Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Cloud Businesses Security

Belkin Criticized For Its Upcoming Bricking of NetCams (forbes.com) 88

A Forbes contributor notes that Belkin abruptly announced the end-of-life for its Wemo NetCams, which will discontinued on May 29 2020. But that's just the beginning... Unlike many other end-of-life announcements which simply render products ineligible for support or upgrades, Belkin is literally pulling the plug on its Cloud service, rendering its NetCam range of home security cameras as useless beige bricks...

The question of how Belkin are deliberately bricking their products needs to be called out. When the NetCam was released, users had the option to use the Wemo software (which was lousy) or connect to the cameras using ffmpeg with their favourite NVS platform or even with VLC or equivalent. However, in a firmware update a few years back — Belkin disabled this capability. While workarounds do exist, such as the one published by Vladimir Sobolev in 2018, the whole premise of buying a Belkin product is for ease of use and simplicity. Belkin claim to design 'people inspired products'. All customers of Belkin need to look carefully at these words and see how they match up with their deeds?

How many other Belkin products might be switched off on a whim?

The criticism can be applied to cloud-enabled products as a whole, but in the main — vendors understand that to alienate customers by bricking their possessions is not a viable long term strategy to maintain trust...

Forthcoming European legislation forcing technology companies to make their products easier to repair should go some way to address these concerns.

The article points out that even Microsoft gave Windows 7 users five years of warnings about its 2020 end-of-life.

And it also complains property owners now face two difficult choices: "Either leaving their property with no security system and zero surveillance capability, or breaking the quarantine orders in order to install new equipment."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Belkin Criticized For Its Upcoming Bricking of NetCams

Comments Filter:
  • I use HD-SDI cameras into an 8-port capture card. No middle man and no fuss.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yes, what Belkin did is shitty. But it is not unexpected. "The Cloud" is just another name for "Someone else's computer".

      If you didn't see this coming, then you are an idiot who deserves to get screwed.

      If you buy *ANY* product that cannot work without being connected to "The Cloud" then you are an idiot who deserves to get screwed.

      • Re:This is why (Score:5, Insightful)

        by CoolDiscoRex ( 5227177 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @06:08PM (#60042032) Homepage

        If you didn't see this coming, then you are an idiot who deserves to get screwed.

        As much as I love the Internet, and having been around since the BBS days, I remember not having it ... it’s sad to see what it’s done to people.

        “If you don’t have the same knowledge that I do, then you deserve bad things to happen to you.”

        How sad.

        The IQ of the average American is 98. Critical/abstract thinking begins around 110. 2/3rds of Americans just don’t think like many of you, and it’s not their fault. No, they don’t deserve to be shit on by large corporations which prey on their lack of sophistication.

        While your knowlege about this issue will save you from the same fate, it clearly does not make you a good person.

        So, they deserve to be screwed ... ok.

        I’m curious, though, what do you deserve?

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          In many cases it is their fault. I have lost track of the number of times people asked for my advice and when I pointed they to something that I knows works with no problems they instead insist on buying something cheaper and/or is just simpler to use because it is plug-and-play without reading a manual. But later when they start having problems they try to blame me about why their equipment does not work properly. Cheap and easy is usually because there is something missing.
          • Re:This is why (Score:5, Insightful)

            by CoolDiscoRex ( 5227177 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @07:51PM (#60042354) Homepage

            I see. Well there you go then. I mean, anyone not taking your advice should not just get ripped off, they should probably be institutionalized. I mean, you're you! amirite? You've been watching a reality show through your own eyes all your life, and it's starred you. Isn't everyone else watching the same show??!! I mean, what the hell man?!! Who in their right mind would do differently than what you explicitly told them to do? Surely they are aware of your universal correctness?

            I stand corrected. They do deserve whatever bad things happens to them. After all, had God wanted them to be blameless, he'd have made them you.

            P.S. It's kind of an open secret that people ask for our advice far less than we say they do. I'm in the industry, and I can't remember the last time someone asked me to make a home security camera recommendation. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's never happened. They have these websites devotes to potential purchases, with reviews and everything, and gone are the days that one person's advice is the end-all.

            • First Sonos, and now Belkin are committing reputational suicide. I won't spend another cent on e-waste from these companies.
            • by cusco ( 717999 )

              Excellent rant, hats off.

              I do get asked occasionally about home security cameras, but that's because I work in physical security. People don't take my initial advice, but that's because the professional quality cameras that I recommend (Axis) cost an arm and a leg. Generally they'll come back and say, "I'm looking at product XYZ, what do you think?" At that point I have some clue what they actually want, and can give a reasonable yes/no recommendation or maybe point them at a better alternative for their

            • If someone lacks expertise in an area, rejects expert advice in that area, and repeatedly votes against government regulation of that area, then that someone is signaling a willingness to accept risk for some benefit, even if experts cannot see what that benefit is. Experts cannot parent adult people more than they are willing to accept being parented. So, the non-experts may not deserve (in a moral sense) negative consequences, but experts in the given area should not, in my opinion, feel guilty when those
          • and/or is just simpler to use because it is plug-and-play

            Curious, did you actually offer your services for free to help implement your complex suggestion or is your attitude to just say "fuck those who don't big brain computers like us 1337 haX0rs!"

            But later when they start having problems they try to blame me about why their equipment does not work properly.

            That is because you have fundamentally presented yourself as part of the problem.

        • by sjames ( 1099 )

          I'm guessing he'll be the first to be incensed if an expert in a field he knows little about, say a plumber, auto mechanic, lawyer, or electrician says he deserves what he got because he fell for a quick fix.

        • The IQ of the average American is 98.

          If that is true, then one of several things is also true - your data source is faulty, or your data source is reporting IQ tests designed for a higher intelligence population than the US population, or there is some other SNAFU in the reporting that you're re-reporting.

          An IQ test reports the relative performance of the test subject to the average of their population. If the sampling of the population has been done properly, then an IQ test has a mean of 100(%). As a fur

      • I said this in a previous post, I'll say it here again - we need more people to get burned by by stuff that stops working when the cloud stops. The more people get burned by this, the less eager they'll be to support these companies over the ones that don't sell tethered devices.
        • by sjames ( 1099 )

          OR we could get some actual consumer protection that punishes companies that make their products cloud dependent and then decide to abandon them without compensation. That would make the bad companies less eager to pull that sort of jack assery and nobody has to be burned.

          • You won't get a coalition for supporting that legislation in USA unless more people get burned. Regulation in USA is almost always reaction not proaction. In general, that is a good trait for maximizing freedom, but technology's ability to cause rapid, widespread harm at drop of hat really puts that ideology to the test.
      • by Kaenneth ( 82978 )

        Except that for security cameras, having recording off site is beneficial in case of total loss.

        • by cusco ( 717999 )

          Or for that matter, even partial loss. Almost no one does basic maintenance on their DVR/NVR, it just sits in the corner ignored until they need some video off it. Then they find that the storage drive crashed six months ago, or the camera that they really need failed last week. The better cloud services can notify you when a camera goes offline or is blocked/out of focus.

          • A good recorder sounds an obnoxious alarm every month or so demanding attention until user acknowledges, "Yep, still working." Similar to the smoke detector that pings when battery goes low, even if detector is wired.
      • Thing is, nobody buys Belkin for the brand. They buy it for the value. They'll create another similar product in a year and people will buy it forgetting all about this.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday May 10, 2020 @08:01AM (#60043614)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • This sounds like a class action lawsuit. Getting a refund on your camera (that Belkin essentially took from you) sounds like justice- or at least you'll have the money to buy a new camera.
  • A step beyond (Score:5, Interesting)

    by michaelmalak ( 91262 ) <michael@michaelmalak.com> on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:05PM (#60041790) Homepage
    A step beyond their 2003 hijacking of their routers' traffic to an ad site [slashdot.org]
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Belkin pretend to be a high end vendor but always use cheap parts, poor design and terrible service. Always have, always will.

  • by jonsmirl ( 114798 )

    It takes money and more importantly skilled employees to keep these IOT web portals running and secure. Belkin has simply looked at their incoming revenue versus costs and decided to exit the business. The people running the web portal for Belkin may have quit and Belkin decided it is not worth the effort to replace them. I'm not surprised by this and we are only going to see more of it. At the high end, Amazon and Google are eating the home IOT marketplace. And the low end companies like Wyze are offerin

    • Deliberate destruction of an end-user's property is not the same as ending support and updates. I would put it more on par with vandalism. Maybe even criminal threat. Extortion is a good way to go to prison and throws the doors wide open for additional civil liabilities.

      Frankly these tech companies have way too much power with their shrink wrap licenses and click through agreements that allow unlimited changes to terms. It's not a real contract if you can't reasonable follow it or negotiate terms. If you do

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by jonsmirl ( 114798 )

        They article is a little twisted, they didn't "brick" the camera with a firmware update like Sonos did. They "bricked" the camera by turning off the cloud servers. The cameras are still working, the web portal for accessing them is gone. Belkin was running that web portal on a cloud server, nothing in your local possession was altered. There is an open source project [github.com] that will still let you use them.

        This is like saying the phone company "bricked" you phone because you stopped paying your phone bill. Your

        • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

          by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @07:19PM (#60042234)
          Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • If there's a workaround, it's not bricked.
          • Removing the "I didn't pay my bill" part, as this post does, makes the phone analogy an almost perfect fit.

            AT&T did essentially that to me back in the DSL days: they essentially turned off DSL and landline phone, requiring me to move to Uverse, or some non-landline provider (100% cell, Comcast with an IP phone from them, etc., or even just using USPS to send letters). In this case Belkin actually did kill the cameras completely (because the ability to use a non-proprietary protocol for access was remove

        • Ah, a useful comment! Have a brownie point!

          Not caring enough about this to do more than a skin-deep check, the github project has been going for 3 years (well before this event) and seems to still be active.

          This is like saying the phone company "bricked" you phone because you stopped paying your phone bill.

          There was a subscription model somewhere? I didn't notice (at skin-deep level).

          Hardware with a non-trivial possibility of privacy issues that uses an internet service? That'd set my internal "do not tou

      • Extortion is a good way to go to prison

        I am pretty sure Belkin will plead "not guilty by reason of corporate insanity" - who could argue against that?

      • by vbdasc ( 146051 )

        Deliberate destruction of an end-user's property

        Honestly, at this point I would first check the EULAs before claiming that the product I bought is actually my property versus it's only licensed to me.

      • by leonbev ( 111395 )

        It looks like Belkin was using the "iSecurity+" cloud video monitoring service, which Belkin doesn't own. There are multiple web cam vendors who use this service, including the baby monitor that I used about 7 years ago. It served it's purpose a long time ago, and I guess that I can throw it in the trash now.

        It sounds like Belkin got screwed in this deal as well. That said, they should offer at least one final firmware update to allow direct connection to the cameras using VLC once more.

    • by jtalle ( 723567 )

      It's not like this has never happened. Look at Google. They're putting services down every year.

      Kiiled by Google [killedbygoogle.com]

    • Belkin has simply looked at their incoming revenue versus costs and decided to exit the business

      I think it’s the removal of other means of use that is the critical part.

      Exit the business, fine, but doing so after crippling the devices so they won’t work after you go is pure shit filth evil.

      Remember, this is a company that would feign a heart attack and go on about how an employee “didn’t represent the values of the company” if they even muttered something un-PC.

      Well, this move

    • And the low end companies like Wyze are offering similar cameras for $20.

      And you can reflash them with open-source code and own your own camera, rather than be dependent on the company's firmware and servies.

      A quick search shows the OpenIPC project, as of two years back,, provides open source firmware for some wyze cameras.

    • It is simple - if a company wants to sell a cloud connected device, then they are signing themselves up for providing the cloud part of device for as long as the device exists. If they don't want to do this, then they must disclose this, on the front of the box, at time of purchase, so people know that they are only renting the device until a certain date.

      If they choose to stop, then they must make the person who bought the device whole, by either providing them a full refund or by providing an equivalent d

    • It takes money and more importantly skilled employees to keep these IOT web portals running and secure. Belkin has simply looked at their incoming revenue versus costs and decided to exit the business

      And as such they should be legally required to take measures to ensure existing products continue to work as advertised. Be that open source the server, open the cameras to working with alternatives, or refund users.

  • And it also complains property owners now face two difficult choices: "Either leaving their property with no security system and zero surveillance capability, or breaking the quarantine orders in order to install new equipment."

    Worst false dichotomy ever [amazon.com].

    • The camera was their property, too.
    • by Entrope ( 68843 )

      That paragraph specifically refers to second homes, and asserts that many owners of second homes are prohibited from traveling between them. Sure, they could order a new camera from CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet and have it delivered to their front door. It would still be miles, perhaps hundreds of miles, from the system that is about to be bricked.

      • by Megane ( 129182 )

        many owners of second homes are prohibited from traveling between them

        You mean that bullshit in Michigan? Elections have consequences, and so does sitting them out because the candidate you might have voted for didn't loudly pledge allegiance to your particular pet issue. So instead you give an effective half a vote to the candidate that will inherently be against your pet issues. Michigan got the governor they deserved.

  • by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:24PM (#60041846)

    You should never rely on a service that isn't contractually bound to continue serving you. Additionally, you should have an exit strategy in the even that they do stop. However, it should go without saying that you shouldn't rely on a service (free or paid) if it can be avoided because it's a point of failure.

    Frankly, if you buy consumer gear and aren't replacing the firmware on it then you are putting yourself at the mercy of the manufacturer as seen in this and many other instances.

    • You should never rely on a service that isn't contractually bound to continue serving you.

      I have a better idea, why not have the USA actually introduce consumer protection laws that prevent corporations from pulling a "service" that is tied to a "purchased product". A product should not cease doing exactly what is written on the box simply because a company doesn't want something anymore.

      If this happened a day after you bought it, it would be called defective, or covered under bait and switch, but apparently some arbitrary time from release to bricking "normalises" this behaviour?

      However, it should go without saying that you shouldn't rely on a service

      These services

      • I have a better idea, why not have the USA actually introduce consumer protection laws that prevent corporations from pulling a "service" that is tied to a "purchased product". A product should not cease doing exactly what is written on the box simply because a company doesn't want something anymore.

        Oh gee, I hadn't thought of that, I'll just ask them and... oops, seems we have some Republican senators that don't want that. Work with what you have, not what you want to have.

        These services exist because the absence of the service makes it too complicated to setup.

        No, these services exist because they think they can make money off of it. The complications of DIY are a completely different matter.

    • by Megane ( 129182 )

      I have a wifi thermostat that was sold by 3M. It was a rebranded RadioThermostat unit that got sold in Home Depot. RT has been good about keeping their cloud service running, but there was some concern by users back when this was new, over 10 years ago. Turns out it has a local JSON-based interface that doesn't rely on the server, and cloud server URL is even configurable. So even if RT implodes, it's not a hunk of junk.

      To be fair, a thermostat is a lot less complicated than a streaming speaker or webcam,

      • Depends on whether the thermostat has the smarts built into it and all you're doing is sending settings, or if all the processing is done remotely and the thermostat just translates that communication into commands for the furnace and a/c units. Too many "smart" devices are like the latter. A webcam is in fact pretty simple, arguably simpler than a smart thermostat that does most processing internally. The camera is basically a receptor and image processor, feeding some kind of communication module. Everyth

  • by crow ( 16139 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:24PM (#60041850) Homepage Journal

    How much would it cost someone else in the same business to buy out the product line? They could run the backend themselves, possibly with a new firmware update to make it integrate a bit with the rest of their products, so the existing customers would be encouraged to buy into their other products. I'm thinking someone like Google (Nest) or Amazon, but I'm sure there are plenty of other players in the industry, and I would think if Belkin is really exiting this market, it would be a double-win to sell--their customers don't think poorly of them, and they get some money for nothing.

    • Why? You can by a Wyse cam right now with the same features for $20. No one would buy the Belkin line, they'd have to pay someone to take it.

  • by slazzy ( 864185 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:25PM (#60041854) Homepage Journal
    Also, never buy from them! They have a long history of bad corporate habits. https://www.theregister.co.uk/... [theregister.co.uk]
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Rockoon ( 1252108 )
      circa 2000

      Purchased a Belkin ethernet device to run through the house main power lines. All my computers were running Windows 98 at the time. The box specifically said it supported Windows 98 AND Windows 98 Second Edition.

      The device just would not work. Thinking it defective, I returned it to Staples where I got it and got a new one.

      The new one did not work either. After hours wasted playing telephone tag with Belkin tech support, turned out that it only supported Windows 98 Second Edition.

      Went to r
      • The device likely did not work because the two different halves of your house were wired on the two different phases of AC coming into your house. You plugged one device into each of the two phases. Theoretically powerline modem are supposed to be able to jump between the phases using the wires back to the pole, but that never worked very well in practice. If you had moved the devices around to different outlet pairs you would have found a pair that worked. All of those power line chips came from a single v

  • by cliffjumper222 ( 229876 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:50PM (#60041972)

    The vast majority of connected devices connect to a server somewhere. That server costs money to run and for a lot of companies, the whole thing is a pyramid scheme where newer buyers fund the service. It's not just this business either - years ago the Guardian Newspaper sold their mobile app for $14 - a one time fee. However, users could keep the app going for years, never paying more than the original $14. Great deal for the users, bad deal for the newspaper. The business model opted for short-term gain and kicked the can down the road on how to grow the business. Another example, Owlet, a smart baby sock company that measures baby heartbeats. Fantastic idea. So good that when your baby grows up, you give your cool bit of kit to your sister, or you sell it 2nd hand. You make some money, but Owlet doesn't. I wonder how many years those things get used for over their lifetime.

    There are three answers to this:

    1) Subscription model
    2) Kill the service after a period of time, either explicitly or by making the item just fail.
    3) Use a gadget backed by a company who will be around

    Subscriptions have been incredibly difficult to make work for smart devices, but do exist. Usually, there's a freemium model where you get something for "nothing" and pay extra for premium things, like recordings. See NestCam/DropCam, etc. If you get enough paying subs, then this can work, just about. Cameras are particularly hard because they use so much bandwidth.

    The second option is that you get the service for a period of time, and then it stops. Maybe you have to pay for it to continue, but basically, the online part of the system goes away. BMW tried to make their online car be subscription after a year, and even though that is LTE enabled, the uptake is very low. Tesla give it away, but exchange it for all the data they get from the fleet. The fear is that if people knew their camera would stop working after 1 year, they wouldn't buy it in the first place.

    The 3rd option is that you go with a company that you know will stick around. However, even this doesn't guarantee anything. Google bought Xivly a while ago and shut it down sending a number of customers into a panic. Backend service can be very expensive, both to design right, manage and operate. Cheap Chinese gadget makers and 24x7 five 9's service don't go hand in hand. Services are emerging, backed by heavyweight companies who have an interest in making this a success though so watch this space. Fundamentally, the money has to make sense. One thing has to pay for the other.

    Now, there are some other potential options:

    - build it yourself - engineers love to do this, but the whole maker thing in IOT is small potatoes. Millions of lightbulbs are sold every year. It's a tiny percentage of folks would would set up their own IOT system. If you know someone who has their own mail server, or flashed their own router with Tomato then you know that type of person.
    - Pseudo P2P - this is especially popular for cameras because of the high bandwidth. You run a matchmaking service that enables a user's iPhone to link directly with the NannyCam. You still have to handle the matchmaking, but it's low bandwidth compared to storing video. A lot of the cheaper cams use this.
    - Real P2P - this is the nirvana of the IOT zealots (hey, it's called "Internet-of-Things" NOT "Things-Connected-to-a-server!") - a decentralized, open standards based, P2P system with no dependencies. Sounds great, and it'd be good to make it happen, somehow. But companies who sell *products* want products that work and can be tested, so you don't see a lot of P2P smart gadgets for sale, yet. Also, you'll still need someone to provide security updates and things like mobile app updates and those have to be paid for somehow. Tech is a moving target and so are the hackers who would love to turn on every single AC in the EU at once.

    The final option is to go low-tech and not connect. However, there is definitely value to connecting some things (except dishwashers

    • Now, there are some other potential options...

      You hit a bunch of pieces of it, but I submit that it's still possible to have hybrid functionality. PoE security cameras can have a cloudy solution with an appy-app that it ships with, maybe including two years of free use with additional years paid subscription available, and then having generic RTSP video data accessible via an IP address. My TP-Link light bulbs have a mobile app that I can use to control them from anywhere if I have an account...or, I can use them with HomeAssist or OpenHAB.

      Essentially,

    • States should whack on a obsolescence surcharge to working good otherwise made obsolete but stick and bigger stick means - such as unpatched CVE's. Buy the same measure Open sourcing obsolete devices should let them off the hook. Belkin may change its tune when everything it flogs has a 20% escrap surcharge. Maybe as an alternative to a 20% surcharge would be point of sale warnings with bold red type stating limitations. As for Apple, forced hand repairs are scandalous and right of repair must start up. An
    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      You left out 2 more options. Move the server onto the device itself and optionally run an external server to make it easier to connect to (a matchmaker server) or provide the server software so the user can run it on their own PC to talk to their own devices, and preferably publish the API.

      These days, even the low cost embedded microcontrolers have more than enough capability to run a mini-server on the device itself. Many of them would easily out-perform a mid '90s desktop PC. They sell for less than $10 a

  • by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:53PM (#60041982)
    This is why I refuse to purchase anything that requires an off site solution controlled by a company. You never know when said company will pull the plug, sell your info, watch your family, pooch the firmware, etc.. IoT sounds interesting in theory ... the problem is it's mostly run by IT companies with dubious goals. No thanks.
    • Don't buy anything that requires an on-line connection, even if you don't use the features offered through the connection.

    • This is why I refuse to purchase anything that requires an off site solution controlled by a company.

      You're in a privilaged position to be able to do so. As am I. I however am not at all under any delusion that someone could setup "Own Cloud" or "Homeassistant" or any of those other DIY cloud solutions currently on the market.

      I am a nerd, and proud. But that unfortunately sets me apart from *most* people who buy consumer electronics.

    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      Actually most IoT devices are NOT "run by IT companies with dubious goals", they're run by either their owner's IT staff or by a company that has clearly defined goals. That's because the vast majority of IoT devices are things like smart streetlights, fish counters, field moisture meters, sewage flow meters, smart electrical meters, factory automation, and the like. By the end of the year there will be 20 BILLION of them deployed,

  • by bazmail ( 764941 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @06:13PM (#60042056)
    ... then your camera will be next.
  • And bricking all "smart" speakers.
    And bricking all those who buy them. ;)

    • by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Honestly, that wave of outrage is going to be coming in the next few years. We should all know that at some point Amazon and Google aren't going to want to support the original versions of their smart speakers once they're more than 10 years old, and they'll start cutting off support for those as well.

      I'd imagine that they'll start by refusing to add new features/skills to the existing older smart speakers for a few years before cutting them off outright, though.

  • Is there some organization that can hack and replace the firmware of these kind of devices? Maybe with all the funds that environmental organization gets for marketing some hacking foundation can be created to stop the spread of technological garbage.
    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      This is why people should support Right to Repair legislation even if they personally don't believe they have the ability to do the repairs.

      This is also why manufacturers hire lobbyists against Right to Repair. They don't want to be forced to sell good products for fair prices at a fair profit.

  • I have some Belkin Wemo wifi enabled switchable plugs. There are various versions of these from many alternate manufacturers. The quality of Belkin hardware is decent, but not so much apparently their regard for customers. What goes around comes around. No more internet of things from Belkin for me.
  • I avoid buying anything from Belkin or Netgear, remembering the old days, where any hardware from those was buggy and cheap. Network hardware especially. Just not worth it.
  • Belkin products are usually priced at a premium but often are functionally inferior to the competition. I've never personally bought a Belkin product... but at my job people inexplicably keep buying their stuff, and invariably they end up having issues and are eventually replaced (or just shelved). You'd think after a while they'd learn, but it doesn't seem to happen.

  • TLDR but they should then offer a firmware update to allow you to set up your own server. Or perhaps entertain spinning the service off to some other company that wants to handle it, though I canâ(TM)t see trusting an unknown company with feeds.

  • They will get burned once and your brand might as well not exist to them.

    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      I wish that were true, but so many companies whose names I recognize are bad actors that I've started to lose track of them.

  • "The criticism can be applied to cloud-enabled products as a whole"

    Yep. My cat's catfood feeder is a useless piece of plastic now since its maker and supporter (Petnet) went paws up a few months. Absolutely no recourse at all, nor can it be used locally without the cloud.

    I'm sure some people are rolling their eyes at a web-enabled cat feeder, but they must a) not have a cat or b) ever travel.

  • this is one of the major problems with devices requiring cloud service. Fortunately, if you still have your receipt and still under warranty, you can get a refund. I looked at their cams not too long ago - good thing it was only look :-)

    Within the next couple of years, I believe a lot of older smart devices will be discontinued and bricked.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

If you steal from one author it's plagiarism; if you steal from many it's research. -- Wilson Mizner

Working...