Happy New Year, and welcome to my first consumer rant of 2007! Woo hoo!!
Of course, the first rant must be reserved for Comcast. They recently sent a firmware update to my DVR — and of course, you can’t do anything about firmware updates because they push them to the box without your knowledge and there is no mechanism for stopping them. So, they can screw up or disable your box anytime they want to.
The latest update really messes up the DVR, making it run even slower — if that is possible — and adding layers of unnecessary complexity. Very Windows-like changes, making it more annoying to get to what you want. For instance: I used to be able to press a single button on the remote, and it would take me directly to my list of recorded programs. Evidently, this was too easy because they have now added in an extra step. When I press the button today, it takes me to yet another menu, where I must choose “recorded programs” and press enter.
But this is nothing compared to how annoying it is to watch television with the thing. There are delays when pressing buttons, banners appear and disappear on the screen at a whim, and every so often this strange message pops up without warning or provocation:
I have no idea what this means, other than a big old testimonial to poor coding.
I took that photo with my new phone — I’m testing out a Treo. I got tired of carrying around so much technology with me, at least this will let me consolidate my Palm and phone together. Still, it has some niggling problems and you can bet I’ll be writing about those soon as well.
And if my luck holds true, Apple will confirm that they are selling a phone next week. If so, stand by for the comparisons to begin…
