random memes }

Cable companies and bad software

I have Internet, phone, and cable TV through Cox Cable in Orange County, California. Cox does an excellent job as a cable and Internet provider.

On the other hand, the Cox website has always looked pretty, but worked poorly. (This does not really matter at all, as the important bit is that cable/internet service works well.) Seems the cable company is not good at software / user interface work.

Just got a Cox DVR (made by Motorola) to work with the HDTV I got a several months back. I used a Tivo (Series 2, not HD) before. The user interface on the Motorola DVR sucks, big time. I was thinking, after all this time, surely the manufacturers would have software at least roughly comparable to Tivo. Nope. Not even remotely close. The user interface is crap. Really quite painfully bad. This DVR is going back. Seems the DVR hardware company is not good at software / user interface work.

Cable companies really need to get their software from outfits that do user interfaces well. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Tivo - pick one (or more than one), but stop buying crap software from outfits that do not do well at user interface work.