Comment by jaffa2

Comment by jaffa2 2 days ago

23 replies

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All this app stuff is so annoying. I reverted back a while ago. Now when i want the radio on i just switch it on. With an actual switch. Same with my lights— an actual real switch! Theres no benefit to chaining all your behind someapp the needs updated installed, logged in passwords, managed, ooo you haven’t logged in for 90 days lets send you an email to update your password- bro i just want to increase my heating. Its all nonsense. Sooner people realise the better.

inanutshellus 2 days ago

TODAY I got an email saying my $600 robot vacuum cleaner -- which only works via an app -- would no longer work with said app.

It has no physical buttons to manage schedules, just a "spot clean now" button.

I hand-wrung when I bought it -- knowing it was a risk requiring I trust them -- aand I was bitten.

Awesome.

Welcome to the future.

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  • ryandrake 2 days ago

    Nobody on HN wants to hear this, but REG-U-LA-TION. The glorious free market is consistently failing to solve the growing problem of cloud-tethered and app-tethered products being nerfed by their manufacturers after the point of sale.

    Reply View 16 replies
    • deaux 2 days ago

      But that's why the EU is so "behind" on cultivating parasitic FAANG-style tech megacorps! If they'd just do away with regulations, the EU could have some of their own, such joy!

      Move fast and screw society for tasty RSUs!

      Reply View 0 replies
    • tsunamifury 2 days ago

      I think those who believe regulation is universally the devil forget the era where products were received DOA and customers had no recourse while companies simply called it profit.

      Reply View 3 replies
    • nine_k 2 days ago

      Sorry, but it's CUS-TO-MERS. They buy stuff that can only be controlled via an app talking to the cloud. They buy stuff that cannot be repaired. They buy stuff that openly lies about its specs, for an "unbelievably good price". The customers go for the cheapest, all else be damned.

      Education in general, and about critical thinking in particular, could help.

      Reply View 10 replies
      • inanutshellus 2 days ago

        Your argument is in alignment with

            * "There's a sucker born every minute" and
    * "caveat emptor" and
    * "If I can trick you into giving me your money, that's your fault"
        With a sufficiently large pool of people, scammers live and thrive on busy people.

        Regulation helps discourage that.

        In this case, "REG-U-LATION" actually "caused" the issue. Up-to-date LIDAR of every home in America was deemed to be invasive breach of privacy so was regulated out. This product didn't successfully account for future non-technical issues.

        I "foolishly" tried to reward a previously known-good vendor by buying a product from the company that had sold me a vacuum that worked for ten years... which brings up the next truism:

            * "Past performance is not an indicator of future success"
        Cue the tiny violin.
        Reply View 0 replies
      • nemomarx 2 days ago

        Customers would buy contaminated food if it was cheaper, too. There's value in having a floor on quality and design for products to avoid races to the bottom?

        Reply View 3 replies
      • mort96 2 days ago

        How's changing the behavior of every person on Earth to create the market pressures you wanna see working out for you?

        Over here in the EEA, governments using regulations to create the market pressures I want to see has a fair amount of success, FWIW

        Reply View 0 replies
      • anonymars 2 days ago

        Sorry, it's not. Latest example, Canon's phone app for its cameras, for GPS tagging, remote shutter, transfer to phone, didn't require any Internet access, but now they changed it to require an online login for no reason. Oh and that login only works with chrome installed.

        So miss me with this caveat emptor libertarian fantasy land ("openly lies about its specs" is the buyer's fault?!)

        Reply View 2 replies
      • watwut 2 days ago

        > They buy stuff that openly lies about its specs

        That one is very specifically failure or regulators and absolutely should subject to regulation. We can bicker about whether repairability should be regulated ... but false claims by the manufacturers absolutely should.

        It is absurd to blame the user for this one.

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  • looperhacks 2 days ago

    You may want to check if your robot is supported by Valetudo: https://valetudo.cloud/

    Reply View 3 replies
    • jansper39 2 days ago

      Reading through that site, it seems like instead of locking yourself into a corporations app, you're locking it into his instead. He doesn't seem to want to run an open source community, he's building an app for himself and publishing it for people who have exactly the same use case as him.

      Reply View 1 reply
      • fwip 2 days ago

        True, but you don't need to install updates once you have the software installed, and it's probably better not to. The software on the robot doesn't need the app to control, either - it exposes an API that either the app or custom software can talk to, sans cloud servers.

        Reply View 0 replies