TiVo is a No Go

It’s no surprise to tech savvy Australians that we Aussies are not always ‘invited to the party’. For years and years Australia has been constantly left out and ignored when major releases for games and technology are sent out to the rest of the world, In particular the United States.

Channel 7 just had a story on about the ‘nifty new gadget’ that’s going to save our TV’s…apparently. TiVo was hailed as something that was amazing and unheard of. What non tech savvy Australians don’t know is that TiVo has been around in the U.S and Europe for almost nine years. Australian TiVo’s won’t be able to even access some of the standard features such as

- Not recording commercials

- Hard drive Capacity to record all shows. (Still under decision)

U.S TiVo’s can record two shows simultaneously with out ad-breaks to a 160 GB internal hardrive, I see no reason for Aussies to go out and buy a higher priced TiVo than its U.S counterparts,

"I think economies of scale mean it will probably be a little bit higher here,” TiVo also has an ongoing subscription fee to its service says a Dobbie representative.

Australia needs to step up its game in the world of technology. The game industry is expanding and Australia has little to nothing to do with it. A new ratings system and more money would stop the ridiculous censoring and banning of games. More community events such as the Water Balloon event which was held in Sydney a few years ago need to be held if Australia wants to rectify its self from the ‘ban everything’ name it has fallen under.

Below is a list I have compiled which shows the staggering of games and consoles in Australia compared to the U.S and other parts of the world.

Super Smash Bros Brawl.

- June 26 Australia

- June 27 Europe

- March 9 United States

- January 31 Japan

Xbox 360 released three months after the U.S

Rock Band

- U.S 20^th November 2007

- AUS December 1^st 2008

And as early as the Nintendo 64

- U.S March 1^st 1997

- AUS September 1^st 1997

Sources:

http://tivo.com.au/

www.wikipedia.org