Download

[Quoth]

Download, remove DRM and don't have door locks, thermostats, lights (IoT) needing the Internet or an Internet Account (worse).

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...nt-disappeared

Not specific to Amazon.

[JSWolf]

So if you do move to another country, leave your old Amazon account alone. Problem solved.

[Sirtel]

Yeah. I don't plan to have any internet-based home appliances, ever. If your connection goes down, you'll sit in the dark or what? Besides, I don't like to talk when I'm alone. Give me old, mechanical, foolproof ways to do things in my home. Or at least any smart gadgets regulating temperature etc. should not need an internet connection.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah. I don't plan to have any internet-based home appliances, ever.

I agree. You just have no idea who has access to what as shown in this article...

https://www.csoonline.com/article/31...-backlash.html

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Karellen

I agree. You just have no idea who has access to what as shown in this article...

https://www.csoonline.com/article/31...-backlash.html

Never. Never.

(Of course I may change my mind in 20 years or so, but for that to happen there must be some considerable development in internet-based gadgets and their connections. Internet must never go down and no one must have an access to another person's home and things. In short, things must be a lot safer than they are now.)

[ZodWallop]

I have a smart thermostat and am installing a smart doorbell. Those feel like two practical 'smart' devices. Lights, microwave and the like seem like silly fads.

I do have several Google/Nest smart speakers around the house. Those things are great.

[Calenorn]

My PC identifies available networks. It seems that one of my neighbors has a robot vacuum cleaner that comes complete with its own hot spot.

Meet George Jetson!

[ownedbycats]

From the article:

The retailer was more helpful when I got in touch, and it turns out the problem stemmed from the fact you closed your account on Amazon.com in October when you were notified of a security breach.

However, when you closed your account on this marketplace, which had a different login, shutting an account on one marketplace closes the same account globally.

...what were they expecting to happen? Just remove any credit cards and change the password.

[calvin-c]

I can understand smart lights. Sometimes when I'm out later than expected I come home to a dark house & it's nice to be able to turn on a light before I get out of my car. But a smart thermostat? If my HVAC is working properly then it maintains the temperature where I set it-so I rarely change it. For the few times I do it's no problem to walk over to the thermostat & do it.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

I can understand smart lights. Sometimes when I'm out later than expected I come home to a dark house & it's nice to be able to turn on a light before I get out of my car. But a smart thermostat? If my HVAC is working properly then it maintains the temperature where I set it-so I rarely change it. For the few times I do it's no problem to walk over to the thermostat & do it.

I have an older two story house with only one thermostat control. It is downstairs. But the family room is upstairs and in Texas summers it gets hotter than anywhere else in the house. So it's nice not to have to trudge up and down the stairs to adjust the A/C.

[theducks]

There was a home automation (Lighting) company that went out of business and their server went away. Many K$ of smart light switches in eacch home became dumb (the dimmer-switch would still work manually) until some folk managed to get another server running.

Even a Ring doorbell needs the internet (as opposed to a LAN). I could use my phone to open the garage door, but I stay with the clicker as all I need is power.

One of the main purposes of Internet connected appliances is to sell subscriptions (and harvest your usage data). To me, this is a huge (physical) security issue. If the baddies can get that data, they can tell when no one is normally home. Lots of the data identifies by nature, which 'toys' you have.

With a UPS backing up power for the critical parts of your network, you can still do things that do not need outside connectivity. In many cases, the Cable system / DSL is still up even in an power outage. (more rural systems have equipment at the roadside or pole that boost the service and those may not have power for a longer outage, if at all)

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by theducks

There was a home automation (Lighting) company that went out of business and their server went away. Many K$ of smart light switches in eacch home became dumb (the dimmer-switch would still work manually) until some folk managed to get another server running.

There was also that one IoT juicer. Kind of a hilarious shitshow in hindsight.

[ZodWallop]

Is it just my faulty memory, or was IoT the 'coming thing' fairly recently? That (almost) completely fizzled. The doorbell and security cameras seem to be the most useful things. Everything else you still have to manually interact with on some level, so having them connected adds very little value.

Like what happened with 3D TV, there's certain gimmicks people just won't fall for.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

There was also that one IoT juicer. Kind of a hilarious shitshow in hindsight.

There is even an IoT toothbrush! At least it works without the Internet.

[Asawi]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

I can understand smart lights. Sometimes when I'm out later than expected I come home to a dark house & it's nice to be able to turn on a light before I get out of my car. But a smart thermostat?

LOVE my smart thermostats! I have two (small, old...) houses that I go between so one can be empty for weeks. With smart thermostrats I can keep temperature down in the empty one and the turn up temp the day before I go there.
Smart lightning though... Not that useful for me.

Either way, I wouldn't want stuff that couldn't be handled manually, without Internet, as well.