Apps on cameras are for masochists

David Lee

6.12.2019

Translation: machine translated

On smartphones, nothing works without additional apps. I can do without them on cameras. Just installing them is a horror. Why is that?

I've done it again. Installed an app. Not on a smartphone or tablet, but on a camera. And it was just as I feared: Horrible.

I don't really like the fact that I have to install an app at all. The app on the Sony RX100 III provides the time-lapse function, which is included in many other cameras (e.g. my Nikon D7500) right from the start. I pay 13 francs for this, in Germany it would be 10 euros. But what annoys me much more is that it's so complicated.

Not everything that is complicated is a relationship status

First I have to connect the camera to the Wi-Fi. My Wi-Fi password is complicated, it's supposed to be secure and the camera doesn't have a touchscreen. So I have to navigate through the on-screen keyboard using the rotary wheel to enter the individual characters.

Because I don't normally install apps on Sony cameras, the next step is to create an account. This is not possible on the camera. The camera shows me a web address that I have to type in. The website greets me with the message that it has only been tested on Chrome and Edge and may not work on other browsers.

I set up my account on my PC and confirm my email address. As always, the password comes from my password generator. Now it occurs to me that this password is just as difficult to enter on the camera as my Wi-Fi password. I therefore change the password to another, less secure one that I can enter reasonably quickly.

Now I enter my login details on the camera. As soon as I click on "Buy", the camera tells me that I haven't entered any payment details. I enter my credit card details in my Sony account on the PC.

Select the app again, confirm the terms of use again, buy again. The error message appears: Website not available. It's a Viseca page that should be used for the payment process. I should check my internet connection and/or try again later. I do so, to no avail.

I could set up a PayPal account and try that. But PayPal is a company I'd rather have nothing to do with. I give up. As I can't use the Sony account, I take my credit card details out again. After all, I have an insecure password.

On this occasion, I see the "Connect a camera" button. Maybe I can download and pay for the app on the PC and then move it to the camera? A glimmer of hope germinates.

And indeed, it works. I have to download and install an extra "Play Memories Camera Apps Downloader" and enter my credit card details again, but in the end I finally have what I want.

Why isn't there a better way?

I can install an app on my smartphone in ten seconds. Why does it work so well on a smartphone that is a pain on cameras - and other devices?

On the smartphone, everything runs via apps. Apps are the basic principle of a smartphone, so to speak. On a camera or a TV or on Livia's calculator, on the other hand, you have 99 per cent of the functionality without apps; most of it is provided by the operating system. Apps are a foreign body and correspondingly poorly integrated.

That's why everything is already ready on the phone: it's already connected to the Wi-Fi, you already have an account for the store and payment is also super easy. Apart from that, many apps are free of charge.

But even if you're starting from scratch, things are easier on a smartphone, as passwords are easier to enter on a 6-inch touchscreen than on a 3-inch U-Can't-Touch-This screen.

In addition, experience shows that it rarely works out well when hardware manufacturers operate a software portal. Companies like Apple and Google are simply better at it. Sony may be a huge company with huge resources, but most of it is hardware-orientated. From this perspective, software only serves to operate the hardware, i.e. it is a side dish to the hardware.

And ultimately, this app store doesn't seem to be important enough. For Apple and Google, these are gold mines. Hardly for Sony & Co. So there is probably a lack of will to do the best they can. <p

David Lee

Senior Editor

David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.ch

My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.

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