Alexa isn’t any better either. I had Alexa’s in each room and when I used to ask her to start the AC, it would start AC in some other room (this is after assigning the Alexa and AC to that particular room). That right there is a deal breaker for me, I can’t keep telling my guests every time what’s the room called and have them remember it.
I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
241–250 of 356 posts
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prior to replacing my furnace I had a mercury thermostat that was easily over 50 years old. The new one is digital but isn't "smart". I don't expect 50 years, but 20-30 seems reasonable. Somehow software people have forgotten that physical things last a long time, and people want them to keep working and stay the same as long as possible . My thermostat doesn't need "upgrades", and anyone who thinks they are going to…
>Somehow software people have forgotten Thank You. And that is precisely why I increasingly hate anything that comes with software.
Really it's business people, and they haven't forgotten so much as they've recognized that software is more profitable.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#243Two notes:
- only open standard design can operate together with not-too-much issues;
- actual state of home automation is a directionless mess.
About the first point: the most common protocol for "smart devices"/home appliances, those who can actually talk to something else regardless of the vendor is ModBUS, a serial protocol from the '70s. The newer MQTT, Kafka etc are very rarely supported on commercial devices. Long story short: the sole way we can get different tools from different OEMs playing together is that such interoperability is mandatory by law, carefully tested, with sanctions when found absent. Without that NO OEM will really be interoperable with anything, it's own products together included.
For the second point: MOST home automation is just about flipping switches with some logic behind, the rest is just monitoring. A VERY SIMPLE THING, unfortunately almost no vendor and perhaps also most designers have no clue about how and what to automate. Even the more expensive and trendy tools, like p.v. systems to be potentially integrated with car charging systems etc aren't really integrated even under a single OEM umbrella.
Essentially: just invest in home automation if you really want to do something and be prepared to long frustration, high costs and unreliable, fragile stuff.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
Against googles lawyers? It would require a massive amount of pissed off consumers, and a huge team to even drag them to court. End result would be google paying a pittance and no one getting anything. End of the day, a lot of lawyers would be paid well and google would shrug it off as a cost of business.
With all this talk of ChatGPT clearing law school exams and all, I'd love to see a legal fight of lawyers armed with AI against "googles lawyers". I believe that'd be a net good. For everyone else in tech, I suppose we can all vow to never purchase Google products as gifts for family.
Passing the exam doesn’t make you a good lawyer.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if we could wield regulation to discourage products that phone home without also providing the ability to: - install a cert so we can MITM the traffic and see what they're phoning home about - turn off the phoning home without breaking local functionality - configure a different address for cloud I/O, such that I can run the "cloud" part on my own infra if I want those features
Right to repair?
It's in that direction, but I think existing right to repair legislation stops short of the right to exclude dependency on the manufacturer's infrastructure entirely.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#246I stopped using Google products a long time ago. Seeing articles like this and hearing what others are dealing with just encourages me to see that I made the right choice.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prior to replacing my furnace I had a mercury thermostat that was easily over 50 years old. The new one is digital but isn't "smart". I don't expect 50 years, but 20-30 seems reasonable. Somehow software people have forgotten that physical things last a long time, and people want them to keep working and stay the same as long as possible . My thermostat doesn't need "upgrades", and anyone who thinks they are going to…
> physical things last a long time There's a lot of survivor bias here. I have had plenty of dumb physical things fail in what seems like unreasonably short times. But I do have done physical dumb devices that are 100+ years old. I do not interpret that to mean that everything from that era / factory / manufacturer lasts 100 years, just that all of the surviving items did.
> But I do have done physical dumb devices
Can you rephrase this? I don't understand the point you're making. Two verbs against the same subject but with different temporal context, perhaps you stuggle with communicating sometimes?
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#248I feel like this is just one more thing that Google leadership is failing at. I have some similar examples to the ones in the article. I recommended that my brother-in-law get a Google wifi AP some years ago. Recently, I got an email from Google saying that they are no longer supporting it and after a certain date you will no longer be able to make changes to it. WTF?!? My Apple Airport Extreme is older than the Goog…
Hardware companies get a lot of flak for inadquate software. On the other hand, software companies have no idea what kind of commitment it means to launch a product line. Hardware companies don't do this without determining lifespan/support window ahead of time and designing for it; sw companies basically do whatever, you can always shut it down.
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#249Why would anyone have trusted Google on this in the first place? It’s such an obvious outcome I struggle to understand how anyone expected anything different. This is why we have open standards and interoperability. Imagine if you can only buy lamps from IKEA because your whole house has proprietary outlets. Who signs up for that?
Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again
#250My primary use of the Home speakers is playing music in the shower. That experience is actually pretty bad though, over the years between google music and spotify, getting it to play my music is just horribly obtuse. I can't reliably get it to start my music. "Playing a playlist called my favorites" or similar rather than playing my own playlist. At one point after 3-4 failed attempts like this I said "F you" and the…
I never understood why people put smart speakers in their showers. Why is a simple and cheap Bluetooth speaker not good enough? You can get them in any size and shape and sound quality and they (can) work with your phone's built-in "smart" assistant. I never use that though because when I'm in the shower all I want to do is listen to music. Here's my routine, for reference: 1. Turn on the speaker (which is hanging on…
I've done both, and what you've described is far more effort than just shouting a command.