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iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

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Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#401
The question is not about this IoT Garage Door disabled, it's about how safe our devices are if it's gone connect to the providers server. I'm sure this Startup will comeup with a story saying it was by a 'so called' bad employee and try to manage the PR for the day. How's that this and other co are going to safeguard our data/access to our own product/home if it happens to say a Smoke Detector or Smart Lock if we give bad review. Will they unlock it and claim its' a glitch because I've given a bad Review and sigh go nuke and use abusive language ? What the hell is this ? I thought the Govt alone is acting in a Totalitarian mentality, looks like it's given Co. also the feeling that they can act like this in a Democracy. What ST is this ? Who to believe ? What to buy ? What if a Smart Smoke Detector co employee decides not to alarm/notify me when my kids are at home alone ? If a life is lost will they be able to give back ? We need LAWS to CLOSE DOWN such Co. so that they don't hide behind 'so called' bad employee or 'so called' bug/glitch in their program.

It raises a larger question, are Smart Devices are really Smart or gone screw us one day like this ?

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only on over the air, and if it's only the word "fuck"

Other words do get bleeped, especially before watershed. Notably, about half of George Carlin's famous list of words not allowed on TV is subject to bleeping. Same deal on radio, though that's been loosening lately. Sublime's "Wrong Way" still omits "whore" and "tits" whenever I hear it on the radio, but some songs get away with "bitch", which I guess is progress.

At least on the east coast, the further south you go the more things get bleeped out.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#403
post #160
post #41

I don't know why many comments about "the customer is clearly an asshole, therefore he deserves the lock not working/the company has the legal rights to do so blah blah" are modded so high right now. Even when the customer is an asshole, that has absolutely nothing to do with a security device betraying him or not. I'm very glad that the customer is now only denied access to the app. I can see one day a company that…

I agree with you completely. In addition, imagine if this was your home door lock. Let's say it has bluetooth connectivity and it didn't work from 8 feet away (with a 10 foot range advertised), you get pissed, give it a wordy 1 star review, and the next thing you know you are locked out of your house. This is all at whim of someone behind a computer potentially halfway around the globe.

The Garage door often _is_ a home door.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#404
post #185
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it should be illegal. Frame it in terms of a burger. If McDonald's says "since you say our food is bad we're messing with your burger after you bought it and we'll give you your money back if you return it" that would be illegal and probably, not sure though, a form of discrimination.

He didn't mess with the customer's garage door opener, so it's not like messing with a customer's burger. It's more like cutting the customer off from the unlimited coffee refills when they get 86'd from the restaurant. ( But the coffee cup is useless without coffee! ) However, linking the action to a bad Amazon review and publicizing the device ID both demonstrate very poor impulse control.

"(But the coffee cup is useless without coffee!)"

Here, I disagree (or agree with you, depending on whether your italics indicate e-sarcasm).

You could fill it with water or tea or make your own coffee or even sell it to somebody else at nearly full value! (I'm sure the restaurant support would be happy to welcome a new customer back to the fountain of coffee).

You get my analogy.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#405

Seen from the company's perspective, a user posting a negative Amazon review BEFORE contacting the manufacturer for help is upsetting, especially when as others have noted, it's a product you've invested a lot in, and suddenly you have someone publicly advising others not to buy it. Of course this can cause even a well-meaning employee to go straight to damage control. Not that I'm defending the person here, though.…

> a user posting a negative Amazon review BEFORE contacting the manufacturer for help is upsetting I don't know about that to be honest. Contacting the manufacturer, trying to work with them to get it working, it's all nice but actually it's just another step to turn customers into free QA staff. Companies managed to make this acceptable for software, then for videogames, and now they try with regular devices. If it'…

I don't disagree on the QA staff point, but any new product, no matter how well designed, will have problems. And this is across anything that can be bought and sold, software, devices, ideas... nothing is ever perfect first time.

A related concept is that no amount of testing is ever going to cover every corner case. I mean, for the sake of argument, let's say this guy's iPhone hasn't been updated in who-knows-how-long and is running an OS that's five years past its sell-by date. It's probably next to impossible to buy an identical phone to test with, but their software needs an update that was introduced two years ago, and there's no way around it. This all could have been conveyed in a calm and pleasant (and constructive) forum thread without resorting to name-calling on anyone's part.

I get that first impressions stick, make no mistake, and having the product fall on its face as soon as you get it out of the box is one of the worst. To a degree, users have unrealistic expectations (I'm a developer-turned-engineer), but companies are guilty of that by letting their marketing divisions claim perfection to the point of making your morning tea the moment you open the package.

Just saying that, yes, an out-of-box experience gone bad is not what you pay for, but a polite email to the company or seller can often resolve it quietly and calmly, and in the extreme case, they'll offer a refund. I've dealt with several bad buying experiences this way and usually end up rewarding the seller for doing their utmost to make things right after a firm but professional email exchange. No need for cursing, just telling the seller you are unhappy. Of course, being more technical than the average, my expectations are probably much closer to reality from the outset. Most people buying into the IoT market seem to be average Joe's expecting magic.

If the company had responded correctly, this could well have been a positive outcome and the circumstances that caused the initial complaint nullified, so nobody else has a similar out-of-the-box experience, and the one-star review becomes obsolete. In that scenario, I as a seller would be extremely eager not to let that one bad experience spread and taint perceptions of my product.

Of course, that didn't happen here. The company is way more at fault, no question, but the buyer had no reason to curse a device that didn't live up to his expectations, however unrealistic they are, until the company has had a chance to explain themselves (whether they take it or not). However, now it's all blown up. As for whoever's behind that official forum account, I sincerely hope they're either fired, or if it's the boss himself, his product probably deserves to fail. No room in this world for two Elon Musks...

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#406
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The discussion is about words, and no you shouldn't be protected from the words and speech coming from business interests.

That's not even remotely what he was saying people should be protected from WRT business.

Words were exactly the subject of his parent comment.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#407
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He disabled the device. And you don't see the issue?

To be clear, he disabled the app , not the customer's device.

The device is useless without the app. They disabled the device.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#408
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonalds is well within their rights to deny service to a customer (assuming it's not discrimination). In fact I've seen them (and other restaurants) do this first hand. A customer is being abusive, or giving the poor checkout person a hard time - if they get abusive or threatening, the manager will often intercede and tell them to leave the store. Likewise, I used to work in a electronics store - if a customer is a…

"Denying service" in those cases is not conducting any further sales/etc with them. It's not remotely disabling things they've previously bought from you. That's quite a different kettle of fish.

To be clear, the Garadget was _not_ remotely disabled (or bricked).

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, great analogy. But Amazon can nuke accounts and disable "purchased" books, video, etc, at will. So there's a gray area. I think what Amazon does ought to be illegal, but hey.

If companies want to keep control of media and devices in this way we need a law to make them behave. Disabling a device without​ due notice should receive a hefty fine and compensation to the user. Preventing or no longer supporting access to media should be similar and require an alternative format be made available, so Amazon can block access to an ebook or movie but must provide a download instead. That would bal…

I'm sorry to hear about your Roku. Whenever I get a device, I now have to spend time backing up as much as I can, for the inevitable "upgrades" that will hit me. With Android devices, you should always copy all of the .apk files off. I have a script somewhere which disambiguates the filenames and rsyncs them to my backup server. It has saved me many times. It's ridiculous that I have to go through so much trouble to have the same level of stability I had with a desktop pc I would buy from Dell, in the sense that Dell would give you a restore disc that will return your device to factory functionality.

I keep trotting this comment out every few weeks, because it happens so often now that the cloud eats something we own. Probably my most frustrating experience was when Apple forced me to update iOS, but they removed many features that I relied on. BTSync broke, Nightshift functionality that I was using with Flux was rendered unusable. And a ton of other little annoyances[1].

Apple heavily damaged my iPad with an update awhile ago. And Apple won't take no for an answer, and will keep downloading the next iOS update even over a cellular connection, so I had to firewall it.

Computing today might seem seamless, but, just you try and go against the grain. You'll encounter a remarkable amount of resistance. All I want is so have agency over the devices that I buy.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11986500

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#410
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The device's primarily-marketed feature is opening your garage from an app. To do this, the app and the device talk through the company's server. This developer blocked the customer's app from the server. That breaks the device's primary functionality.

As a side note, I wonder about the original app design, I mean, Wi-Fi/Internet connection is down and I cannot enter my garage (unless I still have anyway handy the original garage remote or key), the company's server is down (for whtever reason) and I am locked outside the garage, there is a DDOS on (say) Cloudflare and I am locked out of the garage ... :( Usually this kind of hiccups happen not in a sunny warm day,…

This is a major flaw with a lot of technology now. The assumption that you will have an internet connection. It's horribly inefficient, especially when we have robust p2p wireless protocols.
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