I've ranted about the TiVo DVR before, and now I have a better perspective of its problems--Google. The programmers at Google are constantly tweaking, testing, trying new features and putting them into use! It's all software, so the guys and gals at Google can code to their heart's content, come up with something useful, interesting and cool, and then actually get it posted on the Web for other techno-types to try out. Just as soon as they get Google Maps going, they add satellite views! They just added stock quotes to any Google search--and that's after they added aircraft registration searches, Google Local, and on and on. When it comes to bumping up the features, Google beats even Apple for timeliness (although I have to admit Google doesn't really have to deal with the hardware side of things).

When you're talking software, today's consumer/customer demands that you add and improve features constantly. You can't sit on your chair and maintain the status quo. Your customer will head somewhere else, where smarter and more hyper programmmers are doing something fantastic with DHTML, Java or whatever. Such is the problem with TiVO--it's stuck. Where are the cool features? What can it do today--fantastically--that it couldn't do last year, or last month, or last week? Nothing. (And don't tell me that music/video sharing thing is socko.)

TiVo has to get going--boom! New features. New cool features. Something to make current users happy, and prospective buyers run to the Best Buy to purchase their first (and second) TiVo. Hey, it's software! Program it!