Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

news.bloomberglaw.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

561–570 of 839 posts

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#561

Post by iAMkenough »

esafak wrote: post #551
cyp0633 wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US-designed iPhones have at least 2 cameras, some microphones, and biometric sensors. From this point, everyone outside the US should stop using iPhones to prevent surveillance from the American empire. From another angle, the iPhones are primarily made in China AND India via third-party factories, so no one should ever use iPhones any more. You have the right to concern about privacy, but that's not how it works.

It is, because Apple's privacy stance and record are known. What do we know about this Chinese company, besides the fact that it is beholden to a government that does not care for privacy?

Apple's record is complying with a majority of government requests for customer data.

Not to mention its CEO manufacturing and gifting on bended knee a custom 24-karat gold Apple plaque to a federal government leader that does not care for privacy or foreign customers. That sent the message internationally, loud and clear.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#562

Post by f33d5173 »

cyp0633 wrote: post #550
cs702 wrote: post #254

According to the Financial Times, Roomba has sold more than 40 million robotic devices, most of them robotic vacuum cleaners.[a] Many of those vacuum cleaners have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

US-designed iPhones have at least 2 cameras, some microphones, and biometric sensors. From this point, everyone outside the US should stop using iPhones to prevent surveillance from the American empire. From another angle, the iPhones are primarily made in China AND India via third-party factories, so no one should ever use iPhones any more. You have the right to concern about privacy, but that's not how it works.

There are tens of much more successful robot vacuum companies. You do not buy roomba because of their capability in making robot vacuums, that already drove them bankrupt. If all you wanted was the brand name, you could have bought just that. The valuable asset here is the large number of products in people's homes which can now be monetized.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#563

Post by klooney »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #347
hylaride wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, the US business industry has become over-financialised to the point of self-sabotage. R&D and capital expenditure are seen as "bad" things to have on accounting statements. Combine this with Jack Welsh type CEOs who do everything they can to cut out "costs" on financial statements and you get organizations like GE turned into (badly run) banks. Cisco is now essentially a publicly traded PE firm that buys up othe…

Everyone acts like the C8 corvette doesn’t exist when they shit on American cars. Actually GM is an innovative awesome company. The C8 has topped many “top car” lists since it came out in 2020. The reviews on it are universally excellent and it gaps pretty much anything that the turn-signal hating BMW crowd manufactures both in literal performance and in design.

The Corvette is a pretty niche vehicle though

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#564

Post by renewiltord »

freen wrote: post #342
renewiltord wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, not to worry. The Biden Admin FTC and the EU ensured this outcome in the interest of making sure consumer rights are protected. Therefore, consumer rights must be better protected in this scenario.

Biden Admin?

Yes, when Lina Khan was FTC Head during the Biden Administration she helped protect consumer rights by getting iRobot sold to a Chinese company.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#565

Post by ahmedfromtunis »

standardUser wrote: post #557
esafak wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, because Apple's privacy stance and record are known. What do we know about this Chinese company, besides the fact that it is beholden to a government that does not care for privacy?

Apple's policy is to submit to nearly all requests made by the federal government, though they get substantial credit for resisting some requests. This of course depends on the decisions made by current leadership, which can and will change (while the phone in your pocket remains the same).

The problem is that not all governments constrain themselves to only use requests and/or allow companies to challenge said requests. And that's at least what you get dealing with Apple and the USA (most of the time).

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#566

Post by dylan604 »

nullc wrote: post #546
dylan604 wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm just not paranoid enough, but when people are having sexy time, they are not really likely to be running the roomba. Having that thing running is the opposite of sexy. When the thing is parked on the base station, it is facing the wall. So exactly how frequently do people think a roomba is running to be capturing all of this explicit footage? To be clear, I'm not saying footage can't be captured, but some o…

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/19/1065306/roomba-i...

Yes, that's deliberately missing the point of what was said though. We know the vacuum is using the camera (when equipped) while the unit is running. Go back and re-read what I wrote to see why this is not the same thing.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#567

Post by thenthenthen »

ragazzina wrote: post #532
jasonkester wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than taking their lead and improving the product, they just sat there with the exact same product for like 10+ years. It was outrageous. I think that this is actually the only viable strategy for a hardware product company in the current world. As soon as your product is successful, it will be cloned by dozens of Chinese companies and dumped on the market everywhere. Any update you make from there on out will…

>I have a few really good hardware ideas, but I don't believe I could ever market them fast enough and far enough to make it worth spending the R&D to make them happen. Then make a nice blog post, translate it to Chinese (hell, I'll pay a professional translator for you) and post it on the internet so that someone in Shenzen can try it.

Just post your ideas to crowdsource websites and wait for the aliexpress clone to appear, zero r&d costs, zero dev and manufacturing/qa! That said, Taobao and Ali are so full of bizarre products (transparent rubber domes to be able to type with 5cm long nail extensions), it will be a challenge to stand out

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#568

Post by a456463 »

cyp0633 wrote: post #550
cs702 wrote: post #254

According to the Financial Times, Roomba has sold more than 40 million robotic devices, most of them robotic vacuum cleaners.[a] Many of those vacuum cleaners have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

US-designed iPhones have at least 2 cameras, some microphones, and biometric sensors. From this point, everyone outside the US should stop using iPhones to prevent surveillance from the American empire. From another angle, the iPhones are primarily made in China AND India via third-party factories, so no one should ever use iPhones any more. You have the right to concern about privacy, but that's not how it works.

This is a bullshit argument. At least the OS on iphones is american. For IOT devices it isn't the same.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#569

Post by qwerpy »

coldpie wrote: post #449
miohtama wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elizabeth Warren is proud of blocking this deal: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/amazon-irobot-deal-collapse-room...

She should be, honestly. To me as an American, China has a better reputation than Amazon. Of those two choices, I'm happier with this outcome than giving even more stuff to Amazon.

As an American with a strong personal interest (kids) in keeping the country strong and competitive in the future, it seems bizarre to cheer for our largest adversary to gain advantages over us.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#570

Post by happyopossum »

dylan604 wrote: post #518
armonster wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never met anyone in my life who vacuums at that rate. Not sure if your personal germophobia counts as a counterpoint.

You don't know anyone with pets that shed a lot? Most of my shedding pet friends try to vacuum daily, and if a day is missed it is very obvious. People that don't vacuum that frequently, I'd assume, are also the type of people that don't clean a litter box for a week instead of daily.

3 dogs, 3 cats. 45 seconds with a broom once a day does the trick…
Post reply on HN