People did not use PCs at home and then try to drag them to work. They used PCs at the office and then got themselves a nasty trailing edge used machine to run Lotus on at home. The migration of PCs was most definitely from the office to the home. This was driven by the fact that IBM was an established name in business. What home user cares about Big Blue.
The early killer apps for the PC were "business applications".
People ran other things at home. They ran things that were much more like Apple products.
The feedback loop between the office and home is what killed off nearly all of those more Apple-ish products.
Microsoft and DOS was well entrenched in business by the time they finally got around to offering a decent version of Windows. By that time, DOS had managed to mostly wipe out anything else (with or without a GUI).
They will be more interested in how cool they look. They won't care that they aren't doing their job as well as they could be. They will choose the inferior product that makes them look better. Looking better has no relationship to job performance.
Consumers might care about accessing their own files.
Even some of the dumber ones can come up with "creative" use cases that may surprise you. The locked-down-appliance model might not be as great as it's cracked up to be.
Just pay attention to what you're putting in yourself for awhile and avoid the obvious highly dense problematic foods. Also apply the ancient rules regarding sweets and snacking between meals.
Most people get fat and stay fat because of bad habits.
It's alive and outside of anyone's control. The plants go where they want to. This is the basic problem with granting patents of this kind. The "product" spreads and infests everyone else's property. Pretty soon, you are stuck planting contaminated seed stock or nothing.
NO. It's it's Monsanto that should be getting judgements against farmers, it's farmers and entire countries that should be getting judgements against Monsanto.
This whole nonsense is like saying that Cheney owns your house just because his dog sh*t in your yard.
The fact that the industry is trying the same bogus strategy over and over again does not mean that it is right. It just means that it will blow up in their faces sooner or later.
There is a glut of cheap content right now. People might wise up and realize that they can buy "originals" for cheap and not bother with the crappy remakes.
Want a browser in the living room, then run it on you TV 80s style? Hooking up a computer to a TV is nothing new. You just won't be able to use a "10 foot interface" for it.
A wireless keyboard with a built in touchscreen isn't necessarily the most "sophisticated" approach but it works.
It had absolutely zero WAF. It did not impress. No one was interested in using it over the previous HTPC setup.
The SmartTV has to not suck. It also will also face resistance for simply being something other than what people are already used to. That also brings up the interesting possibility that each of your TVs will have it's own set of interfaces.
Will you be vendor locked to one brand of TV? What happens when the new models come out? Will it be like Vista or Unity?
Part of why I built my own HTPC setup was to enforce a common interface across all TVs. It's very handy being able to use the same remote for all of the TV/DVD/STB functions.
If that were really the great tragedy that some people would like to make it out to be, people would already be abandoning 3rd party audio systems.
That is clearly not happening. Despite all of the vocal whining from a particular contingent, the actual users don't seem to see any value in abandoning features or flexibility.
I built my first HTPC because I "outgrew" my Tivo. However, I can see how it's the right solution to this particular problem for most people.
This isn't music. The default consumption method is not purchase or even rental. It's subscription. That method is dominated by physical monopolies that also control the computer networks. The same gatekeepers that control TV also own content and have the means to strangle any Internet based alternative.
> Because, to date, solutions where that stuff is 'outside' the TV have not been wife-friendly.
Fanboy revisionist claptrap.
Video appliances are VERY wife friendly. Even the likes of MythTV is very wife friendly once the boxes are built. Something like a Tivo (or even an ATV) avoids that step if you find it scary.
The fanboys have this pathalogical need to pretend there is a void that Apple needs to fill. TV is their current fixation.
I already have "an experience" when I click a remote.
Tivo was the prime mover in this area.
I don't care about some clueless johnny come lately and his fanboys that choose to be ignorant about everything. They have no clue and no taste and nothing to add to the discussion.
They don't even contribute any really interesting "pie in the sky" suggestions that sound good but might run afoul of the multiple monopoly players on one side and a completely non-standardized industry on the other.
If you want a castrated set of features disguised as "ease of use", you can already do that with a 30 year old TV.
People in general are cheap bastards. It's not just Linux users.
If you price something like this at anything above $100, you will sabotage your own prospects. Tivo has seen it. Google has seen it. Even Apple has seen it.
The dirtcheap video appliances are all very successful compared to their more expensive counterparts.
The SmartTV concept might work better because people are stupid as well as cheap. They may end up needing to pay more for the TV than they need to because the TV is something they may think they can't avoiding paying a large sum for.
Charge more but hide the price in the cost of the TV.
The Hellishness of a cable STB or a Tivo is grossly overrated.
On the other hand, "the obvious alternative" lacks a number of key features that would be considered essential to anyone used to a Tivo or a DVD player.
The cost and complexity of an HTPC doesn't imply that the solution is to put all of that cost and complexity inside the TV itself. None of today's over hyped appliance features require that hardware to be embedded inside the TV itself or the corresponding unjusified premium.
A separate $100 box offers all of the upside and none of the downside.
If you really think that Texas is "dead last" you really need to get out more. You sound like someone that's only ever flown over the US interior (if that even).
If you stopped ranting about idiots at Texas, you simply lack any imagination (or education).
That's kind of like whining that it cost millions to produce 63 minutes of music when the people running things are actively encouraged to waste money like it's going out of style.
Instead if hiring and then firing a producer and spending millions in the process, just don't bother to hire that guy to begin with.
Yeah. I think that behavior is brain dead on a Mac too.
Contrary to popular opinion, Apple is not the god of usability. People need to get over that idea. Some things are just stupid. It doesn't matter how over hyped the creator is.
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No. You must be young.
People did not use PCs at home and then try to drag them to work. They used PCs at the office and then got themselves a nasty trailing edge used machine to run Lotus on at home. The migration of PCs was most definitely from the office to the home. This was driven by the fact that IBM was an established name in business. What home user cares about Big Blue.
The early killer apps for the PC were "business applications".
People ran other things at home. They ran things that were much more like Apple products.
The feedback loop between the office and home is what killed off nearly all of those more Apple-ish products.
Microsoft and DOS was well entrenched in business by the time they finally got around to offering a decent version of Windows. By that time, DOS had managed to mostly wipe out anything else (with or without a GUI).
They will be more interested in how cool they look. They won't care that they aren't doing their job as well as they could be. They will choose the inferior product that makes them look better. Looking better has no relationship to job performance.
Consumers might care about accessing their own files.
Even some of the dumber ones can come up with "creative" use cases that may surprise you. The locked-down-appliance model might not be as great as it's cracked up to be.
Perhaps we should just start calling it "Edison-ian".
Just pay attention to what you're putting in yourself for awhile and avoid the obvious highly dense problematic foods. Also apply the ancient rules regarding sweets and snacking between meals.
Most people get fat and stay fat because of bad habits.
It's alive and outside of anyone's control. The plants go where they want to. This is the basic problem with granting patents of this kind. The "product" spreads and infests everyone else's property. Pretty soon, you are stuck planting contaminated seed stock or nothing.
NO. It's it's Monsanto that should be getting judgements against farmers, it's farmers and entire countries that should be getting judgements against Monsanto.
This whole nonsense is like saying that Cheney owns your house just because his dog sh*t in your yard.
The fact that the industry is trying the same bogus strategy over and over again does not mean that it is right. It just means that it will blow up in their faces sooner or later.
There is a glut of cheap content right now. People might wise up and realize that they can buy "originals" for cheap and not bother with the crappy remakes.
Want a browser in the living room, then run it on you TV 80s style? Hooking up a computer to a TV is nothing new. You just won't be able to use a "10 foot interface" for it.
A wireless keyboard with a built in touchscreen isn't necessarily the most "sophisticated" approach but it works.
I tried a SmartTV.
It had absolutely zero WAF. It did not impress. No one was interested in using it over the previous HTPC setup.
The SmartTV has to not suck. It also will also face resistance for simply being something other than what people are already used to. That also brings up the interesting possibility that each of your TVs will have it's own set of interfaces.
Will you be vendor locked to one brand of TV? What happens when the new models come out? Will it be like Vista or Unity?
Part of why I built my own HTPC setup was to enforce a common interface across all TVs. It's very handy being able to use the same remote for all of the TV/DVD/STB functions.
> Except multiple remotes
If that were really the great tragedy that some people would like to make it out to be, people would already be abandoning 3rd party audio systems.
That is clearly not happening. Despite all of the vocal whining from a particular contingent, the actual users don't seem to see any value in abandoning features or flexibility.
> Whatever. I think you don't have a wife to realize what is and isn't wife-friendly.
No. I think it is YOU that is the basement dwelling poser that's never operated one of these devices nor watched a "normal person" do it either.
Weekly freezes? What are you running? Windows 95?
Can't manage to install a copy of XBMC on the OS of your choice? Then just use a Tivo. Non-problem solved.
I built my first HTPC because I "outgrew" my Tivo. However, I can see how it's the right solution to this particular problem for most people.
This isn't music. The default consumption method is not purchase or even rental. It's subscription. That method is dominated by physical monopolies that also control the computer networks. The same gatekeepers that control TV also own content and have the means to strangle any Internet based alternative.
> Because, to date, solutions where that stuff is 'outside' the TV have not been wife-friendly.
Fanboy revisionist claptrap.
Video appliances are VERY wife friendly. Even the likes of MythTV is very wife friendly once the boxes are built. Something like a Tivo (or even an ATV) avoids that step if you find it scary.
The fanboys have this pathalogical need to pretend there is a void that Apple needs to fill. TV is their current fixation.
I already have "an experience" when I click a remote.
Tivo was the prime mover in this area.
I don't care about some clueless johnny come lately and his fanboys that choose to be ignorant about everything. They have no clue and no taste and nothing to add to the discussion.
They don't even contribute any really interesting "pie in the sky" suggestions that sound good but might run afoul of the multiple monopoly players on one side and a completely non-standardized industry on the other.
If you want a castrated set of features disguised as "ease of use", you can already do that with a 30 year old TV.
Yes. Even a $8 BluRay is expensive when compared to the marginal cost of ZERO you get from a flat rate rental service.
You were thinking of a bunch of food tins with "Village Foods" on them weren't you?
I wonder if The Village PPV service has that show available?
Be seeing you...
People in general are cheap bastards. It's not just Linux users.
If you price something like this at anything above $100, you will sabotage your own prospects. Tivo has seen it. Google has seen it. Even Apple has seen it.
The dirtcheap video appliances are all very successful compared to their more expensive counterparts.
The SmartTV concept might work better because people are stupid as well as cheap. They may end up needing to pay more for the TV than they need to because the TV is something they may think they can't avoiding paying a large sum for.
Charge more but hide the price in the cost of the TV.
If Cable TV is part of the mix then obviously the solution is nothing that depends on a Smart TV.
The Hellishness of a cable STB or a Tivo is grossly overrated.
On the other hand, "the obvious alternative" lacks a number of key features that would be considered essential to anyone used to a Tivo or a DVD player.
Sometimes crippled is just crippled.
The cost and complexity of an HTPC doesn't imply that the solution is to put all of that cost and complexity inside the TV itself. None of today's over hyped appliance features require that hardware to be embedded inside the TV itself or the corresponding unjusified premium.
A separate $100 box offers all of the upside and none of the downside.
If you really think that Texas is "dead last" you really need to get out more. You sound like someone that's only ever flown over the US interior (if that even).
If you stopped ranting about idiots at Texas, you simply lack any imagination (or education).
Well that's a hoot.
Living in Austin, whining about Texans and bragging about moving to Seattle.
That's kind of like whining that it cost millions to produce 63 minutes of music when the people running things are actively encouraged to waste money like it's going out of style.
Instead if hiring and then firing a producer and spending millions in the process, just don't bother to hire that guy to begin with.
It's like that.
Monopolies suck at seeking economic efficiency.
Things like QC cost money assuming it's actually being done rather than the vendor taking your money.
It's kind of like that whole "support" thing.
Yeah. I think that behavior is brain dead on a Mac too.
Contrary to popular opinion, Apple is not the god of usability. People need to get over that idea. Some things are just stupid. It doesn't matter how over hyped the creator is.
Steal the good ideas, not the bad ones.