So, the winter season is upon us and so are the updates. Yep, I’ve found another one. Was shopping for a new winter jacket the other day in the Columbia store, and what did I come across? You guessed it, another kiosk infraction (and it’s running XP – yuck)!
Let’s take a closer look at that there kiosk:
Hmm, how about a bit closer?
Yep, Java Update Available. Yet another reason why automatic updates are a bad idea (especially on kiosks).
So the other day I flew in to SeaTac thinking, wow, I haven’t seen any blue screens or problems recently (ok, I did see a few but didn’t have my camera), when BANG. At that moment, walking to catch the bus (yes I take the bus to and from the airport), I came across a kiosk and it had a dialogue box up. Most of the time when I come across a kiosk with a dialogue box it is usually stating it needs a reboot, however this one, strangely enough wanted to upgrade…something I don’t think should/is/was supposed to be a consumer task. At any rate, here is the kiosk:
and the close up of the kiosk:
so, I went ahead and clicked update for the version update for SeaTac. Not sure if you’re now out of EULA or your license allows you upgrades to LogMeIn or not, but hey, you gave me the chance/option to upgrade and as we all know, the newer the better and with software always use the latest and greatest, right?! 
Lucky enough for those of you who don’t have a wireless device when you’re travelling, we’ve got Internet Kiosks which cost just short of a small city to use. At any rate though, they’re these little babies:
This one just happened to be in Southampton airport, and I wanted to take a minute and look at it.
- Dell machine advertising Samsung
- Windows 7 advertisement but the kiosk (as almost all do) runs some sort of its own OS and no where near resembles Windows 7
- A link to FREE websites on the side, which, when clicked on, brings up a payment screen?!
- A search engine that doesn’t return results (again a “FREE” perk of this kiosk)
OK, so maybe it’s me being critical again of technology (as it’s what I do every day) but lets not try to send too much of a misconstrued message to the public we want to captivate and utilise it more (i.e. those folks who don’t have laptops in tow and are our target market)…Hmm, maybe a rethink of our marketing strategy guys?
