Maybe it's my age ( I turned 40 in November ) but I have started to feel less of a need to poke around the detailed guts of the technology I purchase. I still take the time to learn about and understand how things work but I would rather pay for a complete package that gives me the freedom to do things and do them with a minimal amount of "configuration".
I am more concerned about how my data is handled and stored than about the actual hardware or software mechanisms in my devices. I want to be able to move my content ( either what I made or what I bought ) between systems and applications with the same ease that I move my money between banks. I do not want to invest in any technology that locks away my data in some proprietary silo.I do not want my music locked up.
I don't care if WMA or AAC or ALE or whatever or whatever sounds better. I use MP3 because the format is portable to any platform. I want to archive the content on my media recording devices ( whether a digital camcorder, PVR/DVR, DVD ) in a portable format. That means I should be able to move the content from my TiVo to my hard drive in MPEG4 or MPEG2. I don't care if TiVo wants me to buy some bloated piece of software from one of their preferred partners to burn a disc. It's my device; piss off!
I want standard open interfaces on all my devices. For me that means, USB, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), DVI and plain old Toslink. HDMI has DRM built into the hardware. I want to support the open source and Linux communities but I demand ease of use. Until I can get my mom to use it then it's too difficult.
It's not your age man. It's the fact that technology trips over itself for the SAKE of itself, and that's great for the engineers and hobbyists, but when it comes to end users getting real VALUE from technology, that's a problem.
I'm 37 and I understand technology just fine. But now that bigger things are in my life than building a new gaming rig or downloading shareware all night, I want what technology can do for me to be front-and-center, not technology itself.
The landscape is changing in this direction more and more, as I see it.
Good post.
Jeff Ventura
Graceful Flavor
Jeff,
Thanks for the comment. The "post" is actually a summary of some email exchanges with a friend.