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I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

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Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#191

Post by LightBug1 »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #149
linsomniac wrote: post #144

My primary use of the Home speakers is playing music in the shower. That experience is actually pretty bad though, over the years between google music and spotify, getting it to play my music is just horribly obtuse. I can't reliably get it to start my music. "Playing a playlist called my favorites" or similar rather than playing my own playlist. At one point after 3-4 failed attempts like this I said "F you" and the…

I still want profanity mode. Hurling insults at a Google Assistant and having to roast me in return would be amazing.

"Fuck you, Dave. Fuuuuuuuck you!!!!! You and your shitty little ReVanced app"

That would be pretty awesome.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#192

Post by 13of40 »

Espressosaurus wrote: post #190
13of40 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, but I want to say some bad things about old thermostats. My first house had propane heating, in a big tank that they would periodically come by and fill, so I had a visceral connection to how much fuel I was using. The previous owner had left the original 1960s mercury thermostats running the place, which meant that barring any initiative on my end the temperature was the same no matter if I was sleeping,…

That's what the parent is saying. The new digital thermostats have some nice features without the stupidity that is IoT connectivity that allows the parent corporation to screw you over when they get bored. I personally would not consider anything IoT because anything connected to the internet is a) a vector for intrusion into my network and b) has a lifetime measured in single digit years. Anything going into a home…

> Even lightbulbs aren't that disposable anymore thanks to LEDs.

I'm staring at a pair of wifi enabled lightbulbs above the island in my kitchen that are stuck on the same hue I set them to three years ago when the app actually worked...

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#193

Post by SloopJon »

pabs3 wrote: post #116
account-5 wrote: post #86

This sort of shit is the reason they will never get me to use their passkey implementation. The sooner there's a truly portable open source offline version of passkeys I'm all in. Until then I'm sticking with my password manager. I do feel the only thing you can really trust from Google are the things that make them money. Chrome, and any software that allows them to hook into for advertising money. It makes me worry…

There is a pull request for adding passkeys to KeePassXC: https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/pull/8825

Interesting to see that passkeys make use of CBOR. When I looked at binary JSONs several years ago, Smile was one of my favorites, but CBOR was decent too.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#195

Post by DangitBobby »

osigurdson wrote: post #136
cogman10 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is just shit. As my company briefly decided to look into using them for a cloud provider it quickly became apparent that they are just awful stewards of any software that isn’t related to advertisements. It’s beyond shocking how amateurish GCP is being operated. My assumption is it comes down to really awful leadership. They only care about making and selling new things. You simply can’t trust that any piece o…

That is interesting, I thought GCP might be a good alternative - at least for managed Kubernetes.

GCP is excellent.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#196

Post by doctor_eval »

nickpeterson wrote: post #85

I’d haven’t really considered this angle, but if ChatGPT is an existential threat to Google search, we’re probably going to see signs that Google is ignoring even more if these side projects.

All these dead products could have been creating a revenue moat against the fall of ad revenue and the onset of a competitor. But they pissed away decades of innovation through poor product management, bad incentives, and such hubris like the world has never seen.

We’re seeing Google reap what they have sowed. What a waste.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#198

Post by chaostheory »

titzer wrote: post #152
Corrado wrote: post #2

I feel like this is just one more thing that Google leadership is failing at. I have some similar examples to the ones in the article. I recommended that my brother-in-law get a Google wifi AP some years ago. Recently, I got an email from Google saying that they are no longer supporting it and after a certain date you will no longer be able to make changes to it. WTF?!? My Apple Airport Extreme is older than the Goog…

Prior to replacing my furnace I had a mercury thermostat that was easily over 50 years old. The new one is digital but isn't "smart". I don't expect 50 years, but 20-30 seems reasonable. Somehow software people have forgotten that physical things last a long time, and people want them to keep working and stay the same as long as possible . My thermostat doesn't need "upgrades", and anyone who thinks they are going to…

The main reason these new thermostats need upgrades is because they can be controlled remotely via the the internet. It’s a constant security issue.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#199

Post by nobodyandproud »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #172
titzer wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prior to replacing my furnace I had a mercury thermostat that was easily over 50 years old. The new one is digital but isn't "smart". I don't expect 50 years, but 20-30 seems reasonable. Somehow software people have forgotten that physical things last a long time, and people want them to keep working and stay the same as long as possible . My thermostat doesn't need "upgrades", and anyone who thinks they are going to…

I wonder if we could wield regulation to discourage products that phone home without also providing the ability to: - install a cert so we can MITM the traffic and see what they're phoning home about - turn off the phoning home without breaking local functionality - configure a different address for cloud I/O, such that I can run the "cloud" part on my own infra if I want those features

Right to repair?

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#200

Post by rch »

vxNsr wrote: post #179
rch wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had used an option like that, until about 6 months ago IIRC. It's gone now. However I've just found something under Settings - Accessibility that might mitigate the problem a little more. Extra dim: dim screen beyond your phone's minimum brightness. It still won't really be off though, most likely. And the text labels on these settings belong in a Monty Python sketch about product management.

Preface: I’m an iPhone user, but I’m kinda confused what you’re trying to achieve that can’t be had with just pressing the physical button the phone to turn off the screen. Does the screen need to be on for the alarm to work?

To clarify: the issue is that the screen stays illuminated when charging on the stand.

Pressing the physical button used to work, even with the current oddball settings. It only stopped being effective a few weeks ago, when using a wireless charging stand.

It still works when I switch back to USB charging. Presumably because it would be too easy to simply place the phone face down, effectively revealing user preference.

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