5 ms·

One of the worst offenses I've ever seen as an example of this is this trend with newer refrigerators (which I'm sure will brick after 2-3 years when the manufa

One of the worst offenses I've ever seen as an example of this is this trend with newer refrigerators (which I'm sure will brick after 2-3 years when the manufacturer stops supporting the software) where they have a camera inside that projects to a screen on the door. Cool, you can see what food is inside the refrigerator! Do you know how else you can do that? by opening the door. We need to stop "innovating" features that absolutely no one needs, because clearly the result isn't a better product, just a messier, more complex one that is frequently over-engineered and under-supported.

post_break 3y ago
Can I open the fridge while I'm at work to see if I need to get more milk on the way home? I believe it can also send reminders using AI to see if something is getting low. I thought it was dumb the first time I saw it, but there are genuine use cases that tempted me to put a wyze cam into my dumb fridge so I can get the same sort of features. The worst example might be windows in the doors, so you can look into them. Except you put stuff on the door shelf and block the view or you can't really see inside all too well. Plus now you have introduce thermal issues.
- SilkRoadie 3y ago
  On these smart fridges, I struggle to see how these are anything but gimmicks undermining the device's lifespan. Most cooking requires items from many sources. You can check your milk but what about the flour in the cupboard? AI reminders. Is that a subscription service or are advertisers being given your data? How long are these manufacturers promising to support the hardware? If the fridge is internet-connected and support ends, at what point is that a security risk? This generally applies to most purchases these days... I was looking in my garage and I found a cassette player my grandad gave me that still works. When I look around shops and at many things I own I see planned obsolescence everywhere. Personally, I find it really demoralizing.
- UnserMannInK 3y ago
  > Can I open the fridge while I'm at work to see if I need to get more milk on the way home? Only works for a neatly organized fridge. The way my kids cram everything into the fridge makes this feature worthless.
iteratethis 3y ago
Nobody cares what people need, they care what sells. Don't have the link, but I once read a study analyzing the Asian market regarding electronics. The focus was on washing machines, fridges, etc. They discovered that more features, even if useless, improves sales. So you'll have a washing machine with 50 buttons, 20 lights, 2 LED screens. People will buy that over any simpler one. As long as we consumers behave like this, the other companies go out of business.
- fennecbutt 3y ago
  Yup as always it's consumers that are the problem. Sure, vulnerable people need to be protected, but fully functioning adults should have the mental capacity to sort shiny from useful.
dmi3 3y ago
The camera in the fridge is not for the customer's convenience. The camera is for image-recognizing the food brands the household is consuming, so the manufacturer could sell data for an extra couple of cents. I imagine a scenario in the future when all fridges have it, like all TVs now have smart features. Of course it will sold as "check fridge while you are at the grocery store" feature.
dan_can_code 3y ago
See through glass also has the same effect.
- fennecbutt 3y ago
  But not as thermally insulating. Every time I walk past the open airs freezers placed right next to the open air hot food warmer at the supermarket I know 100% that we will kill this planet. A small number of us might offset it a tiny bit, but it's inevitable that we turn this place into an uninhabitable mess. I do not believe at all that things will change in the future.
JohnMakin 3y ago
I see now after having made this comment there's a sub-thread under this parent that discusses how useful this refrigerator feature can be. I guess I was just born 40 years too late. Seems impossibly silly to me.
- Covzire 3y ago
  Now if it had cameras in the back on each shelf so you can see what someone left back there obscured by other things, that might make that display worth it...
  - cookie_monsta 3y ago
    Can I also put in a request for a dedicated weight sensor/camera unit that sends a notification to my phone whenever somebody puts an empty milk carton back in the fridge?
    - COGlory 3y ago
      This exists. Look up "Bottomless Coffee" - they have a beta for non-coffee products.
- gosub100 3y ago
  The insidious thing about it is that they won't just "let you see what's in the fridge", you'll have to sign up to "see-your-fridge-as-a-service" with their shitty app (that sells your location, buying habits, etc) and a $7/mo paywall. Also, since we're talking about Samsung, never buy samsung appliances. they are meant to break down.
- bluquark 3y ago
  I unfortunately can't find it right now, but I remember seeing a semi-famous quote from the 1950s/60s? calling out variable-speed windshield wipers as an absurd consumerist luxury emblematic of what's wrong with America. The refrigerator camera sounds like the same kind of thing. Modestly useful feature that may well become standard-issue someday because the underlying components can be made very cheaply at scale.
deaddodo 3y ago
While I definitely won't have insterest in these fridges, some of them (I'm thinking the Samsung) scan your fridges contents and let you know what's about to run out (milk, eggs, etc) for the next time you do a run. Still not worth 1000usd to me, but more practical than "just seeing what's inside".
Rebelgecko 3y ago
Is it local only? It would be pretty handy if you could check while you were at the grocery store, I don't always plan my shopping list in advance so it'd be helpful to check things like "How much butter do I have" or "how full is the milk". I thought there would also be electricity usage benefits but after looking at people online who have crunched the #s that might be negligible.
- akira2501 3y ago
  If you want your refrigerator and freezer to save energy then make sure there is as little empty space in them as is possible. It makes the entire system more efficient, stable, and reduces the impact of opening the door.
  - Turskarama 3y ago
    The only part of that which is true is the bit about opening the door, since there's a smaller volume of air which can mix with the outside air. That said it makes such a small difference that it's really not worth worrying about, in fact you might lose more energy keeping the door open longer to find the thing you want in your packed fridge.
    - akira2501 3y ago
      Higher thermal mass is higher thermal stability and less compressor short cycling. If you have a chest freezer this is pretty easy to notice. Air is a particularly poor conductor of heat, your hands touching the product to move it around is doing more damage than anything else. Your fridge thermometer only measures air temperature, not product temperature, which is what you actually should care about.
- demosthanos 3y ago
  My first thought was similar, but in the opposite direction: the data collected by a non-local camera in a refrigerator (coupled with WiFi network details for location info) is something that Walmart and friends would pay a lot of money for.
corethree 3y ago
Your comment reminded me of this: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=segway_more_complicated_than_it_needs_to_be http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=segway_more_... I'm just referring to the picture on that site of the segway.
drewg123 3y ago
The worst refrigerator innovation is including an RFID tag in water filters, and refusing to make ice or dispense water unless the filter is replaced within a certain timeframe. Google for GE RPWFE The hack is to cut the RFID tag off a blank that bypasses the filter and tape it to a cheaper 3rd party filter. The amusing thing is that its actually cheaper to replace the RFID sensor board in the fridge & use a generic filter than to use an official GE filter (re-using the cutout RFID tag from a genuine GE filter). The RFID sensor in mine died, and prevented it from dispensing water/ice. And no, I didn't choose this fridge. It came with the house when I bought it.
- supportengineer 3y ago
  I have one of these refrigerators. I have to say the water quality is outstanding. I don’t have to drive to the water store anymore.
- gosub100 3y ago
  A great crowdfunded business would be to sell aftermarket kits for all the enshittified appliances. This somewhat exists already (my samsung fridge had frost buildup on the sensor, causing the fridge cycle to never come on!), so the business would be to cover 95% of all appliances in the last 15 years. The best innovation would be to develop a lego-style board repair kit that can be tailored to any specific model. So the same board can be used (with nominal reconfiguration) to repair/replace a Kenmore icemaker vs a GE. A deeper option would be to sell "retrofit kits" that allow you to gut everything except the motors/compressors/refrig circuitry. Or for a dishwasher, toss all the circuits and just use the frame.
  - diracs_stache 3y ago
    Yes! I have a exercise bike in my garage that is mechanically sound but with a terrible monitor, would love to have it come up to the level of Concept2 machines.
ncann 3y ago
Silicon Valley has a scene about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcXu4_K1tMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcXu4_K1tMQ
adgjlsfhk1 3y ago
that's mostly really dumb, but I can see the reasoning. opening a fridge takes energy since it temporarily lets warm air in. theoretically, a fridge with a camera might save energy, but in practice, the difference is probably pretty miniscule
- LorenPechtel 3y ago
  More important would be food life. When you open the door it dumps all the cold air and your food warms a bit.

post_break 3y ago

Can I open the fridge while I'm at work to see if I need to get more milk on the way home? I believe it can also send reminders using AI to see if something is getting low. I thought it was dumb the first time I saw it, but there are genuine use cases that tempted me to put a wyze cam into my dumb fridge so I can get the same sort of features. The worst example might be windows in the doors, so you can look into them. Except you put stuff on the door shelf and block the view or you can't really see inside all too well. Plus now you have introduce thermal issues.

SilkRoadie 3y ago
On these smart fridges, I struggle to see how these are anything but gimmicks undermining the device's lifespan. Most cooking requires items from many sources. You can check your milk but what about the flour in the cupboard? AI reminders. Is that a subscription service or are advertisers being given your data? How long are these manufacturers promising to support the hardware? If the fridge is internet-connected and support ends, at what point is that a security risk? This generally applies to most purchases these days... I was looking in my garage and I found a cassette player my grandad gave me that still works. When I look around shops and at many things I own I see planned obsolescence everywhere. Personally, I find it really demoralizing.
UnserMannInK 3y ago
> Can I open the fridge while I'm at work to see if I need to get more milk on the way home? Only works for a neatly organized fridge. The way my kids cram everything into the fridge makes this feature worthless.

iteratethis 3y ago

Nobody cares what people need, they care what sells. Don't have the link, but I once read a study analyzing the Asian market regarding electronics. The focus was on washing machines, fridges, etc. They discovered that more features, even if useless, improves sales. So you'll have a washing machine with 50 buttons, 20 lights, 2 LED screens. People will buy that over any simpler one. As long as we consumers behave like this, the other companies go out of business.

fennecbutt 3y ago
Yup as always it's consumers that are the problem. Sure, vulnerable people need to be protected, but fully functioning adults should have the mental capacity to sort shiny from useful.

dmi3 3y ago

The camera in the fridge is not for the customer's convenience. The camera is for image-recognizing the food brands the household is consuming, so the manufacturer could sell data for an extra couple of cents. I imagine a scenario in the future when all fridges have it, like all TVs now have smart features. Of course it will sold as "check fridge while you are at the grocery store" feature.

dan_can_code 3y ago

See through glass also has the same effect.

fennecbutt 3y ago
But not as thermally insulating. Every time I walk past the open airs freezers placed right next to the open air hot food warmer at the supermarket I know 100% that we will kill this planet. A small number of us might offset it a tiny bit, but it's inevitable that we turn this place into an uninhabitable mess. I do not believe at all that things will change in the future.

JohnMakin 3y ago

I see now after having made this comment there's a sub-thread under this parent that discusses how useful this refrigerator feature can be. I guess I was just born 40 years too late. Seems impossibly silly to me.

Covzire 3y ago
Now if it had cameras in the back on each shelf so you can see what someone left back there obscured by other things, that might make that display worth it...
- cookie_monsta 3y ago
  Can I also put in a request for a dedicated weight sensor/camera unit that sends a notification to my phone whenever somebody puts an empty milk carton back in the fridge?
  - COGlory 3y ago
    This exists. Look up "Bottomless Coffee" - they have a beta for non-coffee products.
gosub100 3y ago
The insidious thing about it is that they won't just "let you see what's in the fridge", you'll have to sign up to "see-your-fridge-as-a-service" with their shitty app (that sells your location, buying habits, etc) and a $7/mo paywall. Also, since we're talking about Samsung, never buy samsung appliances. they are meant to break down.
bluquark 3y ago
I unfortunately can't find it right now, but I remember seeing a semi-famous quote from the 1950s/60s? calling out variable-speed windshield wipers as an absurd consumerist luxury emblematic of what's wrong with America. The refrigerator camera sounds like the same kind of thing. Modestly useful feature that may well become standard-issue someday because the underlying components can be made very cheaply at scale.

deaddodo 3y ago

While I definitely won't have insterest in these fridges, some of them (I'm thinking the Samsung) scan your fridges contents and let you know what's about to run out (milk, eggs, etc) for the next time you do a run. Still not worth 1000usd to me, but more practical than "just seeing what's inside".

Rebelgecko 3y ago

Is it local only? It would be pretty handy if you could check while you were at the grocery store, I don't always plan my shopping list in advance so it'd be helpful to check things like "How much butter do I have" or "how full is the milk". I thought there would also be electricity usage benefits but after looking at people online who have crunched the #s that might be negligible.

akira2501 3y ago
If you want your refrigerator and freezer to save energy then make sure there is as little empty space in them as is possible. It makes the entire system more efficient, stable, and reduces the impact of opening the door.
- Turskarama 3y ago
  The only part of that which is true is the bit about opening the door, since there's a smaller volume of air which can mix with the outside air. That said it makes such a small difference that it's really not worth worrying about, in fact you might lose more energy keeping the door open longer to find the thing you want in your packed fridge.
  - akira2501 3y ago
    Higher thermal mass is higher thermal stability and less compressor short cycling. If you have a chest freezer this is pretty easy to notice. Air is a particularly poor conductor of heat, your hands touching the product to move it around is doing more damage than anything else. Your fridge thermometer only measures air temperature, not product temperature, which is what you actually should care about.
demosthanos 3y ago
My first thought was similar, but in the opposite direction: the data collected by a non-local camera in a refrigerator (coupled with WiFi network details for location info) is something that Walmart and friends would pay a lot of money for.

corethree 3y ago

Your comment reminded me of this: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=segway_more_complicated_than_it_needs_to_be http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=segway_more_... I'm just referring to the picture on that site of the segway.

drewg123 3y ago

The worst refrigerator innovation is including an RFID tag in water filters, and refusing to make ice or dispense water unless the filter is replaced within a certain timeframe. Google for GE RPWFE The hack is to cut the RFID tag off a blank that bypasses the filter and tape it to a cheaper 3rd party filter. The amusing thing is that its actually cheaper to replace the RFID sensor board in the fridge & use a generic filter than to use an official GE filter (re-using the cutout RFID tag from a genuine GE filter). The RFID sensor in mine died, and prevented it from dispensing water/ice. And no, I didn't choose this fridge. It came with the house when I bought it.

supportengineer 3y ago
I have one of these refrigerators. I have to say the water quality is outstanding. I don’t have to drive to the water store anymore.
gosub100 3y ago
A great crowdfunded business would be to sell aftermarket kits for all the enshittified appliances. This somewhat exists already (my samsung fridge had frost buildup on the sensor, causing the fridge cycle to never come on!), so the business would be to cover 95% of all appliances in the last 15 years. The best innovation would be to develop a lego-style board repair kit that can be tailored to any specific model. So the same board can be used (with nominal reconfiguration) to repair/replace a Kenmore icemaker vs a GE. A deeper option would be to sell "retrofit kits" that allow you to gut everything except the motors/compressors/refrig circuitry. Or for a dishwasher, toss all the circuits and just use the frame.
- diracs_stache 3y ago
  Yes! I have a exercise bike in my garage that is mechanically sound but with a terrible monitor, would love to have it come up to the level of Concept2 machines.

ncann 3y ago

Silicon Valley has a scene about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcXu4_K1tMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcXu4_K1tMQ

adgjlsfhk1 3y ago

that's mostly really dumb, but I can see the reasoning. opening a fridge takes energy since it temporarily lets warm air in. theoretically, a fridge with a camera might save energy, but in practice, the difference is probably pretty miniscule

LorenPechtel 3y ago
More important would be food life. When you open the door it dumps all the cold air and your food warms a bit.