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Berg is shutting down

blog.bergcloud.com

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Re: Berg is shutting down

#21

Post by theoh »

deutronium wrote: post #2

I've not heard of Berg before, just having a quick look on their front page, shows its hardware to connect an embedded system to wifi to their cloud. Isn't this a big worry if you're using anyone else's cloud service for your own embedded hardware. Interestingly other platforms exist that perform similar functionality using the same WIFI chip Ti CC3000 (such as Spark Core). There seems to be a number of new chips fro…

Note that "their cloud" (what they called Berg Cloud) was actually primarily a local wireless access solution, not a cloud in the cloud computing sense. It was supposed to make configuration and connection of the Little Printer and other future Berg devices easier. As other commenters have pointed out, you can have an LP-type device that connects directly to a normal wifi network (e.g. Adafruit's) and the content doesn't in principle need to come from a remote web service either: it could be provided by a script running on a local machine.

The quality of presentation and the user experience provided by Berg (not just this product but other things the same guys have worked on) is great, but they show their roots in the design school. The products feel to me more like the product of brainstorming at an ad agency than a mature response to necessity. London's design scene is full of this kind of "creative" activity, and it's super enjoyable to watch but probably a form of decline or decadence in terms of real manufacturing and craft. The pace of change is so great now in tech that designers tend to get left behind or reinvent the wheel.

Imagine Twitter redesigned by someone both technically knowledgeable _and_ UX aware. (No race conditions, URL shortening, or crippled API functions.) the reason we don't have this is a cultural gap between the hip designers and the technically informed.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#22

Post by eddieroger »

I'm not sure why we're surprised to see functionality disappear from online-tethered services when it's been happening in other arenas for years now - most visibly, online gaming. The oldest example I can come up with offhand (because it's the Dreamcast's birthday) is Phantasy Star Online. That game was fun, but really only as fun as it could be played online, and the servers have been off for a long time now. EA has started turning off servers for old games in the same way. This shutdown is a shame, but hardly unexpected, especially given how niche Little Printer was.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#23

Post by deutronium »

theoh wrote: post #21
deutronium wrote: post #2

I've not heard of Berg before, just having a quick look on their front page, shows its hardware to connect an embedded system to wifi to their cloud. Isn't this a big worry if you're using anyone else's cloud service for your own embedded hardware. Interestingly other platforms exist that perform similar functionality using the same WIFI chip Ti CC3000 (such as Spark Core). There seems to be a number of new chips fro…

Note that "their cloud" (what they called Berg Cloud) was actually primarily a local wireless access solution, not a cloud in the cloud computing sense. It was supposed to make configuration and connection of the Little Printer and other future Berg devices easier. As other commenters have pointed out, you can have an LP-type device that connects directly to a normal wifi network (e.g. Adafruit's) and the content doe…

Ah sorry I misunderstood then, what they meant by cloud.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#24

Post by theoh »

deutronium wrote: post #23
theoh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that "their cloud" (what they called Berg Cloud) was actually primarily a local wireless access solution, not a cloud in the cloud computing sense. It was supposed to make configuration and connection of the Little Printer and other future Berg devices easier. As other commenters have pointed out, you can have an LP-type device that connects directly to a normal wifi network (e.g. Adafruit's) and the content doe…

Ah sorry I misunderstood then, what they meant by cloud.

No need to apologize... There is a remote element to the Little Printer service as I understand it, but they created their own concept when they invented to Berg Cloud.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#25

Post by wavesum »

I think the biggest problem is that they assumed that people would like to have this disposable bite-sized information internet spews at us printed on physical medium instead of being displayed in some corner of a screen somewhere where it belongs. The kind of stuff that will be irrelevant after you've read it once. Not economic. Cute thing though. I give you that.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#26

Post by nickludlam »

ndrake wrote: post #4

Looks like they plan to open source the Little Printer backend (if it's not sold). http://littleprinterblog.tumblr.com/post/97047976103/the-fut...

Yep, we're opening up the relevant repos, and writing up documentation about how to deploy them, and I'm also arranging for a patch to the Bridge unit which allows you to repoint it at a different control URL.

Also, if I have time, I'm going to make this a shink-wrapped AMI to make deployment a little easier. There's sadly not a great deal of time left for this, though, so we'll see what I can get done!

Re: Berg is shutting down

#27

Post by jacquesm »

rjbwork wrote: post #15
benoliver999 wrote: post #12

One of those things I always convinced myself I really wanted, but the fear of the cloud service going down put me off dropping the cash. £200 for a device that's useless if the business went under was not my cup of tea.

Ironically this mindset contributed to them going under. Not criticizing you, just a funny observation.

It's the mindset that created the thing in the first place that caused it to go under.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#28

Post by jacquesm »

JasonFruit wrote: post #18
jbergstroem wrote: post #16

Square or similar should pick this stuff up. The personality the Little Printer exhibited was a refreshing (and for me, important) distinction. Not saying that they should put it out there 1:1, but there's a lot to learn in how this thing was made, branded and communicated. For me, this wouldn't then just be a receipt printer -- you could just as well have it push the "opposite" direction. It's essentially a straight…

Maybe I don't quite get it, but how does "a straight tunnel to a specific business or person" differ from e-mail?

There is a good usecase for devices like these: companies that place orders remotely with a large variety of suppliers. For instance, if you have a website where you allow people to order take-out food you could place one of your printers at their premises. No need to rely on their infrastructure at all, especially not if the device has it's own cell modem on board.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#29

Post by gioele »

sleepybrett wrote: post #20
userbinator wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond the issues of relinquishing control over a service to a third party, I think another disturbing aspect is all the waste this causes: perfectly good electronics get thrown out just because some company goes out of business. The fact that these "cloud connected" devices are often proprietary and locked-down (for "security reasons") makes it worse.

Except the email I just got says if they can't find a way to keep the service running, they will open source it and open source the firmware on the cloud device.

This is possible, but rare. If your GPS navigator requires "cloud maps", it will be useless the moment its provider goes out of business or turns off the v1 servers in favour of v2 servers. This as already been discussed in the Ars Technica's article about Android and the problem of old phones with "broken" apps.

(Well, the reality is that it will be useless for 3 years, after which somebody will finally crack the DRM and put a OSM-based replacement on it that has 90% of the features of the previous software, but it nowhere as polished as it.)

[1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/building-android-a-40...

Re: Berg is shutting down

#30

Post by semiel »

jacquesm wrote: post #28
JasonFruit wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I don't quite get it, but how does "a straight tunnel to a specific business or person" differ from e-mail?

There is a good usecase for devices like these: companies that place orders remotely with a large variety of suppliers. For instance, if you have a website where you allow people to order take-out food you could place one of your printers at their premises. No need to rely on their infrastructure at all, especially not if the device has it's own cell modem on board.

I spent a couple months working at a company that had almost that exact business model. We just used normal, cheap, thermal receipt printers attached to a Raspberry Pi.
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