Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Posted May 10, 2025 19:14 UTC (Sat) by parametricpoly (subscriber, #143903)In reply to: Complex and bloated by khim
Parent article: A kernel developer plays with Home Assistant: general impressions
Yes there's Google Home integration but the air purifier is a perfect example. Its own app shows the wear status of the filters, displays air pollution levels, can adjust fan speed, schedules etc. The Google Home integration only allows turning it on or off.
Posted May 10, 2025 19:27 UTC (Sat)
by khim (subscriber, #9252)
[Link] (7 responses)
How do you know? That seems to be the main function… and it only needs to bring few percents of users to buy some high-margin thingie from them… how do you know it fails at that? The problem is that we live in a world where making gear that best serves its purpose and has good price is not sustainable. You need something else to survive. Something high-margin. And that's why all that move is even happening: it's all an attempt to find that “something high-margin”. If not in a real reality then, at least, in imaginary reality that can be shown to investors. Take a look on what's happening from that angle… and things, suddenly, would become much more sane if sad: you would realize that things are happening in the way they are happening because people that are doing them are intelligent and sane and not sadistic and insane… but that doesn't give you “a way out” in a world where you are consumer, not a product (with eyes, ears and wallet that are on sale).
Posted May 13, 2025 5:33 UTC (Tue)
by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75)
[Link] (6 responses)
I don't think that's quite true. High margins are necessary for relatively new businesses that are selling to a small market of early adopters, which is where most smart devices are today. Over time, though, manufacturers will figure out how to make those same general kinds of goods into low margin, high volume items that will sell to everyone. I think a really good home automation server will be a key part of that happening. Once lots of people have home automation servers with a standardized device interface, smart devices will become commodities, and low cost rather than high margins will be the name of the game.
Posted May 13, 2025 10:55 UTC (Tue)
by pizza (subscriber, #46)
[Link] (5 responses)
Look no further than the rapid enshittification of televisions to see how well that theory has worked out -- In practice, those "smart devices" are already being reduced to selling at zero or negative margins, with any profits being made by monetizing collected user data (including injected advertising), subscription fees, or both.
If you don't control the server backend and/or the user client, none of that is possible.
Posted May 13, 2025 18:35 UTC (Tue)
by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
[Link] (4 responses)
Posted May 13, 2025 19:44 UTC (Tue)
by pizza (subscriber, #46)
[Link] (3 responses)
That conveniently ignores the companies that didn't die, many of whom bought up the assets (including the data!) of those failed companies.
...So I take it you have no problem with everyone+dog having access to always-on microphones (and sometimes cameras -- Roomba taking photos of people on toilets, anyone?) in your home, along with detailed data on room occupancy (including schedules) and location data? And that's just the devices; factor in the truly awful state of individual apps (and every device has to have their own app, because $reason) which all seem to require access to fine location data, phone state, and usually far more?
So "worthless" or not, I have a major problem with the fact they're all doing it anyway,... and making their products shittier in the process.
Posted May 13, 2025 20:23 UTC (Tue)
by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
[Link] (2 responses)
I don't really care, yes. What are you going to do with this data? For ad-tech, you need to tie it to a browser user somehow, and that's not trivial. You can also (try to) sell the aggregate data for market research, but there's a very limited amount of valuable information in day-to-day life of regular people.
That's also why TVs are the only major area where privacy violations make commercial sense, they have a closed loop for ads. The data from a TV can be used to calibrate the ads that are shown on the same TV. Basically, if you have a device with a screen that shows you ads, then be afraid. Otherwise, you're likely fine.
Companies like Lowe's tried to jump on the "smart home" bandwagon (IRIS) and get access to all those tasty, tasty data. And it failed entirely, they got nothing but losses.
Posted May 13, 2025 20:46 UTC (Tue)
by pizza (subscriber, #46)
[Link] (1 responses)
I'd posit that has more to do with folks simply not *purchasing* this crap, because the value-add for "smart home" to non-gear-fetishists is approximately zero.
Posted May 14, 2025 6:48 UTC (Wed)
by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
[Link]
Companies forget that the "value add" can easily be NEGATIVE to the consumer. We want a BASIC phone service with OUR choice of add-ons. If our phone company isn't careful they might find I try to bring the weight of disability charities down on them because we can't turn off unwanted extras.
Last time this happened we got refunded three months of phone charges because the service was - to put it bluntly - life threateningly bad! Then we recently upgraded and the mess has come back ...
Cheers,
Posted May 11, 2025 0:13 UTC (Sun)
by willy (subscriber, #9762)
[Link] (1 responses)
Why would you do that? From the cat's point of view, it has to wait 13 hours rather than the usual 12 (assuming you're on an every-12-hours schedule). And then five months later, all of a sudden it only has to wait 11 hours.
The cat's schedule isn't tied to yours. Just ignore DST (I do this for the clocks in my house which aren't easy to change and don't control anything I care about).
Posted May 11, 2025 11:01 UTC (Sun)
by parametricpoly (subscriber, #143903)
[Link]
I've set it up to serve 3 proportions during the night so that the cat won't wake me at 4 or 5 am. This is really for my comfort.
Posted May 12, 2025 8:36 UTC (Mon)
by leromarinvit (subscriber, #56850)
[Link] (1 responses)
If you haven't already, you might want to look into Valetudo (https://valetudo.cloud/). Its main feature is that it lets you control your vacuum without being connected to the manufacturer's cloud service, so you can stop worrying about the privacy and security implications. It has a nice, local web GUI, and can optionally integrate with HA (or other systems) via MQTT.
I've been running it for years on a Roborock and a Dreame vacuum cleaner, without any issues.
Posted Aug 9, 2025 21:40 UTC (Sat)
by Rudd-O (guest, #61155)
[Link]
Posted Aug 9, 2025 21:37 UTC (Sat)
by Rudd-O (guest, #61155)
[Link]
You can free most Dreame and Roborock vacuums using Valetudo. 100% local and compatible with HA via MQTT.
> It fails to perform its main function.
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
The problem is that we live in a world where making gear that best serves its purpose and has good price is not sustainable. You need something else to survive. Something high-margin.
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Wol
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated
Complex and bloated