The iPhone and TiVo - the digerati is out of touch

By Adam Turner
Monday, 07 July 2008 03:06

Market

Last week the Australian TiVo was canned in the blogosphere, labelled "hobbled" due to its small hard drive and the fact that many of the media player features won't be available until next year (and will cost extra). These are understandable complaints from power users, but here at ITWire I took a roasting for daring to suggest that the TiVo is the perfect solution for non-tech-savvy users.

I agree that waiting for extra features is frustrating but, purely as a Personal Video Recorder (which is its primary purpose), Australia's TiVo will be very impressive straight out of the box. Much of the criticism seemed to come from fanboys of other high-end PVRs, plus Seven and Nine-haters who were venting their spleens.

Yes the lack of ad-skipping is annoying and just reinforces the fact that Australians get screwed by the local networks. Yes the networks are bastards for withholding EPG data and dragging IceTV through the courts. That doesn't change the fact that the Australian TiVo is a great solution for the average man on the street, if not power users. Some media centre owners believe the world is conspiring against them, but they have to accept the fact that media centres aren't for everyone and the average person doesn't want a computer in their lounge room.

As a blogger and reviewer, it's far easier to say everything is crap rather than to consider whether it meets the needs of different users. As a blog reader, it's far easier to make ill-considered critical comments rather than to make an informed contribution to the debate. Members of the digerati seem to be so immersed in the digital lifestyle that they often forget they're not the average user. Just because something doesn't meet the needs of the digital elite doesn't automatically make it crap.