4 ms·

We borrowed a snoo and set it all up before giving birth - everything was ready. Come home from the hospital with a one day old and it refuses to connect to th

We borrowed a snoo and set it all up before giving birth - everything was ready. Come home from the hospital with a one day old and it refuses to connect to the app. At some point after spending 45 min debugging and resetting the device I realized how awful this experience was. Internet of shit.

mtmail 2y ago
Did it eventually work?
- etrautmann 2y ago
  yeah I was able to make it work, though we found that our daughter absolutely hated the automated rocking of the Snoo and there wasn't any automatic gentle setting. Pretty perplexing actually, it only had four levels and you could either set it to always rock at whatever level you want, or react to crying etc. and rock then, but with a minimum level of 2/4. Even that was too much and she just hated it. We used the snoo passively, and the swaddle strap-down feature was actually a pretty nice setup that other basinnets could and should use, without any electronics at all. The swaddles used with the snoo strap down to the base and prevent the baby from rolling around. This passive feature was pretty nice, but not really the purpose of the device.
stavros 2y ago
Smart devices' biggest appeal is that they can turn what was a one-off sale to a recurring subscription. When I say "appeal" I mean to the company, not to the customer, of course.
- autoexec 2y ago
  That and all the data collection opportunities. Either way, you'll never stop paying.
- pavel_lishin 2y ago
  I remember my dad explaining this to me when I was a wee lad - his company was building hardware, and they were going to charge a fee once it was installed. It seemed fucking stupid to me now when I was young and dumb, and it seems fucking stupid to me now that I'm old.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  Was nearly hit by this just last week. ANOVA(sous-vide stuff) decided hey soon we will start charging new customers money. And not that small amount... Drop prices to compete with others and make shortfall elsewhere. Or likely fail to do so...
  - carlmr 2y ago
    >Was nearly hit by this just last week. ANOVA(sous-vide stuff) decided hey soon we will start charging new customers money. Can you elaborate on what ANOVA is doing?
    - Ekaros 2y ago
      "Update: Existing Users Grandfathered in; New Users will Pay a Small App Subscription Fee" https://anovaculinary.com/en-fi/blogs/blog/update-existing-users-grandfathered-in-new-users-will-pay-a-small-app-subscription-fee https://anovaculinary.com/en-fi/blogs/blog/update-existing-u... >Who will this impact? Only new customers will have to pay for a subscription. Existing customers who have an account with us before August 21st, 2024, will not be charged a subscription fee. >What does it cost and what do customers get? The subscription will cost $1.99 per month or $9.99 per year USD.
      - carlmr 2y ago
        Thank you for warning me, I was close to buying their oven. But don't want to support such a company.
autoexec 2y ago
"never buy hardware that requires a cell phone app to use" can be a frustrating and expensive lesson. At least you didn't have to pay for it with money.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  That's a lesson you can't always follow. If you want internet-accessible surveillance cameras that you can view when you're not home, for instance, buying hardware that requires an app is basically a requirement.
  - lolinder 2y ago
    An IP camera plus an Asus router with the built-in VPN enabled will do the trick just fine. It requires a small amount of technical know-how to get the VPN set up on your devices, but at that point it's all locally hosted under your control. Still an app for the VPN, of course, but I'm assuming OP meant an app that relies on a cloud you don't control.
  - kragen 2y ago
    people have been setting up internet-accessible surveillance cameras they could view when they weren't home since 01991, long before you could install apps on phones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot it's not a technically difficult thing to achieve (just plagued with annoying compatibility struggles, which have gotten much better since usb became widespread), and none of that hardware requires an app
    - shiroiushi 2y ago
      Interesting, but how do you do that in the modern age, when you aren't allowed to have a fixed IP address or run a server at home, as is the case with most ISPs now?
      - kragen 2y ago
        tailscale, wireguard, scp to a vps, upload to s3, save to dropbox, zerotier, ipfs, passive-mode vnc, stream to twitch with obs studio, or just upnp or configure a bastion host on your cablemodem if you aren't behind cgnat. there are probably a zillion ways i haven't thought of i mean maybe there's a packaged turnkey setup that i don't know about, too, i'm just saying diy isn't rocket surgery in this case

mtmail 2y ago

Did it eventually work?

etrautmann 2y ago
yeah I was able to make it work, though we found that our daughter absolutely hated the automated rocking of the Snoo and there wasn't any automatic gentle setting. Pretty perplexing actually, it only had four levels and you could either set it to always rock at whatever level you want, or react to crying etc. and rock then, but with a minimum level of 2/4. Even that was too much and she just hated it. We used the snoo passively, and the swaddle strap-down feature was actually a pretty nice setup that other basinnets could and should use, without any electronics at all. The swaddles used with the snoo strap down to the base and prevent the baby from rolling around. This passive feature was pretty nice, but not really the purpose of the device.

stavros 2y ago

Smart devices' biggest appeal is that they can turn what was a one-off sale to a recurring subscription. When I say "appeal" I mean to the company, not to the customer, of course.

autoexec 2y ago
That and all the data collection opportunities. Either way, you'll never stop paying.
pavel_lishin 2y ago
I remember my dad explaining this to me when I was a wee lad - his company was building hardware, and they were going to charge a fee once it was installed. It seemed fucking stupid to me now when I was young and dumb, and it seems fucking stupid to me now that I'm old.
Ekaros 2y ago
Was nearly hit by this just last week. ANOVA(sous-vide stuff) decided hey soon we will start charging new customers money. And not that small amount... Drop prices to compete with others and make shortfall elsewhere. Or likely fail to do so...
- carlmr 2y ago
  >Was nearly hit by this just last week. ANOVA(sous-vide stuff) decided hey soon we will start charging new customers money. Can you elaborate on what ANOVA is doing?
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    "Update: Existing Users Grandfathered in; New Users will Pay a Small App Subscription Fee" https://anovaculinary.com/en-fi/blogs/blog/update-existing-users-grandfathered-in-new-users-will-pay-a-small-app-subscription-fee https://anovaculinary.com/en-fi/blogs/blog/update-existing-u... >Who will this impact? Only new customers will have to pay for a subscription. Existing customers who have an account with us before August 21st, 2024, will not be charged a subscription fee. >What does it cost and what do customers get? The subscription will cost $1.99 per month or $9.99 per year USD.
    - carlmr 2y ago
      Thank you for warning me, I was close to buying their oven. But don't want to support such a company.

autoexec 2y ago

"never buy hardware that requires a cell phone app to use" can be a frustrating and expensive lesson. At least you didn't have to pay for it with money.

shiroiushi 2y ago
That's a lesson you can't always follow. If you want internet-accessible surveillance cameras that you can view when you're not home, for instance, buying hardware that requires an app is basically a requirement.
- lolinder 2y ago
  An IP camera plus an Asus router with the built-in VPN enabled will do the trick just fine. It requires a small amount of technical know-how to get the VPN set up on your devices, but at that point it's all locally hosted under your control. Still an app for the VPN, of course, but I'm assuming OP meant an app that relies on a cloud you don't control.
- kragen 2y ago
  people have been setting up internet-accessible surveillance cameras they could view when they weren't home since 01991, long before you could install apps on phones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot it's not a technically difficult thing to achieve (just plagued with annoying compatibility struggles, which have gotten much better since usb became widespread), and none of that hardware requires an app
  - shiroiushi 2y ago
    Interesting, but how do you do that in the modern age, when you aren't allowed to have a fixed IP address or run a server at home, as is the case with most ISPs now?
    - kragen 2y ago
      tailscale, wireguard, scp to a vps, upload to s3, save to dropbox, zerotier, ipfs, passive-mode vnc, stream to twitch with obs studio, or just upnp or configure a bastion host on your cablemodem if you aren't behind cgnat. there are probably a zillion ways i haven't thought of i mean maybe there's a packaged turnkey setup that i don't know about, too, i'm just saying diy isn't rocket surgery in this case