More on the latest software update for Virgin Media's TiVo

Scarlett Johansson was not happy to learn that the latest software
update to TiVo disables network access for 3rd Party-Apps

Deployment of the latest software update for Virgin Media's TiVo is underway, both my 1TB and 500Gb boxes were updated overnight to Version 15.2.01-2-C00. Virgin have revealed some more details about the update on their Help & Support Forums, which is host to plenty of unhappy feedback regarding the removal of network access for 3rd-Party Apps:

As a number of you have noticed, we’re currently piloting our final bug fixing patch to our 15.2 software.

This software includes a number of changes, including improvements to YouTube performance, gearing up for the launch of new red button services and stability improvements.

One change that has raised some questions from some of our pilot users is a change to the way in which TiVo communicates with companion applications.

We built the TiVo service with two sets of APIs for integrating with other devices, one for our use and one for use by third party applications.
                 
Without being able to go into extensive detail, due to the unique way we have integrated TiVo, there are capabilities of the VM API that could, if misused, affect the stability and security of our TiVo service. In order to keep our system secure, we have disabled the use of some of the APIs to eliminate this risk.

We realise this means that anyone using certain non-Virgin Media companion apps will no longer be able do so, however as you will be aware we are working on our own official companion apps for TiVo. We’re spending a lot of time right now making sure these will give customers a fantastic experience and hope to have more news about them soon.

We appreciate that this might not be what some of you wanted to hear but we’d rather be upfront about the need to disable this feature for the time being.

The waiting continues for Virgin to release those official apps, for both fans of Apple and Android mobile tablets.