<story><title>Nest, the company, died at Google I/O 2019</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/05/nest-the-company-died-at-google-io-2019/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bradlys</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not even a matter of &amp;quot;safe&amp;quot;. I live in a neighborhood that is seen as very safe. Yet, we had a burglary two houses down not too long ago. And they happen frequently enough to myself. I&amp;#x27;ve had plenty stolen. Without a camera, there&amp;#x27;s ~0% chance of anyone being caught.&lt;p&gt;I ended up buying a camera for peace of mind and for checking in on my place to see who&amp;#x27;s entering my residence area. Sometimes it&amp;#x27;s genuinely helpful.</text></item><item><author>smbullet</author><text>Not all of us live in safe neighborhoods like yourself.</text></item><item><author>AlexandrB</author><text>&amp;gt; In 5 years when all the crap is worked out and you eventually buy a system with extra security at your door or backyard, or a something to that effect I&amp;#x27;d like you to come back and admit it.&lt;p&gt;I heard this same song and dance 5 years ago. The problems with the &amp;quot;IoT&amp;quot; market are foundational. Most IoT devices are not designed to be used for extended periods without internet access and a continuous stream of updates. The former means that, in general, they are only as reliable as your internet connection (including that crappy modem&amp;#x2F;router the ISP gave you). The latter means that unlike traditional home hardware, once you install &amp;quot;smart&amp;quot; devices you&amp;#x27;re at the mercy of the business plans of the vendor. So even if you get something set up that works acceptably, it will last 5 years tops (see Nest) before the vendor&amp;#x27;s priorities change.&lt;p&gt;Finally to address the &amp;quot;extra security&amp;quot; comment. Security from &lt;i&gt;what&lt;/i&gt;? The developed world is objectively safer than ever, why would I invest in &amp;quot;solutions&amp;quot; to problems invented out of whole cloth? The paranoia of people installing cameras all over their own home (often cameras whose footage they have no real control over) astounds me. We&amp;#x27;re more mistrustful of our own neighbours than the companies that are actually exploiting our privacy and manipulating us psychologically for profit.</text></item><item><author>rhacker</author><text>This is the exact kind of comment that would make it to the top because it just empowered everyone that DOESN&amp;#x27;T have one such system. It&amp;#x27;s filled with finger pointing. Most of the replies basically point out yeah, I hate IoT lights, but this use case is good... It&amp;#x27;s not genuine to dismiss the entire enchilada because YOU don&amp;#x27;t have it. In 5 years when all the crap is worked out and you eventually buy a system with extra security at your door or backyard, or a something to that effect I&amp;#x27;d like you to come back and admit it.</text></item><item><author>dustinmoris</author><text>Smart people don&amp;#x27;t buy smart home devices.&lt;p&gt;My relatively poor grandparents and my slightly less poor parents had a hard working life, but none of them had to sleep in a dark cold room because the switch to turn the lights on or the heating stopped working. Ever. This problem has been solved by other people many many years ago.&lt;p&gt;Last month I watched a documentary where a billionaire was showing of his multi million mansion and when he wanted to show the camera team his 100k home cinema room they couldn&amp;#x27;t see anything because his smart lighting system was stuck in an update loop and nobody had a clue how to fix it. In the interview he said it&amp;#x27;s not a big deal because he doesn&amp;#x27;t like to have the lights on when watching a movie anyway. L.O.L.&lt;p&gt;If I had a 100k cinema room then it would be certainly be a big deal to me if I can&amp;#x27;t even see where the heck I&amp;#x27;m walking.&lt;p&gt;In my entire life I never thought &amp;quot;damn, how nice would it be if I could turn on the lights in my bedroom from downstairs on my phone&amp;quot;. It&amp;#x27;s just not a problem which I think people have, but somehow the consumer industry has convinced so many fools to buy cheaply fabricated, badly secured, even worse programmed and often not long supported smart home devices which add absolutely no benefit to anyone&amp;#x27;s everyday life and cause lots of problems.&lt;p&gt;By the time I find my phone lying around in my lounge, unlock it through Face ID or finger touch, open up the home app, find the home device which I want to control, then make whatever change I wanted to do I am much faster to just get my arse up from the couch, walk over and turn it on&amp;#x2F;off with a normal hand movement. On the way I can also grab a beer from the fridge and then continue watching the telly and laugh about some fools who spent 100k on a home cinema without lights.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dx87</author><text>If you&amp;#x27;re frequently having things stolen, you don&amp;#x27;t live in a &amp;quot;very safe&amp;quot; neighborhood.  I&amp;#x27;ve lived in working class neighborhoods most of my life, and the only thing I&amp;#x27;ve ever had stolen from me was a bike that I left on my front porch when I was a kid.  The only thing the people I know have had stolen is stuff like car stereos or GPS devices back before most people used their phones.  Just small crime of opportunity stuff, no breaking into people&amp;#x27;s homes.</text></comment>
<story><title>Nest, the company, died at Google I/O 2019</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/05/nest-the-company-died-at-google-io-2019/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bradlys</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not even a matter of &amp;quot;safe&amp;quot;. I live in a neighborhood that is seen as very safe. Yet, we had a burglary two houses down not too long ago. And they happen frequently enough to myself. I&amp;#x27;ve had plenty stolen. Without a camera, there&amp;#x27;s ~0% chance of anyone being caught.&lt;p&gt;I ended up buying a camera for peace of mind and for checking in on my place to see who&amp;#x27;s entering my residence area. Sometimes it&amp;#x27;s genuinely helpful.</text></item><item><author>smbullet</author><text>Not all of us live in safe neighborhoods like yourself.</text></item><item><author>AlexandrB</author><text>&amp;gt; In 5 years when all the crap is worked out and you eventually buy a system with extra security at your door or backyard, or a something to that effect I&amp;#x27;d like you to come back and admit it.&lt;p&gt;I heard this same song and dance 5 years ago. The problems with the &amp;quot;IoT&amp;quot; market are foundational. Most IoT devices are not designed to be used for extended periods without internet access and a continuous stream of updates. The former means that, in general, they are only as reliable as your internet connection (including that crappy modem&amp;#x2F;router the ISP gave you). The latter means that unlike traditional home hardware, once you install &amp;quot;smart&amp;quot; devices you&amp;#x27;re at the mercy of the business plans of the vendor. So even if you get something set up that works acceptably, it will last 5 years tops (see Nest) before the vendor&amp;#x27;s priorities change.&lt;p&gt;Finally to address the &amp;quot;extra security&amp;quot; comment. Security from &lt;i&gt;what&lt;/i&gt;? The developed world is objectively safer than ever, why would I invest in &amp;quot;solutions&amp;quot; to problems invented out of whole cloth? The paranoia of people installing cameras all over their own home (often cameras whose footage they have no real control over) astounds me. We&amp;#x27;re more mistrustful of our own neighbours than the companies that are actually exploiting our privacy and manipulating us psychologically for profit.</text></item><item><author>rhacker</author><text>This is the exact kind of comment that would make it to the top because it just empowered everyone that DOESN&amp;#x27;T have one such system. It&amp;#x27;s filled with finger pointing. Most of the replies basically point out yeah, I hate IoT lights, but this use case is good... It&amp;#x27;s not genuine to dismiss the entire enchilada because YOU don&amp;#x27;t have it. In 5 years when all the crap is worked out and you eventually buy a system with extra security at your door or backyard, or a something to that effect I&amp;#x27;d like you to come back and admit it.</text></item><item><author>dustinmoris</author><text>Smart people don&amp;#x27;t buy smart home devices.&lt;p&gt;My relatively poor grandparents and my slightly less poor parents had a hard working life, but none of them had to sleep in a dark cold room because the switch to turn the lights on or the heating stopped working. Ever. This problem has been solved by other people many many years ago.&lt;p&gt;Last month I watched a documentary where a billionaire was showing of his multi million mansion and when he wanted to show the camera team his 100k home cinema room they couldn&amp;#x27;t see anything because his smart lighting system was stuck in an update loop and nobody had a clue how to fix it. In the interview he said it&amp;#x27;s not a big deal because he doesn&amp;#x27;t like to have the lights on when watching a movie anyway. L.O.L.&lt;p&gt;If I had a 100k cinema room then it would be certainly be a big deal to me if I can&amp;#x27;t even see where the heck I&amp;#x27;m walking.&lt;p&gt;In my entire life I never thought &amp;quot;damn, how nice would it be if I could turn on the lights in my bedroom from downstairs on my phone&amp;quot;. It&amp;#x27;s just not a problem which I think people have, but somehow the consumer industry has convinced so many fools to buy cheaply fabricated, badly secured, even worse programmed and often not long supported smart home devices which add absolutely no benefit to anyone&amp;#x27;s everyday life and cause lots of problems.&lt;p&gt;By the time I find my phone lying around in my lounge, unlock it through Face ID or finger touch, open up the home app, find the home device which I want to control, then make whatever change I wanted to do I am much faster to just get my arse up from the couch, walk over and turn it on&amp;#x2F;off with a normal hand movement. On the way I can also grab a beer from the fridge and then continue watching the telly and laugh about some fools who spent 100k on a home cinema without lights.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smoyer</author><text>Why do you think you live in a very safe neighborhood?  I guess perception can be a funny thing but I&amp;#x27;m thinking this is the same as Mercedes-Benz owners saying their cars are above average reliability when the service records disprove it.</text></comment>