Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020 • Hacker News Board

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#31

Post by djsumdog » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:02 PM UTC

adgasf wrote: post #22

AFAIK the bulbs are compatible with v1 and v2 hubs, so the bulbs do not need to be replaced. The v1 hubs will continue to work across a local area network. Philips offered a heavily discounted upgrade for v1 hub users to get a new v2 hub. However, I still think they should support the v1 hubs for the lifespan of a typical bulb (15 years), at minimum.

Yea, as long as it works locally and they don't pull the old app .. still it's shitty they're trying to push people to buy new shit they don't need. It's just creating waste to increase sales. The attempt to grow without responsibility really needs to die. Consumerism with the goal of more consumerism is a cancer.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#32

Post by londons_explore » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

Imagine you are designing the web server for some hardware like this.

You might write it in Go, dockerized and hosted it in Kubernetes in Google Cloud. You might use a hosted mongo db and 3rd party auth service.

Now in 30 years time, Google Cloud will probably no longer exist, your database API will have changed beyond recognition, and your auth service has closed down. IPv4 no longer exists and your hardware depends on it so you have to build all kinds of compat layers. You won't be able to get hold of all the packages for your server side code. The Go compiler probably won't even run on an OS 30 years from now. Your staff have retired, and nobody new wants to learn a programming language from 30 years ago.

Maintaining a server side API, even a really simple one, pretty much costs 1 fulltime person forever.

This hasn't always been the case. If you had written your code as a self-contained DOS executable back in 1990, you could still run it bare metal on some of today's hardware, or on any hardware without too much hassle in a VM. Hardware from 30 years ago running in a cupboard probably has a 50/50 chance of still being alive today, and if you had set up 2 backup machines at the time, you'd probably have something working now even with nobody touching it for 30 years, sans the occasional office move.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#33

Post by AndrewThrowaway » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

edent wrote: post #24

krisoft wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that what a computer screen is?

Sure, but where can you find a 130cm monitor?

I think they are called "commercial displays". You can see them showing ads in shops and etc.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#34

Post by blitmap » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

For the most part, at least we don't have to worry about forgotten, rogue IoT devices. The overriding mission has been to connect it to shitty online services. Watch these companies go out of business or deprecate APIs.

This is very dramatic, but imagine something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyMNIFZTQkg

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#35

Post by geerlingguy » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

lm28469 wrote: post #23

Do people use these things online ? I treat mine as regular bulbs that can be controlled via phone.

Some people feel comfortable giving Alexa or Google Home access to their household devices and climate control systems; these rely on internet access.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#36

Post by geerlingguy » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:08 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #32

Imagine you are designing the web server for some hardware like this. You might write it in Go, dockerized and hosted it in Kubernetes in Google Cloud. You might use a hosted mongo db and 3rd party auth service. Now in 30 years time, Google Cloud will probably no longer exist, your database API will have changed beyond recognition, and your auth service has closed down. IPv4 no longer exists and your hardware depends…

Write it in Node.js and it will be obsolete within 6 months!

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#37

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:10 PM UTC

jonlucc wrote: post #26

Sanzig wrote: post #6

Well - they've done a pretty good job of ensuring that if I get smart lights again, I'm definitely not buying Philips. This change breaks all the digital assistant integrations ("Hey Google, turn on the lights"), which is pretty much the only reason to have smart lights in the first place. If you can't use voice commands, you might as well just use the wall switches. Who wants to pull out their phone and switch the l…

I know this isn't the point you're making, but I find smart lights useful for automatically turning on or off at various times. I don't use Hue, but I think that part should still work if you lost internet connectivity. I suspect HomeKit integrations like "if the door unlocks, and it is night, turn the light on" will break.

[deleted]

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#38

Post by fullstop » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

Sanzig wrote: post #21

thisisauserid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bridge will still work from your private network and one can still control the lights with the app. All that's being disabled is the external control.

...which all the digital assistants like Google Home or Alexa use, so this breaks voice commands for those. For most people, that's the main reason to have smart lights.

The V1 bridge does not require any outside access from an Echo device -- it communicates directly with the bridge over the local network. With V2 it requires a skill, a Hue account, and access from the internet to the bridge.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#39

Post by hokumguru » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:12 PM UTC

Sanzig wrote: post #21

thisisauserid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bridge will still work from your private network and one can still control the lights with the app. All that's being disabled is the external control.

...which all the digital assistants like Google Home or Alexa use, so this breaks voice commands for those. For most people, that's the main reason to have smart lights.

FWIW if you use HomeKit with a hub then it’s Apple’s servers not Phillips’ that do the external traffic.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#40

Post by orev » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 2:13 PM UTC

swiley wrote: post #19

admax88q wrote: post #7

Stop buying smart home shit. People warned of exactly this when they started.

Smart isn’t the bad part, it’s closed source firmware that causes these (and other) problems.

No, it’s the insistence on using the Cloud for things that could easily be done on-premises.