By Richard M. Sherwin…

The fallacy and dangers of upgrading your home electronics

Is your free upgrade for your software or hardware electronics really free? During the Spring product previews, I was truly amazed as television and high end audio makers were touting that their 2011-12 products had the advantages of the computer industry: A consumer, with little or no help from the manufacturer, can fix or upgrade their TV or stereo system with a USB flash drive or direct from the Internet firmware program.

Like many industry veterans, I struggle with our Windows and Mac Operating System upgrades. Most of the time they leave our computers worse off than before, so I asked some Microsoft, Sony, Panasonic, Apple and Verizon executives (who will not be named to protect the guilty) whether they followed their own companies’ suggestions to upgrade their own hardware or software.

“Are you nuts?” replied a Microsoft executive who works on the Windows and Windows TV at the Redmond-based computer company. I would rather risk security flaws, eschew a few features and stay a few years behind in my program than risk Windows 7 from going splooey or Word or PowerPoint from crashing,” she said. Commenting on her Microsoft responsibilities and whether she does the upgrade for her product that involves content management systems, “Well, yes, I use the upgrade. But I cross my fingers.”

Next up were a veteran PR manager who represents Panasonic’s TV and audio division and a product marketing manager, who is in charge of another company’s hot selling Internet TV accessory. When asked whether they would advise using the newly instituted upgrade plug in his client’s TVs and home audio equipment he said, “Unless your TV or audio equipment is not working at all, I would leave well enough alone because, if you have a problem after an upgrade, don’t expect help from tech support because they may not know any more than you do.” The product manager, who has tried valiantly to convince her boss, the chief technology officer of the accessory company, not to over-promise the automatic upgrade feature said, “We should never have pushed this upgrade feature on Best Buy and Costco. But the retailer fell for the not always accurate fact that this upgrade feature would lessen the need for customer support,” she said.

One final warning came from another well respected lady, who had represented some of the top TV, stereo, PC and internet product makers. “People don’t trust computer hardware and software companies, so many of us think they shouldn’t trust upgrades either.”

The most requested software upgrades are the ubiquitous Adobe Flash, the incessant Firefox Mozilla, the Mac OS and Windows OS. The most requested hardware upgrades are for Blue Ray players and Smart Phones.

So, the question remains. Is there a safe way to upgrade your computer or home audio video equipment using downloads or firmware supplied on a flash drive?

I asked a top technical support director who leads a team that represents Verizon, Logitech, Sharp and a numbers of other so-called third level (highest) support groups based in the U.S. “I suppose if you absolutely have to upgrade your computer or your computer related device, make sure there is a back-up plan that lets you downgrade to its original state like Windows and Mac operating systems do. If it’s a TV, stereo system or mobile phone device like a Blackberry, Droid or IPhone, I wouldn’t do it unless your product stops working entirely.”

My Summer Picks:

While Sony’s Play Station struggles to come back from its hacked system and Nintendo’s newest WII is maybe nine month away at best, I tried the much touted and still hard to get Microsoft Kinect and I found the experience exhilarating!

Easy to set up and no monthly fee required for the $150 accessory, it literally has you playing sports, exercising and dancing within minutes. No joysticks or controller or anything in your hands except, well, your hands and this thing really works. I was bowling and playing ping pong and, though I had to stay within 6 to 8 feet of the sensor, I could even tell it to stop or start or go back to the regular XBOX 360 using voice recognition that heard me after one voice trial, so I never even had to touch anything. The body-tracking motion censor (you can see yourself in a small window or a caricature of yourself on the screen), was pretty much exactly how I move in real life. I was a little disappointed that some of the directions assumed that you are not buying it and the Xbox 360 together, and are already familiar with the Xbox 360 and how it works. For some, that might mean a little learning curve. The Xbox is not as easy to use as a Wii or Play Station. However, the true to life Kinect System makes up for the rather mundane Xbox 360. Some of my colleagues, already exhausting every level of play with many of the Microsoft and other company’s Kinect games, say there should be tougher levels to these games and there probably will be soon. But for those of us who got tired of Wii or were shutdown by Play Station, this is a great summer and maybe long time substitute.

Bytes and pieces: No matter what online site or brick and mortar location you choose to purchase your summer gifts, if you’re an avid Amazon shopper, their Prime service, at $79 a year for two day shipping really saves you time and fuel. An Amazon Prime contract also offers unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost…taking on industry leader Netflix with a bigger library for the hot summer nights. EBay is also speeding up the process of comparison shipping by introducing an IPad, Android scanner App that literally tells you where and what the best price is for your shopping needs.

Isn’t it sad to watch a former terrific, reliable business and consumer hardware company lose its edge? Blackberry, which literally owned the Smart Phone business and, even with the emergence of IPhones, kept its market share, is now quickly fading into oblivion. Case in point: its Playbook Tablet. While it has the best graphic resolution, fastest processor and relatively easy to use touch screen operating system, this product was launched with virtually no popular Apps. Not even the Apps that come with a Blackberry phone. The cheapest entry level Droid tablet comes with more useful applications at the third of the Playbook’s price. A Blackberry spokeswoman contends that the Playbook will have most of its own smart phone Apps and many of the popular Android Apps available for free or very low fees by the end of the summer. However, that would mean this device will have been on the market for more than six months with very little compelling reason to purchase it.