The Listener's Take on MySky · Tony Andrew Meyer

My parents have subscribed to The Listener for as long as I remember. When I left home, I subscribed too, and continued for nine years, until Pamela Stirling took over as editor and turned the magazine into a trashy, pale, copy of what it once was. I do occasionally glance over their website, however, and noticed Russell Brown’s MySky review. Either they give the reviewers the only working copies, or Brown didn’t use it long enough for it to break, like it has for everyone else I’ve heard of that has it. Laughably, Brown says:

My Sky, benefiting from the experience of Sky’s siblings in Britain and Australia, is a mature product.

A mature product, in my opinion, is one that works. Not one that fails daily. He does continue to say:

What that means is that it’s an absolute doddle to use.

So I suppose he has a different definition to “mature product” than most people. MySky is simple to use. However, I really do feel that to be “mature”, a product has to be well tested, which should mean few bugs. MySky is nowhere near that category. technorati tags: MySky, SkyTV

2 Comments

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John Porter 3 March 2006

Clearly, MySky IS a mature product AS DESIGNED. You must admit, the features are pretty slick and well integrated, although some improvements could be made eg in the info shown on the planner page. AS IMPLEMENTED, however, it is not a mature product, as its bugginess attests. Presumably the UK and Aussie versions could be mature products, and the NZ integration with EPG, TAB, etc have introduced the flakiness. Interesting his take on the series link feature - sounds like he needs to do a soft reboot!

tonyandrewmeyer 4 March 2006

I don’t agree that it’s mature as designed. If you look at the features, it’s like the PVRs that came out in 1999. It’s 2006 - if you look at the features that a truly mature PVR has today (e.g. TiVO, or the other PVRs in the US) you can clearly see the difference. I have seen comments that people have had problems with series link with the UK version, although not ones with recording programs (although I haven’t looked extensively). A good development methodology would avoid introducing problems with changes, in any case. If Sky’s team (outsourced, from the sounds of the email you forwarded) aren’t using such a methodology, then Sky should use someone that does.