notes and views on crm, social media, and the human side of information technology

Does Your Software Out-smart You?

Cote writes:

I’m often confounded by software that’s too smart for my desires. Case in point this morning: as happens every week, several of the podcasts I haven’t listened to for awhile are marked with a little bang in iTunes. It’s stopped updating those podcasts because I haven’t listened to them in so long and wants to know if I’d like to keep downloading new episodes.

As far as I can tell, there is no way to turn this off. That’s life in Apple-land for you: thinking so you don’t have to.

Yeah. This is one of the reasons I did not fall in love with iPod and am still waiting for a Linux-based alternative (just kidding … or maybe not?).

On the other hand, my beloved has got one, and she’s happy precisely because Apple has done all the thinking for her and she, not being a geek, can focus only on what she cares about: listening to music. Everything that’s making that happen, processes and technologies, are completely transparent to her (she doesn’t care - she’s only concerned with the end result). And magically, the iPod is mostly right in predicting what she wants to do and how.

My take: the more competent you are with technologies, the less likely it is that you’ve developed your own way of doing things and the more choices you’re likely to demand. And chances are, you’ll be frustrated if the vendor assumes too much. You may be willing to accept the trade-off between simplicity and freedom (of configuration) and many have. Happily, the market has something to offer to just about everyone, and if you feel Apple is dumbing things down, well, you are free to look around for something more to your taste.

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March 14, 2007 | Filed Under CRM, Links and Quotes, Software delivery 

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2 Responses to “Does Your Software Out-smart You?”

  1. Cote' on March 15th, 2007

    I agree and this is one of the rare instances in Apple-land where I’d like to be a “power user.” I’m just wishing there was an option hidden away somewhere — or, hell, even if I had to go edit some plist file somehwere — to turn that off.

  2. Tomas Kohl on March 15th, 2007

    Yeah, I know how you feel :-) And thanks for stopping by!

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