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The data plan certainly doesn't help but the fact most IoT devices actively put time and money into providing anti-features like demanding an unnecessary connec

The data plan certainly doesn't help but the fact most IoT devices actively put time and money into providing anti-features like demanding an unnecessary connection for basic functionality, an unpredictable sunset period of 'whenever we go out of business, get bought up, or just feel like it', needless privacy issues, and needless vulnerability to hacking and viruses and expect people to pay more for it including recurring charges? Using ubiquitous computing to turn their devices into dumb terminals which must defer the home server? It is downright stupid runaway greed run amok while viewing themselves as entitled to customers - they couldn't make their contempt for their customers clearer if they had put photos of themselves flipping the bird twice to the customers on every box and giving making every product name a combination of three to five randomly chosen swears and insults. If they actually started with an appliance and asked "what features would a customer find useful" instead of "what can we charge them for and put behind a pay-gate" then we would have something worth considering. Washer/dryer unit which can text or email you when your load is done and can be programmed in sequence? Great. Smart locks for changing entry codes remotely and phone communication with an app? It is actually made for its niche. Instead their strategy is like including a remote triggered bomb in every product and then wondering why people rarely buy their stuff.

ryandrake 6y ago
Most IoT devices do not need Internet for the home automation features that actually provide value to users. They need a LAN connection at most. They say they need Internet but it's typically just used for exfiltrating user's personal data and analytics, and as you say for implementing needless payment gates and remote-triggered bombs.
sumtechguy 6y ago
You hit my sentiment on that perfectly. I am currently going through something similar on some open source software. Basically the people who run the project are 'done'. But it depends on other services and those people are 'done' too. They got tired of the endless support requests with little recompense. So they bailed out. Yet from my 'customer' point of view now something I used no longer works correctly and no amount of money will fix that. So now I have to spend a bunch of time trying to figure out something that works for me for something that 'worked'. This is the situation many of these companies leave other people and companies in. Fail usable is what IoT should be. Instead it seems to be just 'fail and you are out of luck'.

ryandrake 6y ago

Most IoT devices do not need Internet for the home automation features that actually provide value to users. They need a LAN connection at most. They say they need Internet but it's typically just used for exfiltrating user's personal data and analytics, and as you say for implementing needless payment gates and remote-triggered bombs.

sumtechguy 6y ago

You hit my sentiment on that perfectly. I am currently going through something similar on some open source software. Basically the people who run the project are 'done'. But it depends on other services and those people are 'done' too. They got tired of the endless support requests with little recompense. So they bailed out. Yet from my 'customer' point of view now something I used no longer works correctly and no amount of money will fix that. So now I have to spend a bunch of time trying to figure out something that works for me for something that 'worked'. This is the situation many of these companies leave other people and companies in. Fail usable is what IoT should be. Instead it seems to be just 'fail and you are out of luck'.