I’ve seen the future and I’m not sure it will work!

by Bob Auger

It usually happens when there is a deadline to meet. The work is completed, the data checked, the layout perfected. Just as you are about to print, the message appears: ‘Updates have been installed, your computer will restart’. Your only option? Click OK.

Try as you might, the system inexorably shuts down. That closing paragraph you had worked on for so long…going. The font changes that meant the document fits exactly on two pages…going. The web pages you had been using…GONE.

Somehow we put up with this, because ‘it’s a computer’. What a joy, then, to turn to the world of consumer electronics where you can switch on, lie back and relax. Watch TV, listen to the radio, play your favourite albums; activities that require little more than the ability to operate the on-off button.

Granted, DVD introduced the concept of interactivity to a wider public. If you are still awake at the end of the film, you can fall asleep – interactively – to the endless ‘making of’ that follows it. But, once mastered, the DVD remote presents few problems. I’m still using the same first-generation Panasonic A100 DVD player that I acquired in 1997; the sound and picture quality is great and every disc I buy or rent plays perfectly.

So, given the long history of consumer electronics products that ‘just work’, who in their right mind would release ‘updatable’ devices into the market? What am I talking about? Well, if you have seen the 8-minute video on YouTube of someone’s struggle to update a new generation HD disc player, you would know what I mean.

Once, you bought the latest ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ title, rushed home and played it. Now, you have to check that you have the right firmware and update it if necessary, by downloading data from the Internet (you do have your player plugged into the broadband network, don’t you?). As long as the update works (there have been reports of corrupted downloads requiring players to go back to the store) you could be watching your favourite movie in less time than it takes to bake a potato…

That is today, but can you imagine the situation in a year or two? No content producer will know what revision is current, let alone how many different versions are out there in the player park. If this goes on, every High Definition disc will have to carry a pre-recorded message: ‘Updates are being installed. Please come back in a couple of days’.

I’ve seen the future and I’m not sure it will work. Are you?