Hooray for cloud-tethered devices!
I prefer the term cloud-encumbered device. Tethered does not sufficiently convey a negative connotation.
Berg is shutting down
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Berg is shutting down
#42That happened quickly! They just raised $1.3m eleven months ago:
http://blog.bergcloud.com/2013/10/28/berg-raises-1-3m-round-...
Re: Berg is shutting down
#43I wondered when this might happen. You can't really rely on any of these devices with a 'cloud' based backend to work a couple of years after you've bought them (As anyone with a Nabaztag gathering dust in a corner will tell you). I made my own version of the little printer based on the open source plans here: https://github.com/exciting-io/printer/wiki/Making-your-own-... It's really easy to get up and running and i…
Genuinely curious, but why print reminders like that when you can use a calendar? Or using something like Pushover for notifications when a download has finished. Seems wasteful.
The reminders are only printed once a week on Saturday mornings and use maybe 5-10cm of paper. It's just nice to have a physical reminder to do things sometimes, something you can't ignore. Plus I get enough alerts on my phone already.
Like people have said about the Berg printer, it's really a solution looking for a problem. I just wanted to make a little networked printer and build a nice case for it (I'm doing it in the style of a piece of equipment from one of the Alien films). There's no real reason to have it, but I do, so I'm making use of it.
Re: Berg is shutting down
#44First I've heard that Haitian proverb ("Behind the mountains, there are more mountains."). Very appropriate for this community.
Re: Berg is shutting down
#45Crap -- I have a Little Printer still in the box that I've been meaning to play with. Really hope they open source the protocol so I don't end up with a Little Paperweight.
This is what really hit me one day. I had things in the box unopened from companies that no longer existed. That really put me off buying cute 'toys' unless I could commit to using them and exploring them in 90 days.
Re: Berg is shutting down
#46I wondered when this might happen. You can't really rely on any of these devices with a 'cloud' based backend to work a couple of years after you've bought them (As anyone with a Nabaztag gathering dust in a corner will tell you). I made my own version of the little printer based on the open source plans here: https://github.com/exciting-io/printer/wiki/Making-your-own-... It's really easy to get up and running and i…
Great point. I think if you're launching a product like this you need to have a fallback strategy established from the beginning, or maybe just go open fromt he start so that the ecosystem isn't dependent on a single piece of locked-down infrastructure.
Re: Berg is shutting down
#47Hooray for cloud-tethered devices!
I prefer the term cloud-encumbered device. Tethered does not sufficiently convey a negative connotation.
I'd suggest "cloud-slaved". You're a slave to someone else's "cloud". They can turn you off at any time. They can even take away features from your purchased device. They can start charging for a previously free service. They can shove ads into your device. They can raise your price.
They can turn your device off. (The median life of cloud services is only a few years.) The cloud owner is the master. You are their slave.
Grovel.
Re: Berg is shutting down
#48I would be in favor of opening the code., especially if it was opened as FOSS
Re: Berg is shutting down
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 DR…
> 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. I have a 10 year old GPS receiver in a box, with no way to update with maps from Garmin, not because Garmin went out of business but because they just choose not to support the device anymore. Do I want to spend hours trying to…
The issue is that a GPS navigator is basically a solved problem, and the only part that requires updating are the maps.
Do I want to spend hours trying to figure out how to update a 10 year old device? Or would I rather spend $100-$200 on a brand new one with the latest maps?
The ideal situation would be a device that you buy once, but it's also one you could use with whatever map data sources you want (OSM, commercial, etc.) - based on an open format.
(I know GPS is also dependent on the satellites being available, but since it's government-owned and critical to many parts of the infrastructure, it's likely to stay around for the forseeable future.)
Re: Berg is shutting down
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. I have a 10 year old GPS receiver in a box, with no way to update with maps from Garmin, not because Garmin went out of business but because they just choose not to support the device anymore. Do I want to spend hours trying to…
The issue is that a GPS navigator is basically a solved problem, and the only part that requires updating are the maps. Do I want to spend hours trying to figure out how to update a 10 year old device? Or would I rather spend $100-$200 on a brand new one with the latest maps? The ideal situation would be a device that you buy once, but it's also one you could use with whatever map data sources you want (OSM, commerci…
> The ideal situation would be a device that you buy once, but it's also one you could use with whatever map data sources you want (OSM, commercial, etc.) - based on an open format.
Like an iPhone/iPad/Android phone/Android tablet? Tomorrow's tech will be available to me soon, and much cheaper than today's tech. Support = people's time = expensive.