It should be illegal to remove features from a hardware product with a software 'update' without offering all pre-existing customers to return the hardware if they affirm the removed (or newly pay-gated) feature was a factor in making their purchase. Customers currently have zero recourse, because they are paying for the hardware, but the software allows the hardware functionality to be changed or removed at whim wit…
Does that still apply if the "feature" is not one advertised by the manufacturer? They're framing it as safety issue and jail broken devices and leaked content keys get updated all the time to close those loopholes.
Government should mandate the ability to downgrade the software to versions that were previously available on said hardware. I’ve had so many issues with Apple devices losing compatibility with obscure features on apps after updating iOS, I wish I could go back occasionally to accomplish some task, and then upgrade again when finished. The flexibility is valuable. For example, on the newest iPad Pro, iMovie is unusab…
Definitely. TV updates are another thing. They change things with abandon and you can't revoke the updates. Sometimes they break stuff and then you have to pray and wait until they hopefully fix them at their leisure. IMO, it should be illegal to issue unrevokable updates so you can't get a product to have identical features as it did at the time of purchase. You should always be able to wipe it back to stock. Same w…
> And the people who might crow about "security" - my device, my rules. I can block it on the network if I want.
We've entered a sad dystopia when the manufacturer is the leading security threat to the integrity of my personal devices.
The app doesn't need the cloud for bluetooth usage or basic wifi usage (though "out of your house" usage likely uses their relay service). You would no longer get "recipe of the week" stuff, but that is a small loss. The real danger is that eventually the app goes away due to not being maintained. Hopefully they release the API spec before then, but my specific device has already been reverse engineered at least.
The app will eventually stop working because of incompatible updates to the phone OS.
Yeah, that is the danger I tried to allude to in my second paragraph.
I hope we do see phone/OS/store ecosystems that focus on longterm stability of features and UI. Keep devices repairable by end users, supply parts for the whole of the phone's lifespan.
Fair phone is trying to do this for phone hardware, and Framework is doing similar for laptops. We still need OS and store ecosystems.
Jeeze, I will stick with my modular solution: an ipad on a music stand. This is compatible not only with any commodity treadmill, but also bike trainers, ellipticals, and making vroomvroom noises on the motorcycle when it's too icy to actually ride. I could also swap out the ipad for a laptop, non-ipad tablet, or a collection of cute succulents should I desire it. snark aside, I'm a bicycle guy and I really like that…
> I will stick with my modular solution: an ipad on a music stand.
My smart rower consists of a C2 Model D sitting in front of an old-school panasonic plasma TV in a spare/theater room. Both components are over 10 years old by now and neither show the slightest signs of giving up the ghost. That TV doesn't even know how to talk to the internet, and I lost the USB cable for the PM4, so everything is effectively off-grid.
We need an Electronic bill of rights. 1. You must allow full root privileges for Electronic devices to the owners 2. You may not circumvent owners rights through leasing or other means. 3. You may not create barriers to device owners using their devices how they see fit.
This type of 'update' is one reason I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices. If part of the product I've paid for is software, and the company can update it without customer consent at any time, then I can't rely on the product's features. Period. I experienced this myself on the PS4 version of Terraria. I bought a hard-copy of the game. I mastered the controls, and loved them. Terraria was updated one day…
This pattern is pervasive. I also dislike needing an app and an internet connection for the most basic functionality with some purchased device. At some point, we need to own the things we buy and that line keeps getting pushed back further and further. Anec-data: I purchased a cooking device for my parents in December and it has a single button to turn it off. The only way to use it is with an app which requires a l…
This is true for most consumer tech (whether software or hardware) nowadays. The primary objective is to get "engagement" out of it. Any useful work the product might be doing is the bare minimum needed to convince the user to "engage" with the product.
It's a tangent, but it's incredible to me that people used to ship video games and other software on physical media and it worked fine. Now you can drop a big turd on the steam store initially and it's just business as usual. Cynicism aside, I really do admire the dev and QA teams that pulled this off. It's such a different world now.
Take a look at the games from that era and the games you get right now. Sure, more has changed than just being able to update things, but the ability to fix issues later and continually update games has lead to much much better games with way more content. And you can always chose to wait a year for everything to settle.
I'm still playing older games. What new games do you recommend?
"NordicTrack says it supports right-to-repair rules. However, because of its equipment’s moving parts, the spokesperson says, it believes that restricting access to its operating system is important for safety. " The real reason they don't want people using other apps or watching third party videos is because anyone doing that is not spending money on iFit. Or, at least, not as much as they could be. NordicTrack like…
I really wonder about the payoff in the continual cat and mouse game here. At some point, you are going to be paying a sizeable sum to your devs to try a lock out a relatively small amount of technically capable people who will circumvent the system rather than pay a subscription fee. I agree making a little harder once probably convinced a few people to pay up...but after that it has to be diminishing returns and eventually negative returns. I wonder what the tradeoff would be if they marketed their system was one that as open and you could do so many things with it. Like, imagine if the commercials showed how you could use your treadmill but also connect to any app you wanted, like Netflix. To me, that would be a big draw.
This type of 'update' is one reason I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices. If part of the product I've paid for is software, and the company can update it without customer consent at any time, then I can't rely on the product's features. Period. I experienced this myself on the PS4 version of Terraria. I bought a hard-copy of the game. I mastered the controls, and loved them. Terraria was updated one day…
The problem with 'smart' devices I think is something akin to a conflict of interest. On the one hand you're purchasing hardware, which you expect to own and control. On the other, there is software that runs on a subscription model which 'coincidentally' restricts the functionality of the hardware, because they want to stop people from bypassing the sub. The hardware effectively becomes useless if the subscription s…
It feels like these should be rentals that require a monthly fee but no upfront cost.