211–220 of 303 posts
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The slippery slope of "intellectual property" is so steep that even building interface-compatible products is now considered ripping something off. We've come a long way from the age of IBM compatibles and the PC revolution.
Coming soon... You won't be able to SSH into a server/box/machine, from a server/box/machine not built by the same manufacturer.
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> that one company who gets majority of revenue from hardware I hope you are not referring to Apple, because compared to other companies , iPhones and iPads are the one who can run current software on older devices with almost no issues. Samsung and other android manufacturers on the other hand have not supported older devices at all until recently (and even now not as good as Apple does). My first gen iPad still run…
I have a first-gen iPad, and it most certainly does not run "perfectly fine". Most apps aren't released for those old versions, some even seem to get removed automatically. I think the Android world is worse, mind you - but old iOS devices are still left to rot. My 2.5 year old Google TV box being abandoned by Google (can't even log into the app store) was infuriating.
Well, 5 years time in the mobile/tablet space is like 20 years time in the PC space. Consider the changes in capabilities, cpu and gpu power, etc.
In that sense, it makes sense that most NEW apps are not released for the older versions -- how many apps are released for Windows 98 today?
Sure, it's "only been 5 years" but then again that's related to the technology space. E.g. most would accept that a 20 old year PC/OS wouldn't get much support, but that would sound too soon in other industries, where even a 50 year product can still be supported.
Besides, as you say, this is much better than the Android situation -- since most devices are sold with an OLDER than the latest version, and most vendors don't care to provide updates for older devices.
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> I'll never understand why companies make such customer hostile decisions. Because they can. John Doe will think "oh, I just need to shell out some money to get it working again", or "oh, the system needed an upgrade anyway". The mobile bonanza (well, that one company who gets majority of revenue from hardware) in last couple of years perverted the word "upgrade" from "a software upgrade, which adds new features and…
> that one company who gets majority of revenue from hardware I hope you are not referring to Apple, because compared to other companies , iPhones and iPads are the one who can run current software on older devices with almost no issues. Samsung and other android manufacturers on the other hand have not supported older devices at all until recently (and even now not as good as Apple does). My first gen iPad still run…
But backward compatibility does not preclude Apple from being an upgrade company. Apple may not have invented the hardware upgrade cycle, but they've mastered it. That's what their keynotes and media interactions are all focused on. Their employees go out of their way to check if you have an "upgrade" available. I've had a phone that has never been in contract and they even offer to use that line to give me a "free" upgrade to my main line. I could go on... But the point is, the upgrade cycle is what Apple is all about.
I've been a hue user for the past year. 1) Their lights/bridge are by far the most reliable IoT product I've used. A 9/10 where other products (Wink, GE, Lutron) are at best 3/10. 2) While 3rd party bulbs were sort of supported, it wasn't advertised. I've never seen it described as a interoperable Zigbee Light Link device. 3) My attempts at getting a GE bulb working were inconsistent, and even when it did work the br…
I've been a hue user for the past year. 1) Their lights/bridge are by far the most reliable IoT product I've used. A 9/10 where other products (Wink, GE, Lutron) are at best 3/10. 2) While 3rd party bulbs were sort of supported, it wasn't advertised. I've never seen it described as a interoperable Zigbee Light Link device. 3) My attempts at getting a GE bulb working were inconsistent, and even when it did work the br…
Just today I was reading about the SmartThings Hub (Samsung) and the Casa Verde Vera Lite- It really seems like the Hub is where the polish needs applying in HA. I can link the Wink to my Echo and control things very easily, adding new things is relatively easy, but jeez that Wink hub is finicky.
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> INSTEON documentation is actually somewhat decent. But fragmented. Any help, please? For example, let's say that I want to buy a USB interface (for a controller), a motion sensor, and a light switch (eg. a micro dimmer). I want to plug the USB interface into a modern Linux distribution and speak to it to read motion and the switch and control the light (and configure the switch to operate the light directly without…
I would hope that this website helps: http://www.linuxha.com/common/iplcd/
I'll never understand why companies make such customer hostile decisions. I can't see any upside to this and I can't imagine what the discussion looked like when implementing this decision. My (admittedly cynical) guess is that it was one part "We're fielding a lot of support questions on products that aren't ours and our malfunctioning" and two parts "Our customers will be more motivated to buy Philips Hue products…
> I'll never understand why companies make such customer hostile decisions. Because they can. John Doe will think "oh, I just need to shell out some money to get it working again", or "oh, the system needed an upgrade anyway". The mobile bonanza (well, that one company who gets majority of revenue from hardware) in last couple of years perverted the word "upgrade" from "a software upgrade, which adds new features and…
I can't tell if you are joking, honestly. If you remember the '80s and the '90s and the early to mid aughts, there was a joke about how "what Intel gives, Microsoft takes away" - the idea was that every few years, you needed to buy a new and dramatically faster PC to do exactly the same sorts of things you would do before. This PC would be massively faster than the last one you bought, and it would probably cost a little bit less. Microsoft would come up with a new version of windows or office that you needed to upgrade to if you wanted to be able to open documents from other people in the office, and that new version would require a new and much more powerful computer. Especially by the '90s, a lot of times these software upgrades felt really pointless, like your stuff was getting slower, but you didn't get any better features.
Around the time that everyone quit writing PC software and focused on the mobile bonanza, as you put it, this seemed to stop. Old PCs are just fine for workstations. but, of course, now the upgrade treadmill is on mobile.
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> INSTEON documentation is actually somewhat decent. But fragmented. Any help, please? For example, let's say that I want to buy a USB interface (for a controller), a motion sensor, and a light switch (eg. a micro dimmer). I want to plug the USB interface into a modern Linux distribution and speak to it to read motion and the switch and control the light (and configure the switch to operate the light directly without…
In my code development, I've definitely found some fun cases. i2cs (newer protocol) devices require a checksum, and they respond a bit differently in some cases. So for instance, my code that does a Product Data Request to get the model info for a device isn't working for i2cs devices right now. I'm still working on that, probably tonight. I'd think something like Mister House would probably do the sort of simple cas…
I'm a developer and I want to hook all kinds of things together. I don't need a GUI but would like full programmatic access. The case I have in mind would start off as a few lines of Python, probably using asyncio or something which is really powerful for this kind of thing. I'd prefer to just write a few lines against an API than have to use a framework, deal with maintaining a larger software deployment, etc.
This is the Philips controller software (app) that is refusing to talk to or control 3rd party light bulbs. I don't really see this as being a problem. It's not the nicest thing, perhaps, but neither is 3rd party companies building bulbs (presumably by ripping off the design and protocol of Philip's bulbs), and then relying on Philips to build the software so they can actually be used. In other words, Philips is refu…
I wouldn't describe 3rd parties as "ripping off the design and protocol" when bulb hub communication is done using the ZigBee Light Link protocol. Philips didn't develop that. Standard here: http://www.zigbee.org/?wpdmdl=2132 [pdf warning] And no, lights from other manufacturers (I have several from GE) no longer work via the Hue app or any of the 3rd party alternatives. I made the mistake of accepting Hue's "update…
And in their faq about this (http://www.developers.meethue.com/documentation/friends-hue-...) they have the nerve to say things like:
"If the lights are not deleted, nor the bridge reset they will continue to function under no guarantees from Philips that future updates may not expose new bugs and compatibility issues."
and
"We want Philips Hue to be open but also offer a great experience for our customers. To that end, last week, we launched the 'Friends of Hue' program where we will certify and test 3rd party products to guarantee a consistent and long term interoperable experience also for these products."
AKA We want third party manufacturers to pay for a sticker to use our product because we have market dominance.
and
"These changes do not affect Philips commitment towards an open system and ZigBee Light Link as the best standard for residential lighting control. Our lights continue to be fully standards compatible with differentiated features built on top of the standard and exposed via our bridge."
AKA Embrace, extend, extinguish.
http://www.amazon.com/ss/customer-reviews/B00A4EUUO8/ref=cm_...