231–240 of 338 posts
Time and time again It takes just one MBA trying to boost numbers to turn a good product into a data collection nightmare. Honestly is there any IoT brand that we can trust long-term? Maybe IKEA stuff?
For any app that does this, go to the App Store and give them a one-star rating and a comment on why you’re doing this. In this case, they have a canned copy/paste answer saying that it’s for “security”, so feel free to try to debunk that in your initial comment.
About 10 days ago I was climbing upstairs late headed to bed. I stared at the Hue app on my phone confused. Was Hue really asking me to agree to a new terms of service (ToS) before it would allow me to turn off lights in my own home? Lights that I had purchased outright without Phillips financing more than 8 years ago? Indeed it was. What value as a customer do I get from these hilariously timed, intrusive ToS update…
It’s not about the value you get, it’s about the value they get. How is this even legal is beyond me.
It's the same argument as people who say Google should be allowed to censor whoever they want. "They're a private company, they can do whatever they want. Nobody is forcing you to use their services."
Clearly, in many areas of life, politics and the legal system needs to be realigned with the modern technological landscape. But so far, it seems most such efforts are pushing things in the exact wrong direction.
About 10 days ago I was climbing upstairs late headed to bed. I stared at the Hue app on my phone confused. Was Hue really asking me to agree to a new terms of service (ToS) before it would allow me to turn off lights in my own home? Lights that I had purchased outright without Phillips financing more than 8 years ago? Indeed it was. What value as a customer do I get from these hilariously timed, intrusive ToS update…
"What's the worst that could happen, if we let MBA-types take over engineering?" "Even your home's light bulbs will require an Internet-connected computer account that spies on you."
Vote with your wallet. Don't support over-engineering.
P.S. Some of the best LED lightbulbs I have were installed in 2012 and they are still working with very small degradation of brightness. Nowadays whenever I need to buy a LED bulb it is like a lottery. Smart IoT light bulbs? Just plain no. As with the rest of the gimmicks.
About 10 days ago I was climbing upstairs late headed to bed. I stared at the Hue app on my phone confused. Was Hue really asking me to agree to a new terms of service (ToS) before it would allow me to turn off lights in my own home? Lights that I had purchased outright without Phillips financing more than 8 years ago? Indeed it was. What value as a customer do I get from these hilariously timed, intrusive ToS update…
Most (almost all?) Philips Hue devices are standard Zigbee devices. Chuck out your Philips gateway and replace it with a Raspberry Pi, Home Assistant and a Zigbee stick. Yeah, it's a bit more work, but if you're reading Hacker News you probably already know how to do this anyways, and honestly, Home Assistant is pretty damn good at staying hands-off. (I only update it every few months, it's on a battery backup in my…