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Firmware Upgrades For Everything
eggoeater writes "Forbes Magazine has an article discussing how more portable electronics are not only suggesting firmware upgrades, but requiring them in order to get all the features! Apparently the new Lyra A/V Jukebox will sometimes display a message stating that 'this feature will be available in future upgrades.' In addition, the article states that some patches are difficult and dangerous depending on the component. Some cell phone patches require a proprietary cable ($25) that will then wipe out your phone book. This raises concerns over alienating users that aren't tech-savvy and how this could affect perceptions of portable electronics as a whole."
The concept is called time to market, the price you pay is quality. This is what happens when a society values profits over sustainability. The more faceless, the less accountable. One million marketers can't be wrong. Dude, where's my shares?
Yes, I am cynical.
Let's start the discussion by raising the concern that if the majority of users aren't tech savvy and society is dominated by technology, doesn't this sound like a new dark age? History has shown that when the peasant mass is uneducated, the church and monarchy rule. Are we not heading in this direction again? Technology being the new "power"? How long until the masses catch up and stop being screwed?
I wouldn't have much of a problem with this if it weren't for the fact that updates tend to break stuff as often as it fixes them.
Even mobo manufactures say to upgrade only if the update fixes a specific problem you are having.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
If this culture develops in this industry, then it will be easy for big business to force customers to accept 'improvements' that they would rather be without.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
Sure it's dangerous, sure it can screw up your brand new DVD Player or home theatre system, so why not take it to a professional? Competitive rates assured!
Or let the luddites live without the 'features'. Face it, that's why we became techies in the first place, to profit from everyone else's technophobia.
and maybe you would get it right without needing to "update/mess about with" every 3months
the consumer is not your beta tester
"This raises concerns over alienating users that aren't tech-savvy and how this could affect perceptions of portable electronics as a whole."
Frankly, if I'm being forced to pay $25 for a cable to do necessary upgrades, you're going to alienate me whether I'm tech savvy or not. Especially if the 'unavailable' features were advertised as part of the item in question.
You ship the product when marketing decides it needs to be shipped, not when it's done. You make all the required features exist so that the bullet points are covered in the specifications, even if they don't work right all the time. The fixes come later, in the order of the number of complalints.
It sucks, but that's the way it is. Your product is either first, or it needs to be 10 times better than the other guy's product.
My other first post is car post.
They've decided to start charging in advance for vapour-ware?
3. Make enough money on Product so that they can stay in businness and produce product "V2" that actually does have features X, Y, and Z (or maybe just X and Y).
Hopefully that staves off 4 for a while.
Worked for TiVo, sort of.
My other first post is car post.
New features through firmware updates should be quite welcome to everybody who can follow the simple precautions necessary to update.
Except that the customer has in most cases already paid for these features. At that point, who is to say these "features" won't turn into vaporware.
Now I've found my telescope (Meade ETX-125AC) Autostar computer can be upgraded, but with a special cable for my purchasing pleasure. Hm.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
For example: I spent a day and a half trying to upgrade the firmware on an otherwise useless SMC "PCI" NIC, the SMC EZ Connect 802.11b 2602W v.1, not to be confused with the v.2 or v.3 models with completely different chipsets. I say "PCI" because the NIC is actually the 2632W v.1 PCMCIA NIC in a PLX "riser."
Thanks only to Jun Sun's mini-HOWTO and "unofficial" firmware caches on the Web, I was able to upgrade the station firmware. Unfortunately, this did not result in the features I needed.
If vendors begin requiring consumers to flash firmware regularly, it needs to come out of the "underground" and be explained by the vendors. I'd also like to see DOS boot-disk-based firmware upgrade tools, like Dell's BIOS flash disks. I didn't like turning to Windows to run SMC's update program. (Linux and DOS attempts failed with this particular NIC.)
Thanks to the openap-ct project's Linux floppy I was able to use prism2_srec to flash a different NIC, though.
Helevius
Consider this: most items that require firmware updates attach in some way to a PC, and get those updates through the PC.
What if there were some kind of a standardized firmware upgrade protocol (kind of like the windows automatic updater service-thingy) that kept track of your devices, notified you when updates were available, and flashed the updates for you?
End user no longer has to be very savvy, but rather just has to have the firmware updater software installed. Updater reaches out to product web services (provided by manufacturers) for each product it is aware of, and checks for updates, and downloads 'em.
Network devices (such as wireless routers) could find their own manufacturer, and update themselves (or not, of course, depending on user prefs)
The messiah has spoken, now we must follow.
t
- I bought a 4x DVD burner less than a year ago and had to firmware flash it. I can get an 8x now for less.
- Firmware flashing an 802.11g laptop wireless card went wrong and broke wireless networking on my laptop. As I hadn't set a system restore point, I had to re-install windows.
- I rushed out and bought SuSE Linux 9.0 for AMD64 as soon as it came out. Had to wait months for drivers to support my SATA drives and the onboard ALN on my MoBo.
I'm done.Video jukeboxes... I'll wait until trailer-park mamas are trampling each other at Walmart to get the $35 Christmas special model made by Kwok-tek or some other manufacturer you never heard of before.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
1) Announce Product with features X, Y and Z
2) Ship Product with feature X
3) ???
4) Go bankrupt.
Nope. Look at this way. Product is loss leader, cable and other bits to upgrade are Profit.
Go on, doubt me, I dare you.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Something I learned a long time ago. Don't EVER make a purchase you'd find useless if a promised future feature/accessory/upgrade doesn't actually happen! I've seen companies promise accessories down the road that don't actually happen. Features that should only require a firmware upgrade turn out not to be possible without a hardware change. My personal favorite for a while not has been HDTV upgradable TVs - a couple of years after you buy that new TV, are you SURE that company would be happy developing new accessories for "last years model" or do you think they'd MUCH
rather sell you this years model... Are you sure that new DRM standards aren't going to cripple the possibility of that future accessory upgrade you were promised?
I guess it depends on how you define "Evil." If by evil you mean they are willing to screw many individuals for their own profit, then most corporations are indeed evil. If you mean they are willing to use superior market share to destroy competition (thus hurting "consumers," who are really just individuals), then some are evil (I'm not convinced most, just a fairly large number).
/.. Simply because someone holds an opinion different from yours does not make them wrong; nor does your naive analysis of the corporate economy of America make you wrong. (Our economy is Capitalist like the Soviet Union was Communist-- that is, in name only.)
If by evil you mean allow others to die so they can profit, then a slightly smaller number are evil.
The point is, there is some definition of "evil" for which a lot (if not most) corporations are evil.
My definition is simple: if a corporation is willing to harm others in its pursuit of profit, it is evil. By this definition, quite a few are evil. Since this is condoned (and encouraged!) by our government, it seems to get worse.
Now, you can argue that corporations don't make these decisions, individuals do, but that is simply prevarication. Groups of people will do things indivduals will not; this makes the group culpable. (Now, defining the individuals within the group may be difficult.)
So how do you as an individual get around this? Easy, instead of rushing in to buy something and then whining about it later, read some objective reviews of the products you buy, talk to people (either in the real world or online) about them, and lastly take all the advertising you see with a grain of salt.
This is excellent advice, and I certainly agree with it; but that doesn't change the economic reality that sometimes, there is only Hobson's Choice, at best. In some areas, if you want phone service, you must use the single provider in your area. This is just one example among many.
Further, consider how people have been reduced to "consumers." Between that and, "worker," that is our role in society-- to work, and to consume. Who profits most from this? I'll bet you dollars to donuts (Mmmmm.... Krispie Kreme....) it isn't the individual.
I don't take exception to your arguments. I take exception to the reference to the "uninformed opinions" so popluar here on
Just because you are right about unthinking consumerism driving shoddy workmanship in the electronic gadgets sector does not negate the evil nature of many corporations. Enron did not happen in a void.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.