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Google Ending Support for Jamboard

workspaceupdates.googleblog.com

211–220 of 289 posts

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#211

We have a few of these in our office. The experience is decent, but, man, I really miss chalkboards. I just don't find whiteboards, physical or virtual, as compelling. I actually make some use of the Jamboard app in meetings occasionally, but usually I'm at a desk with my feet up, using a tablet to draw while everyone else is remote. Not only has Jamboard never been a first-class citizen, no whiteboard is a first-cla…

College was where I learned how underrated chalkboards are; every lecture hall had them, and this wasn't long ago. No smell, no toxicity, quick erasing, reliable writing mechanism, precise writing.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#212
Innovation means more duds than hits and it should be encouraged at every level. For business critical applications, yes, there should be a well defined path, and in this case, I am sure there is.

People lose their head every time Google sun sets service. In some cases the criticism is well deserved but not in all. In this case, I am sure there is a path forward for the customers. Heck, they even refunded all costs for Stadia. Google goes well above and beyond what is expected in most cases.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#213
post #210

The amount of people here saying it's ok or even a long lifespan (?!) is shocking. At college, around 2008 I had electronic circuit labs where we used Soviet oscilloscopes dating back to the 70s. They worked perfectly well (we couldn't read the Cyryllic, but after 10min intro you understand the knobs). And why wouldn't they work? Stockholm syndrome of some is unbelievable. And then when I say that I don't want any cl…

They are refunding customers. And probably the thought, if we make the Jamboard offline, everyone will migrate to different solutions anyway. They could just open Android for them, and let any app run on it though I guess...

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't really matter how many people were affected, the point is that people made an investment (and not a small one) and its being shut down. And it isn't like this is the first hardware that Google has abandoned, but they turn it into ewaste since it's tied to the cloud.

It’s being shutdown after 8 years. That’s not a bad lifespan. Most electronics are obsolete but that age and replaced with new ones. Especially at businesses - it’s already amortized by then and reached end of life. Google sucks, but I think you’re blowing this out of proportion.

There's no need for electronics to be obsolete after 8 years. I have tons of electronic items from the 1980's that are still working fine. Not to mention a 16 year old car jammed with electronics which are all working.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#216
post #127

It's about time we had legislation (at least in the EU) that mandated an option to be able to use physical products in an offline mode. Features that require a connection to the Internet should only be an augmentation at most and not the core without which the product cannot work.

That would basically ban normal cell phones. You can't do calls without access to the network.

Honestly, people buying these products should be smarter. They bought an expensive chalkboard that they knew depends on someone else's computers (unless they didn't even bother to look into how the products work), without any guaranteed server support period anywhere to be found.

Anyone who cares about their purchases suddenly no longer working will simply avoid this hardware. The people who do purchase this stuff don't really care. They may act outraged in hopes of getting enough people worked up to start a class action lawsuit they can benefit from, but they failed to even consider "what if the servers shut down" before spending five grand on a glorified touchscreen and hooking themselves up to a $600 per year subscription. To make things worse, they bought this stuff from Google.

Screw Google and their e-waste factories, but banning all online products seems like an unnecessary hampering for innovation to be honest.

I suggest an alternative solution: for up to x years after a product is sold by retail stores, the servers must be up or the consumer must be able to get all of their money back from the sellers. This adds risk to the businesses launching and shutting down IoT stuff willy-nilly and helps consumers. Products sold in third party stores will have to be pretty reliable for stores to take the risk stocking this crap.

In a perfect world, I'd like the law to mandate that online-only products like these must put their server source under escrow (to be opened when the service shuts down) and must provide the user with an option to pick an alternative server address. Sadly, I don't think that idea is going to survive even a single day of IT lobbying.

With Availability as a critical part of the cybersecurity CIA acronym, I think it may just be possible that the EU's Cyber Resilience Act will include something to solve this problem.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#217
post #165

How people continue to trust buying anything from Google is just beyond me. I am glad that they are doing something for schools, but this is just ridiculous. Shutting down a free service that you didn't have to buy into, fine whatever. It still sucks but at least you didn't invest in a platform. But if you are going to make a physical device you cannot treat it like you treat everything else.

Responding to some of the comments saying that jamboard had a good run and people shouldn't be outraged that google made a decision in their own interest... Everybody remembers the old saying, "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". Well, there should be a reciprocal saying: "Anybody who ever buys google should be fired". If the lesson here is "caveat emptor", then the real lesson is this: don't buy google.

Similarly I have added “never buy Amazon hardware” to my ruleset. He says as he continues an ongoing battle with my only remaining Amazon device, an Echo Show.

Say what you will about Apple, they play the long game.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#218

We have a few of these in our office. The experience is decent, but, man, I really miss chalkboards. I just don't find whiteboards, physical or virtual, as compelling. I actually make some use of the Jamboard app in meetings occasionally, but usually I'm at a desk with my feet up, using a tablet to draw while everyone else is remote. Not only has Jamboard never been a first-class citizen, no whiteboard is a first-cla…

I like the way (good) chalkboards look but touching chalk sets my teeth on edge.

You mean because of the squeaking sound that sometimes happens? Break the chalk in half to get rid of the resonance!

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't really matter how many people were affected, the point is that people made an investment (and not a small one) and its being shut down. And it isn't like this is the first hardware that Google has abandoned, but they turn it into ewaste since it's tied to the cloud.

It’s being shutdown after 8 years. That’s not a bad lifespan. Most electronics are obsolete but that age and replaced with new ones. Especially at businesses - it’s already amortized by then and reached end of life. Google sucks, but I think you’re blowing this out of proportion.

> Most electronics are obsolete but that age

More than thirty years ago I inherited my mothers LED display alarm clock, I think it was at least ten years old then. It is still running in my bedroom.

It might well be obsolete but it is in perfect working order, it performs according to its specification, and satisfies my desire for a clock that is always visible.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 years ? For a display that's essentially a graphics terminal to a remote app? That customers are paying for ongoing service? For hardware that is still 100% working? Honestly, what is really stopping it from being supported? Can they unlock it so a secondary market can load OSS onto it and keep it going for the next 10-15 years?

Does the Jamboard cease to be usable without the cloud-based stuff?

Most cloud based items are like this by default, and by design. We throw the environment under the bus, to make our next quarterly profit.
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