I like technology and I use it a lot and I work with it. I use windows, ios, android, samsung and a blackberry for work. I am a good user and I don’t do mods or jailbreak anything. That is beyond me. I like to use different systems as they all have good and bad points. Normally technology is supposed to help but recently it has been getting painful and is starting to really annoy me.
Windows first off. I have two windows 8.1 laptops and an update came from Microsoft that broke the PC. It took me two weeks to rebuild it after spending hours on the web researching every step and trying to find answers to each step that then failed. So Microsoft break the software and then I have to spend hours fixing it. I have up to date virus software and I even defrag the machines regularly. I do disk clean ups and try to keep on top of things. Makes no difference when the software house can brick the PC for me. Will the free upgrade to Windows 10 make any difference or will I have two PCs heading for the recycling point?
Android has been another pain on my Nexus 7 (2012). I received the update for android to take it to 5.0 or Lollipop. It virtually stopped working. Lots of kind people tried to help on Google+ (I seem to be the only person I know that uses it regularly) but in the end I had to wipe my nexus 7 and start again. Finally an update came to lollipop (5.1) that helped it work but I had to remove Facebook and cannot use Chrome on it. But now it doesn’t freeze for 5 minutes at a time. The same update has become available for my Moto G, they must be having a laugh if they think I am moving anything else to lollipop.
And what of apple? Well the size of the ios8 update meant I had to remove lots of apps and data from my ipad2 to fit it on. Itunes has been as flaky as anything for the past year and randomly syncs and doesn’t update podcasts even when the settings are correct, doesn’t connect to itunes store when I want but removes my subscription fee for itunes match bang on time every year. The only thing that consistently works on apple is my ipod touch 3 which is 6 years old later this year. That could be because it is left marooned behind on ios 5.1.1. and stays with versions of apps that just work.
Samsung is causing problems for me as I have a samsung smart TV and use their smarthub. However this has almost daily updates so I never know if netflix / BBC iplayer / Amazon Prime or any catch up will work from one day to the next. I can never get an answer from Samsung and the internet is full of ‘fixes’ that are mainly the 2015 version of turn it off and on again.
So what would I like –
- Each system upgrade to have a built in way of reversing the upgrade if it is a lemon.
- Software providers to be honest and say your hardware will be rubbish if you run this update as it won’t cope but it is your choice.
- If a fix is coming for a particular problem put it on the appropriate website and say approximately how long it will take.
- I would really like to buy a film once and have it on all my systems and that is coming with Flixster and Ultraviolet but not all films go through this route and I don’t always want buy a physical DVD these days.
Technology won’t be going away and I know this is a bit of a rant but I felt I needed to get it off my chest. And now I can breathe.
paulsdiary 