Smart devices are turning out to be a poor investment
Smart devices are turning out to be a poor investment
83 comments
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What a stupid title. As if anybody's buying smart devices in the hope they'll be worth more someday.
My on topic advice: if you rely on your smart TV to get to your content, you're going to have a bad time. Get a small computer instead, and treat your "smart" TV as a monitor, nothing more.
I did get myself an nvidia shield last year, and after switching out the stock launcher for something that doesn't show ads (and better yet, launches straight into plex at boot), I couldn't be happier.
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Yes, I still love my Shield, but there's no doubt it's getting long in the tooth, and there aren't any true replacements on the horizon. The Shield has also lost some features through time, like Nvidia's local game streaming, though Moonlight and Steam have helped fill that gap.
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I thought it shared the same chip as the switch. Maybe with the switch 2 a replacement will emerge.
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Out of curiosity, which is the launcher you chose?
I froze the stock launcher at the last version without Ads. It works, but I guess some entries like "continue watching" could be bugging out now because it is out of date/never patched.
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Where is everyone getting the ads? And why don't I have them? Not that I want them, but I own two Shields and neither has ads on the homescreen.
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TLDR, enshittification is getting worse and unless there's some laws passed to help consumers it's only going to plunge us into the dystopian future we're already fearing.
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It all went downhill when they decided that companies could just tell you to waive your rights without any scrutiny or negotiation.
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this just in: buying closed-source black boxes that are wholly under the control of a faceless profit-seeking entity results in a bad experience when said profit-seeking entity starts scraping pennies out of the user's asshole against their will and also has zero incentive to improve user experience or freedom when the user is already platform locked
shockedpikachuface.jpg
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Like them, I had the same lesson after changes to Google Home, Smartthings and have moved entirely to cheap stuff that works with Home Assistant and allows me total control
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Zigbee2mqtt + homeassistant = all I need at home and away.
All my zigbee devices just report in and I automate my home that way.
I have high hopes for matter but in the interim: I've got shit working great. Window sensors to automate air filters going on and off, a humidifier running in response to a few sensors around the apartment, grow lights on and off on some simple timers.
More complicated things like fans and lights for a 3d printing enclosure? Easy: octoprint has a homeassistant hook and I can listen in for printer start/stop.
Local control will always beat out the "easy solution" IMO. It's just a bit more setup.
But it's not a solution I could hand off to technically illiterate grandparents.
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I’m really impressed with the breadth of devices homeassistant supports. It tracks the location of me & my wife via our iPhones. When we arrive at home after dark it turns on the exterior lights via zwave. We have 4 WiFi enabled ceiling fans from Big Ass Fans it can control, along with our Ecobee thermostats. Our washer & dryer use Insteon IOLinc modules to notify us when cycles are done. And in a few months we’re having a solar system & Powerwall installed, both of which have home assistant integrations as well.
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I feel your last line. I'm a competent user (read: great at following tutorials) and couldn't get HA/mosquitto/z2m all working together. I wish I could, but I wouldn't dream of passing it to even my brother, it's so far from plug and play. Huge shame, because it's so attractive.
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Yeah it took a bit to get it all working. Zigbee2mqtt runs on an rasp-pi in the middle of the apartment for good coverage. The mosquitto broker is on the same box as HA but it took a couple tries to figure out how to get it to talk to HA.
Once it was set up it was pretty great. Occasionally I'll have to restart the rpi to fix some communication breakdown or another.
The main non-userfriendly aspect is that I have to ssh into the rpi and edit a text file then restart the docker container to accept new devices into the network, then change the file back at the end.
No other option though: I live in an apartment complex. I can't just blindly accept new devices.
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You might want to try out ZHA then. Its a bit younger so it doesn't support lesser known devices that z2m does and it has its quirks with other devices. But it comes almost out of the box with HA and is a 1 click install. The latest HA update brought firmware updates to the frontend, but I believe z2m already had that for a while.
I have been running zha for half a year with some Ikea lights and some nous smart plugs and the only moment it has misbehaved is when the power to one of the router nodes went out and it stopped sending zigbee messages to certain other nodes.
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If we’re talking lights - Lutron Caseta all day. Those things have bullet proof connectivity, support all the major platforms, have great support for homebrew stuff, have hardware that has remained the same for a long time, and local network and switch pairings work offline. If Lutron folds up shop, a lot the “smart” stuff will still work.
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Yeah but downside: I rent
So everything I'm doing is with smart sockets haha
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This person prioritized buying the new hotness over researching longevity, and they got burned.
Amazon and Google's products are not where I would invest my money if I was concerned about long term support. Both of those companies have a solid track record of killing stuff off.
Buy that stuff if you want, but don't be surprised if something gets killed off in 3-5 years.
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The problem is that non-smart stuff (or at least stuff that doesn't require a cloud connection) is hard to come by. For example:
- cars - (nearly?) every EV and most other new cars connect to the cloud for no good reason
- TVs - can't find a "dumb" TV in the 50"+ category; I'm still looking...
- refrigerators - "dumb" fridges still exist, but there's not a lot of variety; we wanted a French door fridge, but couldn't find one without the smart crap with the ice maker in the freezer section (an ice maker in the fridge is just asking for problems); we had to get a side by side
- lightbulbs - at Home Depot, I could only find the crappy store brand or their smart bulbs, nothing in between
And so on. It's increasingly difficult to find decent, long lasting stuff. Almost everything is going to be incredibly insecure in 3-5 years once software support stops, and then it'll be irresponsible to keep it any longer.
At this point, I don't think you can really blame the consumers, manufacturers seem intent on driving this "smart home" nonsense. Sure, have a tier for that product, but also sell a version without it.
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The cost of the parts necessary for the network connectivity is nothing in comparison to the money all that data brings. That's probably why it's happening everywhere.
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One more thing. TVs
You might want to consider buying a smart TV and simply not connecting it to WiFi. That’s what I did.
If you buy a TV with CEC support, it will effectively be a dumb monitor that feels like a 1 remote smart system.
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Thoughts on fridges and lights.
Fisher Paykel has a lot of options for french door fridges with ice in the freezer.
And for automated lights that can be independent of the cloud, you might want to look at switches instead. There are lots of options there that can run offline. I like Lutron’s stuff, which has pretty solid cloud service support, but can still run timers and automations offline.
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Some smart devices.
The $20-30 cheap garbage is exactly what it is: cheap garbage.
Apple charges a premium for their streaming box, but guess what: the 4K AppleTV they released in 2017 is still going strong. I’ve had this thing for seven years, it shows no ads on the main screen, and still gets updates. And it’s still fast as hell.
Maybe the enshittification is just on all these Android streamers? I have a Chromecast with GoogleTV in my bedroom, and it’s fine. But it’s just about two years old and already sluggish (especially compared to the AppleTV), and every time I turn it on it takes longer than it should to update the Home Screen with trash I don’t care about.
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I mean, I've had the same Roku attached to my TV for 6 years and still no issues with it; I don't anticipate any problems for some time.
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My thoughts exactly. Apple is literally still providing new functionality to 10 year old AppleTV HD boxes, and they're still performant.
If you're concerned about longevity, you kind of need to purchase with that in mind.
IMHO, I have no problem with the hardware the author purchased, but I can't say that I'm surprised to hear that long term support is an issue for Amazon, Google, and android TV stuff.
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The problem is that there are no good alternatives. I don't like Apple and I don't want to support them. The Android world is terrible, all devices are locked down and sold by awful companies, or if they aren't, they are probably made by non-reputable Chinese manufacturers.
The only option is to buy a mini PC (like a NUC, or similar) or reuse some older/second hand PC/laptop, and install your own software.
It's not convenient, but the only way you're not going to get burned. And the software is rough, I personally don't like Kodi... I just use it like a computer with a wireless keyboard with integrated trackpad.
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Projectivy Launcher works great. Set it as default on your Chromecast and never see the main UI again!
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These threads always have comments like “I want a fast device that’s well built and has years of software update support and doesn’t have ads and respects my privacy…but I’m not an Apple customer”.
I mean, fine, fuck Apple. But stop buying the cheap alternatives and complaining about them.
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Smart tech is good when it is limited. Soon as something must be connected to wifi to be accessible, It can become a chore. Read reviews and try to find good trustworthy products.
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It was good when it wasn't ad-riddled.
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If you need a cache cleaner and other third party maintenance software constantly available on your video streaming box to make it nice to use… maybe you should have abandoned that platform years ago.
But the article is otherwise correct, the enshitification of platforms with ads and the removal of enthusiast features does suck.
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Never buy a (non computing) device for your home that depends on the internet, and especially a cloud service. You will inevitably get burned. There are countless articles online about these pitfalls.
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I disagree. I bought a smart light bulb a few years ago and it has been a fantastic investment!
Uses way less power than a normal incandescent bulb, lasts waaayyyyyy longer, has lots of different colours and white colour temperatures, has schedules that it runs through every day based on sunrise and sunset... I never have to turn it on or off or adjust it!
It's fantastic, I bloody love it. LIFX.
One of the best investments I've made this decade, absolutely.
Oh and don't forget LIFX bulbs don't require any hubs, and there's a python library available to do local LAN API stuff, no need to speak to a remote server if that's not your jam.
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I totally agree with this, Lifx is my favorite brand. Remote access to turn on lights and adjust, themes seasonally, hub less, buuuttt not the cheapest but fair pricing. Their app always tries to get me to buy new items.
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I don't buy things because they are investments. I buy things because I believe they will bring me joy in some way.
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They aren't talking about an investment for a financial return. They're talking about investing their time and energy in a platform that then gets enshittified
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My recommendation is to buy an RPi, SD card, and Mater devices as much as possible.
Voice is possible on Home Assistant and it will only get better. The devs, like many of us, prefer privacy and local control/storage.
There's a way, it's just not the path the author chose. The better path has only come about in the last year or so, tho.
Fwiw: you can tie the voice stuff into OpenAI and ask questions. It's no longer local and each query costa fraction of a cent... But if you feel like you need that, it's there.
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Use ZigBee, Zwave and Matter
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So the author is surprised that companies that makes a large chunk of their revenue from advertising is using the stuff it sold as billboards. Color me shocked.
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Depends on how you use them, I think. Magic boxes that are tied into the cloud and just give you an app to control your lights, dumb. Setting up a system that automates your home electrical appliances in a thoughtful manner can actually deliver savings and maybe even improve your life. Even as someone getting into smart home stuff, though, mainly what I'm seeing is the ability to save power by having some kind of intelligent control over your devices. Everything else is flashing lights and surveillance.
Problem is, your average user isn't going to be setting up a LAN-only, zigbee-to-homeassistant automation. They need the magic box type of interface. So as a mass market thing it seems kind of doomed.
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Just wanted to give a tip, from someone who is happy with his Fire Stick: hold down the home button, on the remote, for an ad-free app drawer thing.
I usually just hold the Home button and select the app I want. Works fine if not a minor inconvenience to do when launching the device.
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I'm literally buying new smart plugs today because the manufacturer discontinued the firmware. They're still in perfect condition, and the exact same set up that I've always had. It's extremely frustrating.
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The article isn't talking about smart devices generally but corporate owned devices subject to enshittification
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When it comes to streaming devices, nothing beats Apple TV in my opinion.
Outside the Apple TV app itself, the OS has very little ads. The only thing I dislike about it is the lack of Kodi + Google Drive plug in, but Infuse Pro works.
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Shield is superior
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From a media perspective, I am inclined to agree; however, like the article said, the experiences of these devices are getting worse for seemingly no reason. Personally, I'm inclined to believe NVIDIA may not make another device like the shield because of the focus on AI and chips. I'd imagine these devices make little profit compared to all the money being made with the current focus on AI.
I don't really like the lock downed experience of Apple's ecosystem, but the software updates make these devices, particular the Apple TV, better every year.
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Jellyfin + Swiftfin have been quite solid in my experience when streaming to an Apple TV.
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83 comments
If you want a smart home/devices, only opt for locally controlled, non-cloud, open source, and self hosted options. Home Assistant is great for home automation.
My mini splits used to be controlled by an Alexa dongle with no other choice from the manufacturer. After some research, I discovered that there was an ESPHome module for controlling them with about $8 worth of stuff. It's more responsive, reliable, will never stop working because some company decided it's no longer worth their time, and has more elaborate controls than anything the manufacturer provided. And I can control three mini splits for half of the cost of one "cloud dongle" from the manufacturer.
The best way to combat enshittification is voting with your wallet. Support projects by people who produce open source solutions. Donate the money you would have spent on the "turnkey cloud" option to help fund the open source project through donations. Until we stop giving these companies money, they're not going to stop screwing us.
Which is why enshittification will only to enshittify.
Cause while there may be rare individuals like you and me who cause ourself stress and headache by trying to find work arounds to avoid certain companies and practices... The overwhelming majority of people just don't care, even if they get absolutely properly fucked over by a company or product. They'll bitch and moan about it, maybe even curse its name... But they will eventually go crawling back, to that same company or another one who does the exact same thing, because the average person would lose their mind if they had to deal with even the most mildest of inconvenience in their everyday life, even if that inconvenience is something as small as learning a different product.
at least thats been my personal experience dealing with consumers over the past 20+ years.
Unfortunately, you're very right. I try to do my part in convincing people to choose otherwise, though.
For anyone else not in the know, a mini split seems to be a standalone heating and cooling appliance.
Are they called something else in other places? Heat Pump Mini Splits are pretty common in the Americas and Europe.
Every shitty thing any company does has a bunch of clueless consumers paying them to do it.
How do you get started with home assistant in a reasonable way? I've been wanting to make that conversion, but it seems like such a huge project or undertaking just to get it first set up.
Do you have a Raspberry Pi, Mini PC, or media center PC that you already have running? Home Assistant sells a ready-made Home Assistant box (Home Assistant Green) if you don't. It has HASS pre-installed ready to go.