Tech's broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap.

Eric

Eric

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While this may be true when it comes to streaming I do like that we can now pick and choose which services we want and cancel anytime, still way better than cable or satellite.

www.businessinsider.com

Tech's broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap.

Some tech is getting pricier and looking a lot like the older services it was supposed to beat. Namely video streaming, ride-hailing, and cloud computing.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com
 
I must be old and foolish, because I still have the traditional cable service (but only watch a handful of channels). Also I have Prime (Hardly watch), Netflix (cannot dump because of Spouse's Great British Backup obsession), Disney + (Star Was fan here), and Apple TV (part of Apple one Family Plan).
 
We have too many services, one of which is Peacock that I like. Something I don’t like about it is their skimpy news offerings which used to be better. Not long ago, they’d show Morning Joe live. It only lasted a few months and then they yanked it. What is on there tends to be old, like Meet the Press from 4 days ago won’t be available but older episodes are. How do they think news works?
 
Eric said:
While this may be true when it comes to streaming I do like that we can now pick and choose which services we want and cancel anytime, still way better than cable or satellite.

www.businessinsider.com

Tech's broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap.

Some tech is getting pricier and looking a lot like the older services it was supposed to beat. Namely video streaming, ride-hailing, and cloud computing.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com
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we also can watch stuff whenever we want, instead of when it happens to be airing (without kludges like TiVOs and VCRs). With Uber we don’t have to figure out a different phone number to call for every city, we can see where the car is when it’s coming to get us, we can pay online instead of having to carry cash, etc.

Even if the prices are the same now, technology has made things better.
 
Yeah things cost what they cost (factoring in gross levels of C-suite pay and stockholders value). The interfaces are better and services more convenient but they were never going to be cheaper. It turns out that are drivers and staff and infrastructure is just expensive because people want to eat and without VC money propelling massive debt fueled growth and the need to actually be a viable business, the old models were of course price competitive. Of course that promise of cheapness was a lie.

I mean the Uber was to me the most obvious: they got away with not having the same rules and regulations as Taxis by claiming to be new and different but of course they aren’t and slowly but surely those rules applied to them and, again, with the people who drive’s need to eat, prices equilibrated. But streaming as well, it doesn’t magically cost less money to make a TV show because you put it on the fucking internet.

Sorry living in SF years ago had this conversation more than several times with techie friends. To be fair almost all of them understood it, but occasionally … you got the wild eyed optimism that this was a great revolution in efficiency that was totally different and new and couldn’t understand that fundamentals of these industries weren’t going to change as much as they thought even with the differences.
 
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I tried streaming with what would be considered traditional TV on both YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream. Loved the unlimited DVR, but hated the menu system of both. I like to channel surf and have my set channels that I go through and that is just not easy with a Roku. I did get the DirecTV streaming box which gave me channel numbers and the ability to go straight to a channel, but the lag changing them got old. Plus, neither had dual live buffers.

I suspect once DirecTV's satellites go EOL, they will force everyone to stream, but I will hold on as long as I can.

As for the others, we sub to Prime, Hulu, Paramount + and Peacock. Nothing good left on NF so we dropped it.
 
MEJHarrison said:
One more broken tech promise, the elimination of commercials. I went from cable & commercials to TiVo/DVR and the ability to skip right through them. Now I have streaming services with commercials again.
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I will pay whatever I have to in order to stop Sweet James ads in CA, that fucker is literally EVERYWHERE, TV, busses, bus stops, billboards and internet. Someone needs to punch this guy in the dick.
 
Eric said:
I will pay whatever I have to in order to stop Sweet James ads in CA, that fucker is literally EVERYWHERE, TV, busses, bus stops, billboards and internet. Someone needs to punch this guy in the dick.
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This is more for the pet peeve thread, but some of the commercials on cable TV just drive me nuts.

1. Any type of Ad on animal cruelty. Stop it already with the shaking dogs! If I donate, can you stop the commercial from hitting my TV?
2. The almond milk commercial with the Father and daughter, where they laugh for no apparent reason.
3. Any commercial where the damn song get stuck in my head, 877-Cash-NOW, Kars-4-Kids, etc... Make it stop already.
 
rdrr said:
This is more for the pet peeve thread, but some of the commercials on cable TV just drive me nuts.

1. Any type of Ad on animal cruelty. Stop it already with the shaking dogs! If I donate, can you stop the commercial from hitting my TV?
2. The almond milk commercial with the Father and daughter, where they laugh for no apparent reason.
3. Any commercial where the damn song get stuck in my head, 877-Cash-NOW, Kars-4-Kids, etc... Make it stop already.
Click to expand...

4. Commercials for medications you should speak to your doctor about that might also lead to death and 70 other complications.
 
rdrr said:
This is more for the pet peeve thread, but some of the commercials on cable TV just drive me nuts.

1. Any type of Ad on animal cruelty. Stop it already with the shaking dogs! If I donate, can you stop the commercial from hitting my TV?
2. The almond milk commercial with the Father and daughter, where they laugh for no apparent reason.
3. Any commercial where the damn song get stuck in my head, 877-Cash-NOW, Kars-4-Kids, etc... Make it stop already.
Click to expand...

Can't give this the amount of Like's it deserves. :)
 
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