Live data from Hacker News

Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

lockitron.com

51–60 of 111 posts

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#51

This is bananas! Please, someone who has reserved one .. WHY do you need to open your deadbolt from anywhere other than your front door? Do you often find yourself down the street / at work / in an overseas hotel with the need to open the deadbolt? Don't you want to see who's there? Don't you have a second lock built into the knob? It's an interesting idea to control a mechanical object (lock) with an internet connec…

Founder bias here, but... As someone who lives with three adult roommates who all have S.O.'s we have people in and out all the time. As someone who lived by himself in college it was nice to know when the landlord came by. As someone who runs a startup, it provides more benefit than a typical modern access control system without the $3000 price tag. For American locks, the deadbolt provides most of the security. The…

Changing the lock probably violates your lease. And if you wanted to catch them entering your apartment without notice, something like a camera that creates readily identified evidence would be a better idea.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#52

It really pays to check how ones company name sounds in different languages. Because in some cases connotations could be not even funny :( For example in russian, lockitron sounds very similar to 'lohotron' which translates as con game, scam etc.

Reminds me of the marketing folklore around the Chevy Nova: http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

"No va" means "he didn't go" in Spanish.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#53
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Faster than keys? Wow .. you need faster keys .. it's WAY faster for me to pull my key out of my pocket than my phone. And I don't have to unlock my phone, find the app, launch it and anything else the app needs me to do (PIN?) 1b. That's the most expensive let-in-a-neighbour idea ever. My neighbours have a spare key to my place. If you're going to trust them once, why not just trust them? 2. Again .. a really exp…

The intuitive cynic in me sees a combination of 1b and 2 explaining this: 1b: Many people barely know the name of, let alone trust their neighbours these days. They are turning to the neighbour out of necessity, rather than old-fashioned good will. 2: Perception of hi-tech security, or rather perception of making an effort at security. Just like the gahzillion dollars spent of on body scanners that don't do very much…

The number of times a neighbor I don't know has called me on the phone when I wasn't home: zero.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#54

Playing devil's advocate here, but what is the hype surrounding this lock? I bought two 'aesthetic enough' keypad code locks from Home Depot and it' been serving me well since. It doesn't require my phone or launching an app from my phone (think bags of groceries in both hands and you forgot to preunlock), doesn't require Wi-Fi, and I can program temporary codes for Airbnb, etc. within seconds. The only draw back is…

I'm curious how it works. There must be some servo activating the physical lock, right? How can it operate if the power goes out?

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#55

It really pays to check how ones company name sounds in different languages. Because in some cases connotations could be not even funny :( For example in russian, lockitron sounds very similar to 'lohotron' which translates as con game, scam etc.

I'd wager that nearly any name is going to sound bad in some language. I don't know how important it really is to pay attention to this. If the Russian market ends up being important for them somehow, they can always make a new name for the Russian market.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founder bias here, but... As someone who lives with three adult roommates who all have S.O.'s we have people in and out all the time. As someone who lived by himself in college it was nice to know when the landlord came by. As someone who runs a startup, it provides more benefit than a typical modern access control system without the $3000 price tag. For American locks, the deadbolt provides most of the security. The…

Changing the lock probably violates your lease. And if you wanted to catch them entering your apartment without notice, something like a camera that creates readily identified evidence would be a better idea.

Isn't the whole point of this device that it works with your existing lock?

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#57

Playing devil's advocate here, but what is the hype surrounding this lock? I bought two 'aesthetic enough' keypad code locks from Home Depot and it' been serving me well since. It doesn't require my phone or launching an app from my phone (think bags of groceries in both hands and you forgot to preunlock), doesn't require Wi-Fi, and I can program temporary codes for Airbnb, etc. within seconds. The only draw back is…

I'm curious how it works. There must be some servo activating the physical lock, right? How can it operate if the power goes out?

A backup battery would seem to be an obvious solution there. Every lock like this that I've seen also has a standard physical keyed lock as a backup.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#59

This is bananas! Please, someone who has reserved one .. WHY do you need to open your deadbolt from anywhere other than your front door? Do you often find yourself down the street / at work / in an overseas hotel with the need to open the deadbolt? Don't you want to see who's there? Don't you have a second lock built into the knob? It's an interesting idea to control a mechanical object (lock) with an internet connec…

WHY do you need to open your deadbolt from anywhere other than your front door?

Middle class family with two working parents plus, take your pick:

+ Maid service + HVAC repair + Kitchen remodel + Bathroom remodel

etc, etc

It would also have avoided a bit of stress during an Airbnb I went to, too.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#60

Playing devil's advocate here, but what is the hype surrounding this lock? I bought two 'aesthetic enough' keypad code locks from Home Depot and it' been serving me well since. It doesn't require my phone or launching an app from my phone (think bags of groceries in both hands and you forgot to preunlock), doesn't require Wi-Fi, and I can program temporary codes for Airbnb, etc. within seconds. The only draw back is…

I'm curious how it works. There must be some servo activating the physical lock, right? How can it operate if the power goes out?

It's powered by 4x AA batteries, claimed to be good for a year. If that's true it's unbelievably efficient considering the hardware store models also run on 4x AA batteries but don't have a Wi-Fi + Bluetooth radio running all the time.

https://lockitron.com/pdf/lockitron_manual_knob.pdf page 5

Post reply on HN