My poor tv is like, “connect to the internet? I need to call home! Help, i’ve been abducted by a luddite!”
Tv, you are never getting my wifi password.
Through absolute chance (the TV i wanted was sold out on clearance so I got a different one on clearance) I ended up with an Android TV-powered sony bravia. It lets you go into the app permissions and disable the optical recognition whateverthefuck they call it software. The rest of the analytics can be blocked by some regex firewall/DNS rules. It’s the only smart TV OS that I would recommend.
Try plugging in a fork. Those still do what they are supposed to do
I’ve got some bad news
Ahhhhh! Nothing is sacred anymoooooore
Obviously you just forgot to lick the tines!
I recently renovated and said fuck no to all the smart home shit. Just the idea of having to troubleshoot the WiFi because my kitchen light won’t turn on drives me into a rage.
Good call.
I took over for a previous manager who installed all smart lights controlled via Alexa. Every week…every fucking week…there would be a section not working, lights with disco colors, Alexa was offline so we could give the command to turn on lights…
When I took over, 1st task was to rip out all the smart shit and I put in regular LED bulbs controlled with the light switch. Works every time
The closest thing I have to “the world of tomorrow” are regular degular hand operated dimmer switches. They’re great. I have one in every room.
No idea why everyone thinks you need the Internet to dim a light.
No waiting for firmware updates
Wait, I just have to reboot my watch
Omg yes preach !!! I feel it’s everything these days, coffee maker…app Vacuum…app Scale…app Electric shower nozzle…fucking app Everything needs a password and an account and my mind is crumbling because of it.
You know you can dumb shit, right?
It’s rarely a secret these days whether something has wifi, or Bluetooth.
TVs seem to have been pretty much taken over by ‘smart’ features.
I don’t mean this as a dare or a gotcha, but genuinely asking if you know of a decently priced modern TV that’s ‘dumb’ please let me know so I can buy it.
Yeah when I brought a TV a few years ago I could not find a good one that wasnt ‘Smart’ except for commercial variants that were an extra couple of thousand.
That’s because the TVs are subsidized by selling your stolen info.
Ugh how depressing
I think they are saying to just not connect whatever. E.g. buy the smart TV and don’t connect it to the internet.
Doesn’t work anymore; they make shadow mesh nets with yoyr neighbors’ devices so if one connects…
I have this smart lightbulb that I got for halloween last year because I thought it’d be cool to make the porch glow purple for trick or treaters. Now I have to replace it because the app that controls it has decided to try and blackmail me for camera and location access and the bulbs default state without the app is to flash on and off in a way seemingly deliberately designed to cause headaches.
My sister bought me a smart desk light that insists on using an app and ‘doesn’t work’ without it.
Thing is, it will work as a normal desk light…if you’re willing to sit through 10 minutes of intense blinking while it tries to connect before finally giving up.
Phillip k dick (i think) wrote a story about this.
What kind of bulb is it? There’s a chance that homebridge or something could control it through an API without needing the app.
I remember when games asked you to register and it was optional… and people joked that they never did because there was no benefit to them whatsoever.
Now it is obligatory. No wonder I prefer retrogaming.
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The internet has become more and more complex. I miss the early 2000s when I was a kid and everything was open and easy to use. No need to register ,no need to download this or that app. Everything was easy, even the laws.
The laws have always been a quagmire.
I mean shit, you can’t even handle salmon suspiciously anymore
https://www.tastingtable.com/1913810/weird-uk-law-salmon-crime/
I totally agree! I’m trying to avoid logins and download this and that, as possible as I can.
This is absolutely a problem, but credit where credit’s due, I’m really happy that the specification for Matter requires local control without calling out to the internet. Though Matter devices can still call out to the internet for additional features. I know Matter has it’s issues, but I believe it is slowly improving the smart home. But I fully understand people that want to reject the smart home altogether.
My whole home automation is using Zigbee devices, they don’t even know what internet is, and it doesnt matter which brand it is as longs it is supported by Zigbee2MQTT. Matter is great, so is Thread.
Yeah! Where I can, I use matter over thread. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that should provide the same benefits as zigbee? From what I remember, thread evolved from zigbee.
Unfortunately matter over thread simple doesn’t exist for some categories of devices. For light bulbs, only Nanoleaf offers matter over thread, and the quality is pretty terrible. Do they even make matter over thread air conditioners?
I’m half on one side, half on the other.
The line I draw is between safety and convenience. On the safety side, I want things to be very manual. I don’t want some app or external system managing whether or not the lights stay on, or whatever, on the convenience side, I 1000% want a way to manage things like the lighting from an app.
So anywhere that safety is a concern, like the kitchen, bathroom, a handful of other places… There’s zero “smart” anything. Everywhere else, yeah, I can turn off my lights from an app.
When I’m in my office/living room, where safety isn’t really a concern, I don’t have to get up to turn on the lights, I can yell at my Google home to do it for me, or use an app. If I want the lights to be some shade of turquoise, I use the app…
In the kitchen, as an example, no such control exists. You have to push the light switch, and you get basic bitch white light. You don’t get an option. You want the light off? Take your fingers and do the thing that makes the light switch go click and turn off the lights.
The decision to make anything smart relies on whether or not I’m going to be in danger if the lights go out and there’s no way to turn them on again because the Internet is down.
I want everything as dumb as possible. I will register whatever I buy with the manufacturer for warranty purposes, but other than that: dumb toaster, dumb fridge, dumb washing machine, dumb robot vacuum cleaner, dumb doorbell, dumb locks, etc…
If it doesn’t need internet to function, it’s not getting any.
And if it does need internet to function…I’m going to try to not buy it.
Last time I registered was for my dishwasher, all it did was get me on the mailing list to buy another dishwasher.
How many fuckin dishwashers do you think I need, mate?
I just stopped registering anything. I’m entitled to my warranty either way.
That’s why I use mail relays.
I’ve seen some neat features included, but it’s never worth all the added bullshit they add in. Being able to tell if your oven is still on, or garage door is still open is great, but the app is never just that. It always comes with a truck load of bullshit noone asked for.
I want quality buttons and knobs that let me control all necessary functions manually from the device. Smart features are for convenience and tracking stats. Never should the device talk to any party but me.
I agree completely. But now I can’t get the image out of my head, of the maniac that has done the complete opposite of this. Like putting the sink disposal unit, door locks, and flush toilets, all on a publicly accessible “smart” network.
Chaos.
Did you know that Ryobi has an app that lets you register tools you’ve bought?
This isn’t a shit post IMO.
Yeah. It’s straight fire.
This describes my reality nowadays.
Im with you, I dont need my dishwasher to have WiFi and an account
How else are you supposed to see the live stream from inside it, and get progress notifications and ads?
I would actually like a live stream of the dishwasher. I bet it is gross as hell. (“Technology Connections”, a Youtube channel, cut a hole in one so they could film it doing its thing.)
Yeah that would be a somewhat cool feature, but it could also be accomplished with a simple pane of glass.
I went to a coffee shop yesterday that tried to tell me they only accepted orders through their app. I almost walked out, until the finally poured my coffee, but continued to give me shit about it, “ok but next time you have to use the app”
“Yea no. There will be no next time.”
There’s an Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode for exactly this situation
Props to Dennis for not unleashing his fury , like the crashing of a thousand waves
It’s so good. Best of theirs in a long time.
I havent watched Sunny in ages. But yes, that was my experience lol
A QR code and a website I could understand. But app? No.
No. Not even that, that’s just shit and the site brings a plethora of formatting issues and accessibility issues.
Just give me a fucking paper menu.
Paper menu has accessibility issues too. You have to stand up and go to the counter, for one. You have to talk to someone.
For different reasons, physical or mental, those aren’t great for a lot of people.
Mate you’re already in the restaurant. If you couldn’t talk to anyone, or move your own weight - you wouldn’t have made it inside the restaurant to the counter. Those issues already had solutions to get to the point of ordering.
I’ve personally got no problem talking to people or moving my own weight but if I’ve been on foot the whole day I’d rather sit down than stand in line
True, but both is fine together.
No, even QR I can only accept as an option, as in completely optional. I’m out and about without a phone quite frequently.
I have my phone on me all the time. Still no way im using an app to order. The screens I can tolerate at fastfood joints because it gives me time to decide.
But if you can’t be bothered to come to my table to ask what I want at a real restaurant, I can’t be bothered to go to your > resturant.
OP said coffee shop so I’m presuming it’s not a real restaurant, and the app would facilitate ordering without queueing. Which I like. But I don’t wanna download an app, I want to just sit down, scan a QR and pay with one of the cards stored in my phone. And obviously cash should still be a backup option. I can see why they might want to do away with card terminals though.
True. I would put coffee shops in group with the fasfodd joints. There’s wasn’t really much service to begin with. But it should always be possible to order by a real person.
I wonder if it isn’t actually illegal to deny personal service for accessibility reasons.
Honestly, no idea. Laws vary so much by jurisdiction anyway.
Tbh I agree that there should be an in-person option always. If for no other reason then just to be able to pay in cash. Just make sure to let people know it’s not the most convenient option but it’s available.
I’m not entirely sure what the point of the app is though, compared to a website with payment options. Lots of people will say tracking, but you can get a lot of info through a browser too.
This sentence makes me realize I take my phone with me everywhere
“It’s a work phone. I’m not allowed to install apps.”
Luckin Coffee, the extremely successful Chinese competitor to Starbucks exclusively operates via their app. Sadly, users prefer it because of all the discounts and coupons it offers. So really, just surveillance capitalism as usual.
Dennis??
