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TiVo was one of those clever incremental improvements that comes out and becomes ubiquitous. I remember a friend having it in 2001ish and it was so cool at the

TiVo was one of those clever incremental improvements that comes out and becomes ubiquitous. I remember a friend having it in 2001ish and it was so cool at the time.

add-sub-mul-div 1y ago
Another way of looking at it is that it's becoming not ubiquitous, but extinct. In streaming, an ad-skipping device is too customer friendly to be allowed to exist. Everything the tech industry recreates is more user-hostile and privacy-invading than its pre-existing counterpart. Cable didn't innovate unskippable commercials.
- diogenescynic 1y ago
  There’s a word for this but it escapes me that describes how a lot of modern tech is actually a step back for consumers but it’s more beneficial/profitable.
  - amacbride 1y ago
    Cory Doctorow said it best: "Enshittification" https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2024-04-04-teach-me-how-to-shruggie-kagi-caaa88c221f2 https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2024-04-04...
  - mrguyorama 1y ago
    It's called capitalism. User hostile will always be more profitable. It used to be impossible to be this user hostile. You could not build a VCR that was unable to record the Superbowl. Tech fixed only that. Enshittification is just what capitalism means Preventing capitalism from doing exactly what it wants to do requires regulation and enforcing competition. Competition does not happen naturally. Competition is expensive and low profit and kills businesses, so they try to avoid it. Gas stations next door to each other don't do price wars anymore, because it demonstrably did not improve profits. Sure, you could lower your price slightly and maybe get a few more customers than you do now, but they will just lower their prices and at the end of the day you both end up making less money. So you just don't compete. Instead of lowering your price, you match their price.

TiVo was one of those clever incremental improvements that comes out and becomes ubiquitous. I remember a friend having it in 2001ish and it was so cool at the time.

add-sub-mul-div 1y ago

Another way of looking at it is that it's becoming not ubiquitous, but extinct. In streaming, an ad-skipping device is too customer friendly to be allowed to exist. Everything the tech industry recreates is more user-hostile and privacy-invading than its pre-existing counterpart. Cable didn't innovate unskippable commercials.

diogenescynic 1y ago
There’s a word for this but it escapes me that describes how a lot of modern tech is actually a step back for consumers but it’s more beneficial/profitable.
- amacbride 1y ago
  Cory Doctorow said it best: "Enshittification" https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2024-04-04-teach-me-how-to-shruggie-kagi-caaa88c221f2 https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2024-04-04...
- mrguyorama 1y ago
  It's called capitalism. User hostile will always be more profitable. It used to be impossible to be this user hostile. You could not build a VCR that was unable to record the Superbowl. Tech fixed only that. Enshittification is just what capitalism means Preventing capitalism from doing exactly what it wants to do requires regulation and enforcing competition. Competition does not happen naturally. Competition is expensive and low profit and kills businesses, so they try to avoid it. Gas stations next door to each other don't do price wars anymore, because it demonstrably did not improve profits. Sure, you could lower your price slightly and maybe get a few more customers than you do now, but they will just lower their prices and at the end of the day you both end up making less money. So you just don't compete. Instead of lowering your price, you match their price.