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Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

defcon.social

81–90 of 338 posts

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#81
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a somewhat strangely named German brand that sells private IoT door / security cams. Forgot the name, sadly. They’re quite expensive though. My guess is they might sell private lightbulbs. For home audio, Sonos is great. Their voice assistant is completely locally processed.

You might be thinking of the Homematic IP line, great products for home automation, they also have door locks etc. They are also compatible with just Homematic which doesn't use the internet (so no IoT), but rather a local gateway for controlling the devices. I don't think they have lightbulbs though. The company name is eQ-3

Homematic has a pretty good reputation. Their stuff is reliable and they're quite open to DIYers. In turn the products are a bit on the expensive side, but not wildly so.

Fun fact: eQ-3 is a subsidiary of the DIY electronics store ELV: https://www.eq-3.com/about-eq-3.html

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

companies are profit first, not trust first

Right: It's not the companies' fault they're engaging in deceptive and unfair business practices; they're profit-maximizing machines. They don't care about trust or know what it is. It's our fault we're letting them do that. Bad behavior should be affecting profits. Probably through regulation.

It is absolutely their fault and not that of the public at large.

Companies are not sentient “profit-maximizing machines, they’re a collection of people. And it’s people making the decisions.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure the right answer is open source stuff, self-hosted. But as an alternative, the Apple Homekit architecture does seem serious about keepig as much info as possible on the devices themselves and not throwing stuff into the cloud.

Maybe that's why the number of smart devices that work with Homekit is so limited? I really don't understand many of the "smart" device manufacturers. They clearly aren't capable of running the services required to manage their devices, so why do they keep insisting on doing so? My parents have a smart radiator that couldn't be managed for over a month because a server in Norway was down. Why not just have it be mana…

I really don't understand consumers who, despite companies clearly demonstrating this, will just buy the next IoT thing anyway.

Why don't companies offer better, longer-lasting products that can be community-driven after EOL? Because money.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#85
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zigbee Sonoff relays paired to one of their coordinators flashed with Tasmota. Although if the walls are too thick or tge sistances too high it could pose an issue for 2.4Ghz.

I have actually looked at Sonoff, but they won't fit into the wall. In order to fit into classic Danish design tradition our wall mounts/boxes are slightly to small to fit anything not specifically design for them. Our switches and socket looks a lot nice than anything I've seen from the US, EU or UK, but they are special little snowflakes. There's an entire cottage industry and hobby scene around making 3D print and…

Even the mini modules? Maybe put them in the wall dose above the switch? Shellys are even larger. Sonoff seems to put out more miniaturized models every year.

https://sonoff.tech/product/diy-smart-switches/zbmini-l2/

Yes, I saw Danish appliances, they look nice.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#88
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Logitech cam too and it's been trouble free with a great picture, though for some reason it does seem to take longer to start streaming on my iPhone than the other cameras. I was really hoping for some big improvements in Home / HomeKit with iOS 17 but alas, no.

I think a wired Apple TV and lots of wifi coverage for the cameras help a lot. Wireless home hub does not perform the same.

True, I have a wired Apple TV which I try to ensure is always my primary HomeHub but it does seem to just change on a whim from time to time - there's about 15 candidate hubs in the house!

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

companies are profit first, not trust first

Right: It's not the companies' fault they're engaging in deceptive and unfair business practices; they're profit-maximizing machines. They don't care about trust or know what it is. It's our fault we're letting them do that. Bad behavior should be affecting profits. Probably through regulation.

> Right: It's not the companies' fault they're engaging in deceptive and unfair business practices; they're profit-maximizing machines. They don't care about trust or know what it is.

this is an extremely dumb take, of course the people working at companies are responsible for bad dumb decisions that make their products worse.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#90

The big question is at which level this auth is enforced: - official Hue apps - who cares - hue bridge - bad, would break apps like HuePro and would force more complicated setup for some - bulb - unlikely, that would mean everyone buying this for IoT lighting can throw out their whole set

> - bulb - unlikely, that would mean everyone buying this for IoT lighting can throw out their whole set

Not throw out, just don’t upgrade the firmware again and not buy new ones that might have the broken firmware.

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