Short product support life for smart devices

[JohnMo]

https://www.gbnews.com/news/british-gas-hive-security-system-discontinued

 

What gets pulled next. It's smart until the seller or manufacturer pulls the plug.

[ProDave]

This just reinforces my view, why on earth does everyone want to place reliance on some third party "cloud" service to enable their tech to work?  Right from the start of cloud based serveces I have thought it was a stupid idea that I have not taken on board.

 

It is obvious in many cases there is no guarantee that such a service will continue or might become a pay service once they have a captive group of users locked in.

 

Hive thermostats next?

[JohnMo]

13 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Hive thermostats next?

Would agree, also smart i.e. internet connected thermostats, hot water cylinder, why bother. Support or technology likely to leave the item behind, (not supported or operable) long before it breaks.

[Iceverge]

+1. 

 

Despite quite liking tech I fail to see the benefit of it in most applications in a house. 

 

Most of it seems to massively over complicate previously simple tasks or harvest as much data, audio and video of you (and your kids and your neighbours) as possible. 

 

I like our robot vacuum and the robot lawnmower(when it was installed)but that can be plugged out and thrown away and won't affect the lights or heating. 

 

Tech additions I would like to see. 

 

1. Central locking. 

2. A washing machine that separates cloths, selects the correct wash for each and returns them dried in a tidy stack. 

3. An external sweeping robot to keep driveways and foot paths clean like a robot hoover. 

4. A dishwasher that would empty itself into the cupboards. 

5. A window cleaning robot. 

 

[JohnMo]

6. A robot that cleans our gutters every six months would good. But I could always just pay someone for that, or do it myself as I do now