- cross-posted to:
- mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
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Other than my computer, phone and xbox, I own nothing at all that can connect to the Internet. It’s incredibly stupid.
I have a smart TV and a Bluray player as well, but other than that, only phones, computers, and my Switch connect to the internet. My next TV will likely not be smart, because screw ads, and I’ve ripped all of my Blurays.
Why does a Blu-ray player need to connect to the Internet?
It can play Netflix and a few other streaming services. But more importantly, I was able to stream videos to it through DLNA.
Bd players need internet as they only have keys for the discs made before they were made. So if you stick a newer disc in it won’t play until it gets updated.
My last two TVs were dumb ones.
It is getting harder find dumb TVs because the smart stuff included with most TVs subsidizes keeping the initial price low. Manufactures are betting millions of dollars purchasers will sign up for the monthly apps.
Buy smart TV. Open the back. Remove WiFi card.
Purchase cheap Chinese mini PC, put Kodi on it.
That’s all you need
That’s not always easy, sometimes the WiFi is on the board itself and not just an add-in card. Or you get annoying warnings or something on the TV.
Commercial TVs will probably last a lot longer than regular retail TVs, so if I’m not going to be using all the features of the TV, I might as well spend a bit more and get something that’ll last.
I’ve stopped buying TVs. It’s difficult to find a dumb one nowadays. I watch on my phone or my computer monitor.
I just dont connect the TV to the internet and hook a separate media center up to the HDMI port.
Would be nice, but I have kids, and it’s really hard to watch a movie together on a phone. I need another soon-ish, so I’m going to look into hospitality TVs and projectors.
Why not just buy a TV and not connect it to the internet?
I own some things that can, but that doesn’t mean they do.
My bloody dishwasher asked for my wifi password when I first connected it.
2$/month for a fucking thermostat…
For those of us on Android, can’t we download the old APK which still talks Bluetooth and just never interact with the web/wifi for these?
I have one of their’s that can connect to your phone. It’s not needed, it just adds extra cook book functions. It even hosts it so you can control the sous vide when you’re not at home, almost like a reverse proxy.
But yea the physical buttons work fine without the app.
My car works fine without a seat warmer, but if you sold it to me as part of the car then later it started charging me a subscription I’d be pretty pissed.
Yeah, I barely use the app, but this is a bullshit anti-consumer move that leaves me with zero reason to trust the company going forward.
What I like about having the Bluetooth connection to the app, is mostly just to see when the water has come up to temperature.
But that was apparently too much to ask, since it says that they are also removing the Bluetooth functionality from the app…
The wifi ones work with Home Assistant so you won’t lose remote features. The bad news is you have to run home assistant and set it up.
As for the BT only version you need more work and a BT proxy. https://community.home-assistant.io/t/anova-ble-control-via-ble-proxy/550295
The original models will. While Home assistant has an Anova integration, it is cloud dependent and it’s the cloud that will discontinue support. As I understand it.
Local control uses a Bluetooth bridge which I guess is my next project.
BT Proxy Bridges are super easy to make. Just flash a esp32 with the premade package and power it. I have one on every room of my house just so whatever I have will just work everywhere.
This is lemmy and so I understand it but flashing an esp32 is not super easy for 99.9% of the population.
Yup! I have the stuff, just haven’t gotten around to flashing one yet. Working on a wind meter at the moment.
Cost or no cost, IoT should not be able to brick devices on the whim - or unexpected dissolution - of a faceless corporation.
Unfortunately too many people are trusting of monolithic entities which promise the moon and then decide what they really meant was “bend over”.
I may be channelling a bit of Louis Rossman here.
That said, the other comments here suggest that the device in question still has all features when accessed from the front panel, which is a step up from a lot of other IoT behaviour. Owners who don’t want to pay for the app should still disconnect it from any connectivity and keep it that way just in case the manufacturer decides to remove that functionality as well.
And if it stops working altogether without network connectivity, take the L and maybe mail it back to the company’s head office with no return address. Let them deal with the e-waste.
I was given one of those. I tried the app once and immediately uninstalled it. It’s worthless. The “let’s put AI in your computer mouse, toothbrush, and toilet scrubber!” of ten years ago.
Y’all should read Unauthorized Bread from Cory Doctorow. This hits so close to home.
Oh ffs… This is the one I have…
And, you know what? The firmware sucks.
You can’t even connect to wifi if you have two AP’s with the same name (which is literally everyone).
I haven’t even installed the app in ages because it’s a PITA and has never worked 100%.
But, they can guarantee my next one won’t be an anova again. There are much cheaper alternatives now
I’d recommend anova brand
Oi bruv, it’s anova kitchin appluiance asking for moy woyfoy passwood.
Damn autocorrect was fighting me on every word lol
Did you read the article?
I haven’t tested the cheaper Amazon ones. They probably don’t have Bluetooth but they probably work the same.
But the wifi on my ANOVA has sucked since the beginning. I’ve never really been able to use it. No way I’m paying a subscription fee for something that should have worked since the beginning and still barely works. And bluetooth is pointless because I can’t start cooking when I drive home
In fact, I should have returned it given that it is normal for houses to have multiple wifi access points
I suspect that maybe the cheaper units which hit the market is maybe now why they’re struggling
ah they were making a nice and lame pun (anova brand == another brand)
someone can just make a cracked version people can sideload
Sounds like it’s time for an open sauce alternative.
Translation:
“Fuck you for not replacing your perfectly fine and still working 10 year old machine and making our line go up more. We’re gonna do our best to brick it because we want all of your money.”
Fuck capitalism. I will (and have been) doing my absolute to avoid buying any kind of physical device that requires an app to function
if I see something requires an app, no matter how good it is otherwise. the product is dead to me. I know it is, effectively, going to break within a year or two.
I’m getting that same way.
Currently trying to chase down some automatic sun shades that don’t need an app to do time-based cycles. Shouldn’t be this hard, but every band wants you to use absolute garbage apps.
I have one of these, and I use it just fine without an app fwiw
you never know for sure until you try though, so if it requires an app, it’s dead to me and I don’t trust anything else the company makes.
if it has an API i get very wet very fast.
That’s fair, but the point I was trying to make was that I have tried and, for the one I’ve got at least, the app isn’t required. I’m not trying to defend them or anything, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
Tbh I’m kinda glad it doesn’t have an API, because I’d end up wasting a lot of time playing with it haha.
see, if it had an API, I could integrate it into an open smart home app, and it would be cool as FUCK.
About two phone changes ago I never reinstalled the anova app.
It’s like pressing the buttons on top of the cooker with extra steps.
yeah there are apps I want on my phone, but if anything says ‘there is an app’ I’m instantly averse.
even the things I do want phone apps for, I have to browse on fdroid because default options are all terrible. basic shit like file browsers and media players in commercial OS’s are just, like, vile and do not function. even if I didn’t care about the endoscopes they try to snake up every orifice, they are deliberately nonfunctional.
I will (and have been) doing my absolute to avoid buying any kind of physical device that requires an app to function
Same. It’s becoming more difficult every day.
And that’s so sad. There are a lot of (mainly Elderly people) who don’t even have a smartphone who now often can’t use the most basic stuff necessary because it needs an app.
A lot of this stuff is only useful if you have money, anyway. And poverty rates among the elderly have been climbing since the Housing Crash of '08
I’ve said this before, I’m going to say it again: people with money spend it to save time.
Managing 2FA, software updates, account signin, device pairing, billing, privacy policy updates, cookie notices… This shit does not save people time. It does the complete opposite.
These products are not built for consumers. These products are purely anticompetitive schemes, propping up crappy business models, trying to cash in on the data harvesting gold rush.
I’ve been screaming this at the top of my lungs for 20 years, and oh my god the “I told you so”'s I get to say now feel SO good.
i mean, I don’t have any friends anymore, so mostly im just calling up people who hate me now and saying “I told you so”, but, like I DID, so, worth.
I mean, not, like, ‘worth’ in the sense that anything in my life works or wasn’t torn apart by my adherence to materialism and avoidance of dark patterns, but, like, you know, feels good for a few minutes when they haven’t changed their number.
These products are not built for consumers.
they’re often built for investors. they are feasible enough products that some people will even buy them, so you get investors. then, the thing is always just “one more issue we need to fix” away from “mass adoption”, “for real this time”… to keep milking the investors as long as possible.
I mean it is shitty still, but people with an old device and an account already are unaffected, plus the old devices like the one I have is completely operable offline. I’ve not connected it to WiFi except when I first got it to check the app out.
Yeah, I need to start being better about this. It’s a shame because I bought my joule sous vide because I like the simplicity and ability to monitor and program it remotely (helpful when cooking for 5-6h). App stopped working properly and now they’ve been purchased by breville and if I want to use it I need to switch and I’m guessing it won’t be long before they start to drop functionallity or require some sort of subscription. There are things like this where the app is much more than a gimmick. But it sucks to have some company pulling the strings of what you can or can’t do with your own hardware.
water+heat proofing is hard, or I’d suggest a DIY solution.
First Inwas like Yeeeah to all the “smart stuff”. But more and more I’m thinking - what happens to current cars after some time? When all the connected crap gets disconnected? Currently you can fix and drive any old piece of junk and drive it in theory forever. What happens when the smart cars lose connection to mothership? What happens when all the electronics go bad and there is no way to fix it? Same goes for your fridge, coffee maker, etc.
They’re just going to push people to the cheaper units at this point.
I was looking at sous vide cookers a few months back and was considering ANOVA but they were too expensive. Opted for a generic one instead.
The fact that they’re more expensive and require a subscription for what’s essentially a set of presets that my cheap unit has for free is just ridiculous.
I refuse to use one that requires bluetooth or an account. I want to turn the bitch on and go do shit for 4+hr. There’s nothing fancy about the process. Some real Ron Popeil shit and they try to force apps on us.
Does it require?
This summer I spent way too much money on a grill with an app. The thing is it’s a smoker so i might run it all day and the app lets me check on it while still doing other stuff all that time.
However the app is an extra, and I would still have all functionality besides removing if the app went away. I’d be pissed losing remote functionality after spending so much money, but I’d still be able to use the grill normally
The big ones did, yeah. They actually just started the requirement while I was looking for one.
I don’t know whether to upvote you for a solid reply, or downvote the lack of functionality without an app
Interesting, because when they were relatively new, they were also the cheap option. Sous vide used to be a $1000+ thing. I did a DIY version for around $200, but later Anova came out and it was less sketchy than my box of wires running mains voltage.
Instant Pot seems to make a pretty good one that fits around the sides of their pressure cookers.
Anova’s app is basically useless. Could be nice for looking up temperatures and times for specific things, but I usually google it, anyway. Steaks are by far the most common thing I do sous vide, so it’s usually preset for that. Never used the app outside of playing with it when I first got it.
One thing is for sure: I won’t be recommending Anova to friends anymore.
Instan pot didn’t continue to update their app three years ago and I now have a useless Insta pot.
I don’t think I ever touched an app for my Insta Pot or its sous vide attachment, but maybe the newer ones have to?
explain how the waterproofing+heatproofing on sous DIY sous vide work. I must know.
Oh, that’s just the sealed bag like normal. Back then, I was using special ziploc bags with a port for a small hand pump. They seem to have stopped making those, and I switched to a regular vacuum sealer.
The diy part was the heater/pump. I based it on this:
https://makezine.com/projects/sous-vide-immersion-cooker/
The problem with this design is that because it sits above the hot water, it tends to have a lot of condensation build up inside the housing. So I rebuilt it to have power plugs for the teacup heaters and pump. Then it could be set to the side, and I could use more heaters for larger containers.
Could be nice for looking up temperatures and times for specific things, but I usually google it
Well… who knows how long until we start getting billed for that, too.
