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AEG combi microwave unusable after update: device thinks it is a steam oven
- DiabloD3 5y agoI refuse to own an oven that is internet connected. If my oven has enough of a computer to have a firmware that can be updated remotely, it is too dangerous to own.
- falcolas 5y agoThis time it bricked. Next time it could just as easily turn on high and not shut off until the power is removed. EDIT for disbelievers: The software update meant for an oven successfully installed on a microwave, and bricked the microwave because it was writing instructions to the wrong addresses. Why believe the software would never accidentally write to the 'heating element relay' bit in an oven?
- jaywalk 5y agoMy oven is Internet connected. It can't be turned on remotely unless I press a button on the oven itself, and even then it'll only allow it once. The WiFi functionality is also such total garbage that it'll only stay connected for a few days, and requires physically unplugging and re-plugging the power to the oven to get it to reconnect.
- RobertMiller 5y ago> It can't be turned on remotely unless I press a button on the oven itself, and even then it'll only allow it once. That it's possible at all suggests that the oven is only one bad firmware update away from turning itself on when you don't intend it. Conceivably such a limitation could be built into the hardware; e.g. with a button that works like a circuit breaker. Set to break after the oven starts once and requiring the user to manually reset it. But the odds of it actually being implemented in this way, rather than pure software, is virtually nil.
- jaywalk 5y agoI agree with you. But it's just the oven, so the risk is just wasting some gas and heating my house up a little until I notice. The cooktop burners can't be operated remotely, so there's no risk of unintended open flames. Also, because of the crappy WiFi it's almost never connected anyway.
- djbusby 5y agoJajaja! My WiFi oven can't burn my house down cause it's WiFi code is worse than it's heating-element code.
- InitialLastName 5y agoYour modern oven probably has an electronically controlled ignition instead of a pilot light. What would stop the oven from opening the gas valves without igniting, potentially creating a high-risk situation if there are any issues with the seal?
- paranoidrobot 5y ago> It can't be turned on remotely unless I press a button on the oven itself, and even then it'll only allow it once. I'm not sure I'd be willing to believe a manufacturer on this. This feature is probably implemented in software, rather than hardware - simply because it's cheaper. The idea of any of these home appliances being internet connected really blows my mind.
- ncr100 5y agoHow did software engineering get to the point where this kind of low quality update is shipped "too often" for serious circumstances like a physical oven? Like it's hardly notable news anymore for something like this to happen. It's frequent. I worry that agile is largely responsible, and has mutated into a pipeline for garbage, though I don't have any evidence to confirm that suspicion.
- switchbak 5y agoAgile was in use for many years before this craziness started, I think you need another explanation.
- wpietri 5y agoI don't think "Agile" is responsible, but it is a supporting character here for sure. Let me give a little history from my perspective. I got involved in that movement before the word "Agile" existed; I was really interested in the ideas coming from the Extreme Programming folks and had tried them out on a small project in 2000. All of the people I met early on really wanted to do software well; the question was how to do it well and responsively. Unit and acceptance tests were just part of the process [1], and Kent Beck also wrote Test Driven Development By Example [2] around then. So in my view there was strong early interest in quality. But this was all happening during the rise of the internet, which changed people's expectations for software delivery. Previously, releasing every 18 months was seen as reasonable. Suddenly the web was changing people's expectations. (Although not as fast as you'd think; a consultant pal told me in 2004 that Weight Watchers still had an annual release cycle for their website.) Executives and managers were under pressure to deliver faster. As I wrote about elsewhere [3], that created a need for Agile that was filled not by the humanistic culture and quality-oriented practices of my end of the Agile world, but by consultants and certification programs watering down the material until executives could slap some new labels on their same old bullshit and call it Agile. It turns out that bullshit long predates Agile. If you go back to Royce's original 1970 paper on Waterfall [4], one of his big points is that it doesn't work. Why, then, did it become the predominant way to organize software projects? Because it feels good to managers. For most of the project, it gives them a feeling of control and competence. That feeling is false, as it just delays all of the real-world feedback until near the nominal end. But they can perform confidence and competence to their boss, which is vital in managerialist [5] organizations. So I totally agree with you that Agile on average has mutated into a garbage pipeline. And that happened through a whole industry that produced manager-friendly process theater that threw out a quality focus and most of the Agile values, while using the Agile labels. But I think the real responsibility lies in our management culture and values, which both precedes Agile and whose harm extends well beyond it. [1] http://www.extremeprogramming.org/map/loops.html http://www.extremeprogramming.org/map/loops.html [2] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/test-driven-development/0321146530/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/test-driven-development... [3] https://web.archive.org/web/20170923232057/http://agilefocus.com/2011/02/21/agiles-second-chasm-and-how-we-fell-in/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170923232057/http://agilefocus... [4] https://pragtob.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/why-waterfall-was-a-big-misunderstanding-from-the-beginning-reading-the-original-paper/ https://pragtob.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/why-waterfall-was-a... [5] See, e.g., https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/confronting-managerialism-9781780320748/ https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/confronting-managerialism-9781...
- fatnoah 5y agoI'm starting a kitchen upgrade, and the number of "connected" kitchen appliances is astonishing. I don't need my faucet to have Alexa, I don't want to read news on my refrigerator, and I don't want an app for my oven. I'm not aware of any companies keeping servers running for a product that matches the life expectancy of a kitchen appliance, nor do I want an AWS outage to keep me from making nachos.
- null_object 5y ago
- ggreg84 5y agoBuy professional appliances, for restaurants. For some reason, they are often better along many axes: cheaper, easier to clean, more customizable, more powerful, more flexible, etc. I really like the professional induction stoves, with actual physical dials, no touch crap. And the best part, there is a huge used market for professional appliances in really good shape, for even lower price.
- numpad0 5y agoUntil the day it starts asking your support contract number…
- civilized 5y agoCan you recommend any particular sellers? My oven stops working with some nonsensical error message when I try to use it above 350F, so I'm in the market for a new one.
- rootusrootus 5y agoNot OP, and not making any recommendations, but even something mainstream like webstaurantstore.com carries a fair amount of commercial cooking equipment. Enough to give you some ideas, at least.
- bluGill 5y ago
- tpmx 5y agoImagine an attack on the electric grid that works by startíng a large number of high-power appliances (ovens, EVs, ACs/heat pumps, etc) at max power at the exact same time.
- adwww 5y agoThis is actually a big potential for a smart grid - turning on or off demand from things like fridges and ovens in response to the grid frequency changing. If the grid is very slightly over 50hz it means demand exceeds supply and vice versa. By automatically switching off the pump on thousands of fridges for a few seconds, networks would require less generation capacity on standby - saving $$$ and CO2. Of course, like you say, this would leave potential for this to be used in reverse to destabilise an entire grid.
- jaywalk 5y ago> If the grid is very slightly over 50hz it means demand exceeds supply and vice versa. Not to be too pedantic, but it's actually the opposite. Frequency drops as demand goes up, which requires more supply to compensate. This is because the generators physically spin more slowly as they are put under more load.
- adwww 5y agothanks, I knew I should have googled to check... Also occurs to me that it's 60hz in North America, but point roughly remains!
- throw7 5y agoAlso devices that require a smartphone to operate e.g. the joule.
- RobertMiller 5y agoImagine trying to sell this premise to somebody 50 years ago. > It's a toaster, just like the one you already have on your counter, except it won't work unless you give the manufacturer a copy of your rolodex. People then would laugh in your face, but today most people don't even seem to blink. The absurd has been normalized.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- paulgerhardt 5y agoI have a dozen or more devices that can burn down my house (or kill me in other interesting ways) connected to the internet because I am confident in the precautions taken by the engineers who designed them and mitigating the “hacker” threat model is mostly already addressed by precautions already taken to mitigate failing (“rogue”) controller boards present in their non-internet connected counterparts through 30+ years of iteration. Specifically my laser printer has a thermal bypass switch, my smartphone(s) have charge controllers integrated into the batteries, my water heater has a pressure release valve, my oven is literally designed to withstand max heat for an indefinite period of time, my garage door is a death trap in four different ways (but has redundant safeguards for all of those), my kettle has has a thermocouple that trips when it boils dry etc. etc. From a micro-morts perspective, adding “electricity” to an object makes it significantly more dangerous than adding “internet”. Ie going from a hand grinder to an electric grinder. But the utility is worth the trade off.
- gpderetta 5y agoThe issue is that hardware interlocks might at some point be replaced with software interlocks, if they haven't already. See the Therac-25 incident for a concrete example.
- paulgerhardt 5y agoOnce a hardware interlock safeguard requirement is put in place by a regulatory body it’s rarely removed. See British fused sockets for instance. My threat model allows me to be completely cavalier with a dishwasher. I would be considerably more serious with safety concerns were I to put a chemo machine in my garage. My suspicion is that people who haven’t shipped home appliances connected to mains are not aware of how much of the engineering effort goes into making these machines safe relatively to how little it does for adjacent categories and are mis-indexing risk over bigger issues like vendor lock in as with the Sonos upgrade fiasco a few years back.
- jacquesm 5y agoCompared to 'the internet' electricity is pretty predictable.
- switchbak 5y agoJust wait until these long range, low power mesh networks are the norm. Then they'll be networked and auto updating (and spying!) without your knowledge or consent!
- amelius 5y agoI refuse to live in a country where mass consumer products can enter the market before being okayed by consumer organizations.
- stjohnswarts 5y agoYeah if it doesn't have a hard off internet/bluetooth switch I don't want it. I don't want some hacker-ish kid next door pwning it in 5 years when the manufacturer no longer updates, I don't want to have to load security updates on my toaster. I just want to push the thingy and then the thing happens. All my kitchen appliances are 15 years old, 5 years old when I bought the house.
- ravedave5 5y agoI found an oven that had all the features I wanted... and internet. After verifying it did not require internet I bought it and it will never be connected. Who connects something that could burn your house down to the internet?!
- ChuckNorris89 5y agoAEG consumer electronics are pure trash nowadays and have nothing to do with the OG AEG company. IIRC, it's a Chinese brand now who licensed the AEG brand name.
- TonyTrapp 5y agoI think already in the 80s AEG's inofficial slogan was "Ausgepackt - Eingeschaltet - Geht nicht" (unwrapped, turned on, didn't work).
- oblio 5y agoIt's Electrolux, Swedish company and apparently second appliance company worldwide by number of units sold.
- deelowe 5y agoElectrolux is one of those companies that I avoid at all costs. Everything they make is garbage.
- gandalfian 5y agoOwned by Electrolux. So in Europe at at least Electrolux, zanussi and AEG will be roughly similar parts aimed at different market segments. My AEG oven from a year ago was still made in Germany so hopefully ok. They may well ajbe sold the branding rights in some cases though.
- ale42 5y agoWhy in the world would one connect a microwave to the Internet in the first point?! (I guess that's the way they received the wrong update...)
- sofixa 5y agoWell for security updates of course! As to why it needs security updates, it's because it's connected(able) to the internet.
- ben_w 5y ago"The kitchen of the future will only employ one man and one dog: the man’s job is to feed the dog, the dog’s job is to bite the man if he tries to touch anything”.
- martopix 5y agoWhy do you need the man to feed the dog, you can have a timed dog food distributor.
- ale42 5y agoI see... to prevent an army of zombie ovens coordinating to DDoS some service or web site...
- sofixa 5y agoIt's not like this hasn't already happened - the Mirai botnet was just that, Internet of Shit appliances.
- akomtu 5y agoSo your oven needs updates because it's connected to the internet. It needs internet so manufacrurers could sell your data to data brokers. Those data brokers need your data to sell it to advertisers. And advertisers need it to sell you personalized ads. Users need ads to convince themselves that they need cheap junk, like those wifi-equipped microwave ovens. And those ovens need updates because... Such is the cycle of misery that's called "advertising industry".
- muhehe 5y agoShould have taken this a bit further. I think that microwave showing you "I'm a teapot" error would be hilarious.
- throwawayninja 5y ago"Refusing to heat pizza, please insert water. Error 418: I'm a teapot."
- quercusa 5y agoI wonder how many €0.01 per unit they saved by not having enough storage to keep the old firmware version while they loaded the new one?
- zwirbl 5y agoThe update process finished successfully, very likely no one thought a downgrade would be needed in such a case. I wonder why they can't just roll out another, maybe that would also hit the legit steamovens
- evandale 5y agoThe update killed the Wi-Fi on the device too >The ovens can no longer connect to Wi-Fi due to the wrong software update, so a new update cannot be performed. >The problem must therefore be solved on location, the spokesperson confirms.
- jaywalk 5y agoThe steam ovens probably use a different WiFi chipset. What a colossal mess up.
- bob1029 5y agoImagine how much they could have saved by not requiring any firmware at all in the design.
- 5y ago
- noveltyaccount 5y ago> "An employee manually entered a wrong number somewhere, causing an incorrect update. As a result, all combi microwaves of this type no longer work in the Benelux," says a spokesperson for the umbrella company Electrolux. All????? They didn't roll out the release gradually? Holy hell.
- jb1991 5y agoWell, not all. Sounds like Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg were the beta-testers :)
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago>They didn't roll out the release gradually? Holy hell. Have you looked at dev wages for appliances? That explains everything in short. Everything has to be done for the cheapest price in the shortest amount of time. Fractions of cents are cut in every directions when possible. So when you're operating dev teams on shoe string budgets under constant crunch, there's no talent nor resources for sane management, dev and testing practices. Kind of like the game dev industry, but worse. And the sad part is, there are really great devs stuck in that shitty industry, as it takes a lot of skill to write code so efficient it fits in undersized ROM or write firmware that can replace HW components. Source: former embedded dev
- bitwize 5y agoMakes you wonder why they don't take it to the extreme and remove the computer entirely.
- gpvos 5y agoBecause implementing the functionality in physical hardware instead of software is much, much more expensive.
- ahartmetz 5y agoIt really depends on the expected production numbers whether it makes sense to save on hardware. I have worked on expensive products of which only a few thousand were made, predictably because it was specialized stuff, and a lot of money was spent to make the software aceptably fast... It's different for e.g. cars where it's typically millions, at least for the computing parts.
- froh42 5y agoWhen connecting to it, does it return http status 418?
- maury91 5y agoI was about to say a similar joke: "Good thing the microwave doesn't think it's a teapot"
- ale42 5y agoIt should :-D
- throwra620 5y ago
- macintux 5y agoBless you, I knew this was ringing bells but couldn’t quite place it.
- api 5y agoAny kind of Internet connectivity on an appliance is a strong anti-feature for me. I can't think of a single reason I would want it, and it seems like it would either be a privacy invasion or a source of headaches. Unfortunately I think for the average customer this is a "blue crystals" feature, something they don't really need and probably don't use much but that makes the device feel new and cool. Mass market product development is governed by what the bulk of the market does, so we will probably see more "put a chip in it" trash. The solution is unfortunately to go up market and pay more for luxury or commercial grade stuff. On the plus side it tends to last a lot longer, so if you factor in life span it may cost about the same.
- qwertox 5y agoThe analog thermostat of my fridge broke, a replacement thermostat didn't work reliably. So around two or three years ago I replaced it with an ESP2866, a relay and an ds18b20. It worked great, except that the logic was outside the fridge on a home server, it was a a Python script which also logged the data into InfluxDB. The issue then was that sometimes when the server was down, the fridge stayed on or off. Last week I started to reorganize my WiFi, which devices access which APs, and since then it had constant disconnects, so I decided to finally fix this issue. Now it's an ESP32 with the logic in code which now only posts to the server for InfluxDB-logging and is upgradeable via OTA and parameters can be set via http://fridge.home/esp?data={"set-fridge":{"max":7,"min":5.5,"interval":10} http://fridge.home/esp?data={"set-fridge":{"max":7,"min":5.5...} It's been fun doing this and extended the lifetime of the fridge for a couple of years. But I also would never buy an internet connected fridge or any type of appliance, unless it could be flashed with some OSS to make it cloud-free.
- alkonaut 5y agoIt should at least be considered a drawback, so that the benefits it offers must outweigh it. For a microwave, the drawbacks is (obviously) greater than whatever benefit it can offer. For a heat pump or something that can actually make good use of the internet (remote control, looking at electricity prices, planning with weather information) the cost/benefit analysis is different. I'd hate to have an internet connected microwave but I'd love to have an internet connected heat pump (Or ideally a heat pump with a local REST api so I can just tell it myself)
- eMSF 5y agoHas artificial intelligence gone too far? (j/k)
- Calamitous 5y agoWe’re inching ever closer to the day when HTTP 418 is no longer a joke.
- mushyhammer 5y agoHi, have you googled "smart kettle"? They already exist. We're living in the future and/or a joke. This and Russia turning the yellow arches sideways calling it Uncle Vanya make it feel like we've entered Los Santos.
- pilsetnieks 5y agoHackers took down some Russian military sites, including the main one (.mil) subdomain and made them return the 418 I'm a Teapot error. It has double meaning in Russian because чаиник (chaynik) - Russian for teapot is also slang for a fool, a newbie, inexperienced, dumb.
- type0 5y agoThe real nightmare would be if a coffee maker starts giving out HTTP 418
- shever73 5y agoAnother quality product from the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.
- na85 5y agoThe future is here and it's awful.
- smilespray 5y ago"Oh my God — it's full of ads!"
- swayvil 5y agoOn my oven I want a knob. That's it. I'll light it with a match. Presently have those lighting spark things on my 5 year old samsung. Already failures. No, I do not want networking, apps, wifi, touchscreens or any form of digitality. This shit is glitter for the "technologically educated" class. Turning a $1 tshirt into a $10 tshirt
- _justinfunk 5y agoMy old range had two pilot lights under the cover, when the knob allowed gas to flow - the pilot ignited the burner. No electronics and no matches! Unfortunately, there were 4 knobs - so you wouldn't be interested.
- tenebrisalietum 5y agoWifi/network access shouldn't ever enable turning an oven on, but it'd be cool as hell if: - I could turn it off from my phone when I hear the timer, but don't feel like going to the kitchen to silence the oven alarm. - I could view what's cooking inside without having to be at or open the oven.
- stjohnswarts 5y agoYeah I'm in a similar situation, I just use a match lol. Every now and then it will make a sad little "tick tick" as I turn the knob. Not sure what's wrong with it but it doesn't matter, we have mastered fire.
- akomtu 5y agoIt's turning a $10 tshirt into a $1 one, but with a nfc tag so your movements can be tracked (a pretty much ready business idea, VCs must be starting a fight to fund it already).
- taffronaut 5y agoIt's installed into a cabinet, so there's no quick access for a visiting technician to get to the back panel, let alone the internals, in case they need to access a debug port to reflash it.
- throw0101a 5y agoSee also "My dishwasher won’t start until I let it update its firmware over the WiFi" (Jan 31): * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30147379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30147379 And "GE won’t let me use convection roast on my new oven without connecting to WiFi" (Mar 5): * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30570027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30570027
- beeboop 5y agoMy friend got a generator recently that wouldn't work unless connected to wifi, which he didn't have onsite because it was his cabin in the middle of nowhere. He had to call customer service which gave him a PIN to enter on the generator to bypass the requirement.
- SixDouble5321 5y agoWhat good is a generator that doesn't function off-grid?
- Nextgrid 5y agoWhy is there no user-facing firmware update/recovery feature, so that at least tech-savvy users can resolve the issue themselves? Or a reset feature that reverts to the factory firmware located on a separate, read-only chip? Ah yes, it's to prevent people downgrading or running "unauthorized" firmware when they inevitably start adding user-hostile "features".
- jaywalk 5y agoIt's probably more about cost savings than anything else. Why add a USB port and the associated functionality required to do manual updates when it's got a fantastic remote update capability?
- Nextgrid 5y agoIt doesn't need extra hardware. Most routers have some rudimentary TFTP boot mode that can be accessed by powering it up while holding a certain button. The device already has Wi-Fi, so the same mechanism can be used - if powered up in recovery mode, it'll scan for a specific SSID and then TFTP boot from a specific IP on there.
- gpvos 5y agoThe percentage of microwave users that could perform such a trick rounds down to zero.
- Nextgrid 5y agoSo is the percentage of router users... and yet those debug modes are there because they cost nothing and can be useful in "oh shit" moments like these.
- macintux 5y agoA router being down is potentially catastrophic for a household/business. Certainly more important (under most circumstances) than a microwave oven.
- ck2 5y agoI want to point out most cars made after 2004 or so have no physical connection between not just accelerator and engine but more importantly wheels and steering wheel. So their usability is as good as the software written to control them and the motor/sensor windings, etc. Not unlike the software controlling that microwave.
- hunter2_ 5y agoAccelerator pedal is entirely by wire, but steering by wire is merely supplemental to the physical linkage (same as braking).
- garaetjjte 5y ago>but more importantly wheels and steering wheel. No. There haven't been any production cars with steer-by-wire. (except Infiniti Q50, but it still kept mechanical steering column as fallback)
- kayodelycaon 5y agoElectric steering is power steering using electric motors instead of hydraulics. There is still a physical linkage and you can still steer the car with the power off. On my 2014 Prius, the brakes use an electric pump to power the hydraulics. In normal operation, the computer handles the brakes, but there is a physical backup. The throttle is completely by wire, because there is no more reliable way to run two electric motors and a gas engine together with an analog system.
- tristor 5y agoThis is absolutely not true. Most cars have switched to electronic power steering (EPS) which uses a manual steering rack and linkage, but driven by an electric motor controlled by haptics to create more power when turning. Steering wheels are /always/ directly connected to the steering rack, in every single vehicle intended to be operated by a human. Drive by wire systems replaced a mechanical throttle linkage with an electronic control, and the reason for this is because it's massively better in every aspect, using EFI vs a throttle body. There are some hybrid designs called TBI (Throttle Body Injected), which are meh. EFI controls fuel and air mixtures dynamically using servos and relays driven by the ECU in response to signals from the drive by wire system.
- denton-scratch 5y agoElectrolux are a horrible company. They seem to have borged a whole load of other brands, which all have now descended to Electrolux's abysmal standards. - They don't support their own products; the warranty is served by a third-party - Their products are built to a price-point, and fail just after the warranty is up - Spare parts are expensive - They apparently have neither an email address or phone number The water heater in my AEG dishwasher failed three times in six months. Each time I had to wait a month for the repair man to arrive, declare that my water-heater had failed, and come back two weeks later to fit the part. I don't understand why market forces haven't bankrupted them.
- criddell 5y agoMy family had an Electrolux vacuum cleaner through the 1970's and 80's and that thing was a tank.
- hnhg 5y agoThey supply white label items to Ikea too, at least in parts of Europe.
- saiya-jin 5y agoYeah and they are very much subpar, same as Whirlpool cca 12 years ago also sold through Ikea. Bought some kitchen appliances when buying Ikea kitchens (twice), all had some minor or not so minor issues. Whirlpool fridge had door isolation strip uneven resulting in some heat coming in, from Day 1. Induction stove had few flat touch buttons responding only to strong pressure, kind of randomly, also Day 1. Electrolux - dish washer is well below average in quality of cleaning, our 15 years old Bosch does much better job. Also Electrolux - stove hood, something broke inside after maybe a year, so it performs at maybe 20% of the basic speed. Faster modes don't work at all and it shutdowns itself after maybe 5 mins. This one is especially annoying since its built into the wall. Fuck these trashy brands, I'll never ever buy anything else from them. Its Siemens, Bosch and Miele, but mainly Bosch which doesn't command Miele's high price and reliability/features are OK for us. I am not rich nor patient enough to waste so much time, money and energy on anything else.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 533474 5y agoA microwave with identity crisis
- bitwize 5y agoRemember that story by that old Ada programmer about the object-oriented breakfast food cooker? Yeah, that was a joke back then.
- tombert 5y agoI worry that there will be a day, similar to the problem we currently have with TVs, that it will be difficult (or even impossible) to buy non-smart kitchen appliances. I still don't see the point of my fridge being connected to wifi, but I'll admit that I might just be a bit of a Luddite.
- colordrops 5y agoI just went with the Breville Air Fryer Pro. It's a great toaster oven and doesn't connect to the network. Unfortunately even Breville's latest oven is now WiFi enabled.
- GTP 5y agoWhen you oven has an existential crisis and needs a psychologist to start working again
- FredPret 5y agoTIL I’m a computer psychologist
- otikik 5y agoHTTP status 427 I'm an oven
- planb 5y agoThere's so much wrong about this, but please don't assume that an oven with internet connection is useless just because you have no use for it. Having food in there and turning it on so it's ready when you come home is convenient - I did this with an old oven and a HomeKit-enabled outlet. Now we have a new oven that has to much electronics for this to work (but not enough to remember the f**g time when unplugged). So if I _would_ trust these internet connected devices (which I do not, because of stories like this and other user hostile behavior), I'd really like to use the features that would make possible.
- thereddaikon 5y agoWhy does a microwave oven need firmware updates?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Terry_Roll 5y agoHad a Hotpoint friege freezer where the door handle broke due to the vacuum seal being too strong, engineer came out, replaced the door because you couldnt just replace the handle and then he plugged it into a device on the pretense of checking the electrical safety. Fast forward a few weeks the compressor would not start. Hotpoint is part owned by Us company Whirlpool and Chinese company Haier. Its my belief the fridge freezer firmware was updated using the mains cable much like thernet powerline adapters work. I still have the fridge freezer so will be tearing it down and inspecting the electrical components to prove this in good time.
- Qub3d 5y agoWorking in the IoT space can be... fun. Here's a high-level PDF on good OTA practices I've seen passed around before: https://mender.io/resources/product-briefs/_resources/Requirements%20for%20OTA.pdf https://mender.io/resources/product-briefs/_resources/Requir...
- marcodiego 5y agoSoftware on appliances have on reason to exist: lock users from acessing advanced features without paying an extra price for it. Although even Stallman once said he doesn't care about what his oven is running[0], I think we all should. [0]: https://lwn.net/2000/0601/ https://lwn.net/2000/0601/