[tricolon]

What your parent might be talking about is the distinction between a product that is continually supported by the creator (such as a hardware device with software that can be updated) and an artefact that is produced and then effectively forgotten about by the creator (though there might exist a first- or third-party market for repair and maintenance).

I have a feeling that many auto manufacturers still think more in terms of artefacts than in terms of products (like many corporations used to treat software).

[skrebbel]

My point is that the vast, vast, vast amount of products out there don't have auto-update. This includes my morning cereal, my fancy designer dustbin, my bicycle, my microwave, and my 2-year old son's favourite teddybeardogthing.

To only call something a product when it has auto-update is such ridiculous HN navel gazing that it's just funny.

EDIT: removed useless rant for fear of losing even more internet points!

[taejo]

Your morning cereal isn't auto-updated in the box, obviously, but the recipe is presumably tweaked quasi-continuously without calling it Corn Flakes 2.1 or something like that.

[Udik]

Not tweaked in the sense of improved, though. I guess that mostly it's changing the proportions and varieties of the contents depending on the price of the different ingredients and their availability. I was kind of shocked when I first learned (in a jam factory) that they do it all the time, while you're in the illusion of buying the same product, because, well, it displays the same label and brand.

[stefanobernardi]

Agreed on the terms. It's just that I don't have a better terms, given that we work with digital constantly upgradable web apps and native apps and we still call them "products".

[tricolon]

I agree it's funny. There's probably a better term for it.