Comment on Logitech will brick its $100 Pop smart home buttons on October 15 - Ars Technica
saltesc@lemmy.world 5 months agoThat’s any smart device. Unless you’re the one.doimg the updates.yoirself, they will all become obsolete as technology evolves. This is the case here too; sounds they just don’t have enough people using them to justify figuring out how to keep them working as new devices and platforms roll on. 9.5 years is an alright run, comparatively.
That’s exactly what I do. I also have IoT devices that are still trucking along a decade later. I fully expect them to likely do a decade more.
Both Tasmota and ESPhome provide open source firmware for many IoT devices. They throw up a local API interface that other systems can talk to. Providing legacy support is as hard as using HTML put and get commands.
It’s one thing to become obsolete because a new technology appears. It’s another thing for the rug to pulled from under you. You can still use old tech just fine, but not if the publisher decides to brick all your devices.
9.5 years is pretty good if you think of it as tech, but the problem is that smart home products are often home appliances. Some are even home fixtures. So yeah people feel cheated when something like a light switch gets dropped from service or demands a subscription
Not true, zwave and ZigBee are not required to use the manufacturers apps and you can setup a home assistant server on a raspberry pi in about 20 minutes and never worry about planned obsolescence like this. This is why I never buy WiFi only smart devices that need internet access and an account on an app to control.
Depends on your definition of "smart’ I guess. ZigBee stuff like buttons and the like probably won’t become obsolete for a long time. I guess you could argue that ZigBee protocol updates could eventually brick them though
The trick is to buy reasonably open devices, then provide the smarts yourself.
If it can talk to / be configured by HomeAssistant, and doesn’t require internet to work, it’ll probably be fine.
9.5 years is ancient in smart home devices.
Though, any company that stops supporting a device should be legally required to open source all dependencies required to operate it, or provide a full refund.
We absolutely need this to be illegal. The discount coupon they offered to customer ws insulting.
@WhatAmLemmy @saltesc I think the handed over Squeezebox when deciding they'd done enough squeezing?
9.5 years is ancient for smartphones, not for something that is supposed to work indefinitely like a switch
Also, that time is the best case scenario. When they stopped selling those switches? 3 years ago? Unless they discontinued them almost immediately after launch, there are customers with a much shorter timeframe
It’s a switch, there shouldn’t be anything to go obsolete.
I have two Yale Zwave locks that are at least 11 years old and still kicking. The key factor to this is the non reliance on the cloud.
Zigbee, Zwave, Esphome and other non-cloud will always work longer than any cloud based solution that is at risk of being shutdown, use a outdated or no longer available app, become a subscription, etc.
I agree with you that they should be required by law to open their code and unlock the devices but I doubt this will happen any time soon.
9.5 years is ancient in smart home devices.
Note to self. Don’t buy smart devices. 9.5 years is like a sneeze to me. I still have a Nintendo NES from the late 1980s still in working order. I mean, I modded the video out, and replaced the pin connector. But it works.
Except for a fairly tiny niche community of users still using them for nostalgia reasons, the NES is absolutely also ancient and obsolete in every way and has been for several decades.
Is it? It still works while so-called newer/better technology goes to the landfill within years.
Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
Just because it’s a “smart” service doesn’t mean it has to connect to the Internet or a server or the manufacturer. If it does neither, it can’t be turned off by them.
All my devices run local-only protocols. Nothing leaves my house. The devices that would be proprietary were reflashed to tasmota (fully open source, local only). Others are either Zigbee or Shelly. While Shelly has a cloud connection, it’s fully optional and disabled by default (including automatic updates). The hardware is also supported by tasmota, and reflashing is always just 5 minutes of effort away.
There is absolutely nothing that any manufacturer has to do to keep my stuff working. I have to do a little something (keep my tiny server on, basically). But more importantly there is nothing any manufacturer can do to stop my stuff from working.
picnic@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Thats what I did for 10 years.
To get my wife or parents or kids to use these often hacky and clunkier UIs was pain. I eased up and decided not to care. All iot shit are now in their own vlan with only :443 outboud allowed and I have integrated them to hassio. If my wife wants to use those million different cloud apps, I install those for her.
Decided just not to care.
Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
Mine are of course also on a VLan but with no Internet access unless they need it for everyday operation (like a radio, or the amplifier that can play Spotify).
We don’t use the manufacturer apps at all. Everything is integrated into (fully local) home assistant. No need to open a specific app to operate a switch, or a light. Everything in one place. Trivial and incredibly clear. Things that can be are of course automated.