[MiguelHudnandez]

One reason to resent the pervasiveness of new technology -- not that it's inherently bad or that we're becoming luddites, but we don't want to deal with each company's separate and probably-shitty implementation of something we can do well on our computers.

My refrigerator does not need to tweet. My refrigerator is supposed to keep things cold. That's all I expect from it. I don't want a half-baked inventory management system or a TV.

My Blu-ray player should play movies. Not tweet, not download updates for a movie. The experience should not be inferior to VHS (by lacking the ability to fast-forward at will).

One example of a shitty experience in my recent memory: Last week I turned on my PS3 after it's been off for about a year. I wanted to play Gran Turismo (5, I think). Plugging it into Ethernet was a big mistake. First, the OS must be updated. That takes 5 minutes. Next, Gran Turismo must apply TWENTY updates before I can play. I took a picture of my screen because it was so ludicrous. I took another picture when it was installing the last update. Those two pictures are forty-five minutes apart! Finally I can play the game that worked just fine a year ago. The only thing that's new is that it asks me to sign into Playstation's network every time I load the game.

So, now, given the option to connect something to the Internet, I probably won't. The user experience matters.

[mrposty]

What is really so annoying about this, is that sony are COMPLETELY AWARE that this annoys the piss out of the consumer, that they added it as a PAID FUNCTION to the 'playstation plus' that you can have the option to auto-install updates for you.

see here: http://us.playstation.com/psn/playstation-plus/

The gall of the company to sell auto software updates as a feature amazes me.

[tadfisher]

Most of the GT5 updates are actually for DLC, which is added to the game whether you buy it or not. Some additions have been free, so there are new cars and tracks that you can play; this is not immediately obvious when you play the game for the first time after one year.

[MiguelHudnandez]

Thanks, that is true. I'll look up what has been added. Maybe a track that I'd be interested in or some new challenges.

There's another opportunity for an improvement, though. A simple "what's changed" that we've had with "normal" software updates on our computers for years.

[sk5t]

On refrigerators: Hmmm, maybe. Given the amount of food the average person wastes, some kind of inventory helper is a seriously good idea. I just don't want it to tweet, ever.

[SoftwareMaven]

I agree, but a half-baked system doesn't help and just adds complexity to one's life.

I would love to be able to see what's in my fridge and pantry in real-time. But until everything has RFID embedded, it will never take less time than just looking in the cupboard when I need to know.

[__david__]

20 updates is ludicrous. It's strange they don't coalesce that down to one big update.

> So, now, given the option to connect something to the Internet, I probably won't.

That may be going too far. I recently had my XBox360's network disconnected without realizing it and put in an old game I had just bought. I played for a good 4 hour stretch, saved the game and quit. When I came back the saved game was corrupt. Turns out there was an update and I could have saved myself a huge hassle if I had had it plugged in to the internet...

[incision]

I can absolutely relate to the PS3 gripe as I experience the exact same thing to do no more than watch a rare Blu-Ray.

Thing is, it's really a Sony issue, nothing intrinsic to Internet connectivity which could be used to auto-update in the middle of the night.

Connectivity isn't the problem, gimmicky half-baked features and poorly implemented/purposefully crippled functions are.

[robryan]

Eh, I prefer the updates than suffering through bugs that never get fixed because console developers traditionally put at a final release and that was it.

I do agree that in terms of the OS, you get mostly pointless updates there, probably mostly playing a cat and mouse game with people jailbreaking the console. It would be fine except it demands the latest OS version to play a game online.

[sitharus]

I recently did exactly the same thing with my PS3. I had an hour to kill, but it took overnight downloading the updates.

For comparison, I can download from Steam at over 5Mbps. The PS3 took 20 minutes to download a 50MB update.

My TV on the other hand, which is the pre-'smart' generation of Samsung TVs - does a reasonable job of streaming media from the network.