already disabled this feature.

In fact, they did so months ago!

I'm a very happy long-time Replay owner (since October of 1999) and I agree with the author that the product has significant advantages over Tivo. However, I think he's blown this all out of proportion.

First of all, when you are pausing the show you are watching, what difference does it make if they put an advertisement on the screen? Really, is it that much of an intrusion? Come on!

Second of all, even when this feature was still active (and its been disabled for months now) you could bypass the ads simply by pressing one more key after you hit Pause. (The Exit key).

Once again, this is much ado about nothing, in the case of the specific ReplayTV feature, anyway.

TiVo relevance

[Erasmus Darwin]

Amusingly enough, this has some very current relevance to the TiVo, as well. Around the end of March, TiVo started rolling out version 2.0 of their software to the general public. For the most part, it's an upgrade that fixes a few bugs and improves a lot of the functionality. However, like the ReplayTV "upgrade", it's not voluntary unless you're willing to forego the guide data (which provides most of the functionality of the unit -- I know I wouldn't bother if I had to manually enter programming times; I may be smart enough to do it, but I'm also lazy).

There are at least 3 "negative" features in the new TiVo release:

• Removal of the 30-second skip backdoor (there was a backdoor code that gave your TiVo a 30-second skip button like ReplayTV has; never used it personally)
• Capacity reduction for hacked TiVos (this isn't a delibrate attempt to attack the hacked units; however, some of the new features automatically grab extra storage space on "larger" units -- the TiVo produced units with enough capacity to trigger this feature already have that space reserved)
• Autocorrection jump-back changes (when you hit play after fast-forwarding, the TiVo jumps back a bit to autocorrect for human reactions; personally I'm totally comfortable with the way it is now and am dreading the changes)

If the upgrades were completely optional, I'd be more than happy to stick with my existing version of the software. I love my TiVo. It works great. I don't want them changing it.