2013-05-11

One day, technology will "just work"

I have to admit it is getting simpler, but sometimes technology does not work so well.

James has been watching the F1 Qualifying on iPlayer in Sweden, as you do, and iMessaged to say it was worth watching. Sandra still has no idea how to get such things on TV, so asks me. How to make me look like an idiot...

So...
  1. Sky box, on demand, catch up, sky sports: "The F1 show". No sign of qualifying. Grr
  2. Sky box, on demand, iplayer, BBC one, today: Some breakfast show. No sign of F1. Grr
  3. TV, iplayer, channels, BBC one, today: F1 Qualifying. Yay! "Sorry there is a problem". WTF?
  4. iPad mini, iplayer, bbc one, today: F1 Qualifying. Yay! Plays! Woot! Small screen though.
  5. Finally: Air play to AppleTV to play on real TV
Sorted. And almost simple... :-)

Just start to watch and get a call, someone needs a lift, so on pause for next half hour. Grrr. If only families were as simple as technology...
at

3 comments:

  1. Steve HillSunday, 12 May 2013 at 18:41:00 BST

    Everyone (especially Apple and Google) seems to have decided that error messages are not user friendly and just displaying "it broke" instead of some useful information is the way forward. Increasingly I'm finding myself using tcpdump to figure out what error the remote server is returning because the client just says "it broke"! (Especially fun with encrypted connections since you can't even tcpdump them!)

    I don't mind hiding the debugging info behind a "experts only" button, but increasingly it just plain isn't there at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1Sunday, 12 May 2013 at 21:15:00 BST

      Exactly this.. and yes.. Apple are _the worst_ for giving no diagnostic information.
      So much so that I now turn down any requests (paid!) for help on Macs.

      Delete
  2. MarkJ_ISPreview.co.ukMonday, 13 May 2013 at 07:31:00 BST

    Agreed. For an IT bod this is one of the most annoying things about modern technology, which has happily been dumbed down for the masses but in the process often neglects the need for constructive information to help diagnose a problem.

    ReplyDelete

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