Things that rock, v3.4a
Feb. 11th, 2003 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikOne of the neatest things about modern gadgets is the fact the have the ability to keep getting better -- for free.
I've had a few friends complain about devices that need 'firmware upgrades' now and then to fix bugs. They've had various grumbles about how things shouldn't be released to market until they're a finished product and so on. The upside is well worth it, however: new features.
By way of example, I just upgraded my little MP3 handheld's firmware during a lull at work. It now plays about 3 more file formats (still no Ogg, though, oh boo hoo you OSS junkies), has a new on-screen spectrum display and uses its little CPU in a much more efficient manner and squeaks out 10% more battery life. The Audiotron at home was purchased back during the 1.0 release of the device. It was pretty dumb; you had to go through a few notable hoops with your home network to get it to function right. Nowadays at V.3 (about 25-30 incremental updates to get there, over 2.5 years) it has a built in webserver, supports more formats, handles more songs in the same memory amount and has a user-interface thats many times more elegant. It's like a whole new piece of hardware, except I've not had to buy anything.
Now if only this would work for other devices in our daily lives. It'd be so nice to get free tech upgrades to one's car or television set without having to just go out and buy new ones. :)
I've had a few friends complain about devices that need 'firmware upgrades' now and then to fix bugs. They've had various grumbles about how things shouldn't be released to market until they're a finished product and so on. The upside is well worth it, however: new features.
By way of example, I just upgraded my little MP3 handheld's firmware during a lull at work. It now plays about 3 more file formats (still no Ogg, though, oh boo hoo you OSS junkies), has a new on-screen spectrum display and uses its little CPU in a much more efficient manner and squeaks out 10% more battery life. The Audiotron at home was purchased back during the 1.0 release of the device. It was pretty dumb; you had to go through a few notable hoops with your home network to get it to function right. Nowadays at V.3 (about 25-30 incremental updates to get there, over 2.5 years) it has a built in webserver, supports more formats, handles more songs in the same memory amount and has a user-interface thats many times more elegant. It's like a whole new piece of hardware, except I've not had to buy anything.
Now if only this would work for other devices in our daily lives. It'd be so nice to get free tech upgrades to one's car or television set without having to just go out and buy new ones. :)
