Their position in the Sonos lawsuits is looking pretty stubborn and selfish at this point. Just pay for a license rather than inconveniencing your customers. They should be working together rather than fighting over a royalty that's relatively small to Google and huge to Sonos. Seems stupid to me.
I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
201–210 of 356 posts
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#202Earlier 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…
> 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 Maybe a little. But I think a big part of it is businesses realizing they can make a lot more money, at least in the short term, if people have to replace their products more often.
After maintaining online services, I’m quite sure it’s vulnerabilities. It’s extremely costly after 3-5 years to maintain old software.
Ex: You have a thermostat or an alarm system that runs Debian, Debian gets a vulnerability, you try to upgrade it, but you need to change Debian versions, and your old stack isn’t supported on the newer version. Nowadays you need to keep patching all your old appliances, keep the old domain names and exact URLs, and need to actively look for vulnerabilities. All of that can only be provided by a subscription, not the initial purchase cost:
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#203I 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…
> Another example was my old Nest thermostat.
Speaking of Nest, I got rate limited trying to access images from my own Nest camera. WTF? I paid for it and I own it. I will get as much rate from it as the hardware can support.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#204I 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…
I feel like it's not only products that get left behind once Google gets bored. Many of Google's software eventually get worse too. YouTube for example has killed most of their social features by removing dislikes, limited searchability of videos by channel, allowed bots to fill the comments. And Google search has so much malware in their ads that pop up first, that even govts are recommending ad blockers by default.…
Not allowing good search within a channel is the most ridiculous. They're a search company. How is that self-consistent? Especially when you know they have the data and index, but are simply using it for advertising.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#205The ultimate question for consumers though is this: Are you better off in the Apple ecosystem? As bad as things are with Google, the answer is probably no. But not many have the time, tools, and training to be independent of either.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#206This is, imo, not a google-problem, but a non-FLOSS problem.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#207Earlier 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…
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,…
Are you not free to adjust the old thermostat when you leave for work or go to bed?
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#208I 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 new one is digital but isn't "smart".
I do not, nor will I ever use, any "smart" device. "Smart" devices are
- unnecessarily complicated
- privacy destroying
- overpriced
- vendor lock-in
- often infected with online ads you can't get rid of
- likely to stop working if the vendor goes bust, their business model changes, or they just feel like it
IMO, it is rarely or never a smart decision to get a "smart" device.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#209The ultimate question for consumers though is this: Are you better off in the Apple ecosystem? As bad as things are with Google, the answer is probably no. But not many have the time, tools, and training to be independent of either.
So far, the answer actually seems to be yes. But maybe you can clarify your metric by which you measure "better off".
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#210Earlier 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…
>Somehow software people have forgotten Thank You. And that is precisely why I increasingly hate anything that comes with software.
Internet-connected software is unavoidably fragile. Remote APIs change and malicious threats evolve. If a company doesn't want to provide long-term maintenance to head off those problems, then they shouldn't be baking in internet-connected software in simple consumer products.