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I want to clarify because a lot of people seem to be confused about what's happening here. "Just run" is tracking your metrics. You can STILL use the treadmill without it, you just won't be getting information on the run like your pace, calories burned, power output, etc. The treadmill isn't bricked, it's just not providing metrics. If you have a garmin watch or insert fitness tracker you can still get info from that…
Before people go on a reddit like hate trail, it should be noted is in parallel with a full recall and reimbursement of all the treadmills
I mean the entire business model of the company seems to be to depart rich people from their money in obscene ways, so that move does not seem unexpected. I generally do not understand the thought process of buying a tablet glued to a treadmill for three thousand dollars. That's like what, a decade of gym membership
I'm shocked at the number of non-rich friends who have bought or seriously considered a Peloton. I know buying a good exercise bike, monitor (which they may already have), and a subscription to some cycling class service or box set isnt a sexy solution but damn is it so much cheaper. I honestly cant believe how strong the marketing of Peloton is. It's the iPhone of exercise equipment.
It really is.
> I know buying a good exercise bike, monitor (which they may already have), and a subscription to some cycling class service or box set isnt a sexy solution but damn is it so much cheaper.
circa 2007 you could say a similar thing about the iPhone
The former would be absolutely reprehensible. It’s ransomware, in the name of a death caused by your product.
If it’s the latter, they absolutely blew it while communicating this.
The likely scenario to me is somewhere inbetween. They are seeing how people react to this and were intentionally ambiguous to give themselves an escape hatch if there’s backlash.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every company wants recurring revenue: https://www.datagubbe.se/endofownership/
Why don't we have this with computers? Surely we're depriving Lenovo and Apple of such revenue if we use the computer and don't pay a monthly fee? This whole sub thing is nuts.
No data is stored on the company hardware, it's all in the cloud.
I want to clarify because a lot of people seem to be confused about what's happening here. "Just run" is tracking your metrics. You can STILL use the treadmill without it, you just won't be getting information on the run like your pace, calories burned, power output, etc. The treadmill isn't bricked, it's just not providing metrics. If you have a garmin watch or insert fitness tracker you can still get info from that…
What's next, a kettlebell bolted to the floor until I agree to a monthly subscription? I can't imagine paying this much money to _just_ run. Okay, run and have someone encourage me. I get that they're successful, and lots of people seem to want a treadmill or bike that doesn't move, but I don't personally understand it. I'm starting to feel old fashioned with my workout technology, shoes and shorts.
Even if this was made possible by their T&C, it must suck as a customer. "Hey you know that feature you bought and have been using? 40$/mo or it doesn't work anymore =)" I wonder if customer protection laws in the US can force them to revert their update.
I wish it were a common knowledge that proprietary IoT devices are related to planned obsolescence, and therefore are bad for environment. The climate and environment activists have a stronger voice than consumer rights or privacy activists. It would be nice to join forces and lobby laws against this kind of predatory behavior.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t expect that trend to reverse itself given it benefits the people who have the most say in our politics. I’m just waiting for them to go ahead and implement a privatized social credit score too at this point.
Credit scores are already privatized so why not? Citizen and Palantir could get in on it with Equifax. They'd just need to incentivize others to do the reporting of good/bad social actions.
On the one hand I appreciate the stuff a company like Apple does around privacy, but on the other they comply with whatever laws are in place in a given country. So we have to hope the state of our democracy improves because effectively becoming a one-party state changes the game — then we actually have to worry the government will encourage or mandate dystopian systems like this. Good actors in the private sector won’t be good enough to mitigate if that happens.