Live data from Hacker News

Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

home-assistant.io

271–280 of 303 posts

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's EULA actually requires you to build iOS software on a Mac. Using a PC is not a legal option.

Breaking the EULA is not the same thing as doing something illegal.

That's not wrong but they still can kick you out of their walled garden which can up being far more expensive than the cost of a mac.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#272
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had anyone ever tried to challenge this in a court? Some jurisdictions have customer protection laws that say it's illegal to require purchase of some goods (or services) as a condition for purchase of other goods (or services). Don't know English legal terms for this, sorry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_(commerce)

I don't think so. This is more like selling printers that are only compatible with your printer ink cartridges.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#273
post #270
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 ads value to existing purchased product", to "needing to buy a new device to keep on going with existing performance". I'm happy to see this hasn't spread to the desktop PC. Yet. I can't tell if you are joking, honestly. If y…

You can't convince me that worsening the experience on a device in 30 minutes (time for OTA update to finish) is to be expected. Example: iOS 9 update. Although I don't agree with many practices MS does lately, I'll admit that they're doing a good job with Windows performance being better and/or at least not worse.

> You can't convince me that worsening the experience on a device in 30 minutes (time for OTA update to finish) is to be expected. Example: iOS 9 update.

I can tell you that in the late '90s and early aughts, well, they weren't OTA updates; you actually paid for physical disks, but yes, worsening the experience was completely expected. that's why you bought a new computer at the same time.

I am telling you it's the same idea.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#274
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't seem like a fair view of the analysis. If the real value was in the hub, and these other lights were getting a free ride on it, then the opportunity would be to charge more for the hub. What is far more likely to be the case is that the support costs around problems caused by random third party components messing with the Zigbee network were exceeding the value of providing that support, particularly whe…

> What is far more likely to be the case is that the support costs around problems caused by random third party components messing with the Zigbee network were exceeding the value of providing that support I'm amazed at the level of belief in Philips' honest motives after such a move. They just saw a large market of 3rd party bulbs emerging and saw potential profits for themselves, that's the most likely explanation…

Let's just say first hand experience with 3rd party bulbs has convinced me that there are non-trivial problems there.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#275
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, did Philips ever list that as a feature when you bought it? I purchased a few Hue products myself, but never once expected it to be an open platform or even compatible with non-Hue products (even if I wish that were the case).

"The Philips Hue system can be easily integrated with other ZigBee-based systems for additional home automation." http://www2.meethue.com/en-us/about-hue/what-hue-is/ Edit: Found a post about this block from Philips: http://www.developers.meethue.com/documentation/friends-hue-...

>Unrelated to the 'Friends of Hue' program, the changes we made in 1.11 to our implementation of scenes exposed a compatibility issue with a limited number of 3rd party lights which stop them properly responding to scenes created in the Philips Hue app. >Philips will not fix this issue as it relates to the implementation of standard ZigBee scenes functionality in the light and would expect this software to be changed in the light as part of 'Friends of Hue' certification process. This is an example of precisely the reason we have taken these steps.

TL;DR: Only "Friends of Hue" lights are guaranteed to be compatible.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#276

Are there grounds for a lawsuit when a manufacturer pushes out an update to a product that intentionally degrades its feature set like this? This is no longer the same product that these users bought, it's effectively damaged by the update.

When Playstation 3(?) Removed the ability to install a custom OS, I know of people that were able to return it here in Norway.

Yeah, but I'd expected something bigger. People everywhere getting their money back, for example.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#278
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be surprised if they didn't recharge it by pedaling. ;)

> I'd be surprised if they didn't recharge it by pedaling. ;) I'd be surprised if they did. A dynamo adds a noticeable load on the bike, and the people buying this are already optimising for small improvements. Adding a dynamo to power it would probably be a net negative for performance.

They should generate power from the motion of the shift levers.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#279
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks over at my first gen iPad stuck back on iOS 5... It still works fine, but it's hardly because Apple are doing me any favours (past building a good product back in 2010, and "supporting it" with OS updates until 2013...)

iPad 2's performance on iOS 9 makes me wish they had made something around iOS 5-6 into an LTS version for older devices.

Here's a blast to the past to cry about : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iwh3lDeCME

iOS 5 smooth 60 FPS responsive interface, compared to 9 stutter fest. What added value does the iOS 9 bring to the table then ? The content in Facebook, Instagram, Youtube etc. is all the same.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#280
post #273
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't convince me that worsening the experience on a device in 30 minutes (time for OTA update to finish) is to be expected. Example: iOS 9 update. Although I don't agree with many practices MS does lately, I'll admit that they're doing a good job with Windows performance being better and/or at least not worse.

> You can't convince me that worsening the experience on a device in 30 minutes (time for OTA update to finish) is to be expected. Example: iOS 9 update. I can tell you that in the late '90s and early aughts, well, they weren't OTA updates; you actually paid for physical disks, but yes, worsening the experience was completely expected. that's why you bought a new computer at the same time. I am telling you it's the s…

No, you upgraded your PC with larger storage, or more RAM.

Or if you were a mindless consumer, which my original post is stating, you "upgraded" (bought) to a new PC. And this mentality came over from mobile and is already pioneered on desktop as well (that one company who solders RAM and hard drives now).

Speaking of MS, I don't remember if in the last 10 years I had to buy a new GPU or replace whole PC because the Windows update would bring the whole OS to its knees with slower click response and stuttery animations. From Windows 7 onwards the performance is actually more optimized and faster (disregarding UI design choices).

Post reply on HN