In many ways, 2012 doesn’t seem so far removed from our experiences today. And in other ways, it seems like generations ago. So much has changed about the way that we get entertainment from our devices. I mean, consider that in 2012 many people didn’t have cellular data plans that let them stream video. Fewer people still had any sort of streaming device or smart TV.
That’s why in 2012 the whole world was going nuts for on-screen apps. Today things have settled down and essentially most people use a TV for some sort of TV-watching activity (in other words, not for checking webcams, learning software versions or getting information about home security.) Today we’ll use our phones for that sort of thing.
DIRECTV had rolled out an apps experience in the late ’00s that seemed really revolutionary. Not only was there an app store, but regular folks could write their own HTML code to be used as apps, submit it to that store, and everyone could use it. The problem was,DIRECTV’s first-generation TV Apps were a work in progress. They never really functioned as well as they should have, largely due to the hardware simply not being robust enough. This eventually led to the second-generation of TV Apps that were rolled out in 2013, and eventually to products like DIRECTV’s Gemini which incorporate high quality content like Sports Central as well as streaming apps like Netflix and Prime Video.
Looking back to 2012, when TV Apps misbehaved
Today’s “Throwback Thursday” takes us back to a day when we cooperated with DIRECTV’s social media team to let the world know about some problems with TV Apps. By the time most people read the story, the problem was fixed but it was still great for our newly relaunched blog as we became part of the official DIRECTV response to the problem.
If you want to relive those days, check out the article here. It was one of the first times that DIRECTV’s social media team had worked with a third-party blog to put the word out. Even the company’s Twitter presence was pretty new, so we were happy to be part of the solution. Since then, we’ve worked closely with both the Engineering and Communications teams to help information flow freely when needed. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of.
If something like that happened today…
Like I said, in many ways the world is a different place than it was in 2012. The social media landscape is in upheaval today, with no one knowing what’s happening to Twitter/X. That’s why I’m happy that I’m still able to put out a lot of information on this blog to help people know whether or not “it’s just them.” This blog is home to over 6,000 tutorials, each one customized to help with a specific problem. It’s the kind of thing that’s taken over a decade to create. And, when I look back, a lot of that started with that first collaboration with DIRECTV’s communications team, all the way back in 2012.
