- cross-posted to:
- mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
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My new microwave rotates for free!!. The 9 dollar MW subscription gets me 500W, the 15 dollar gets me 1500W and with the $30 monthly subscription I can get 3000W! It’s wonderful!
Wait
“Our community has literally cooked 100s of millions of times with our app. Unfortunately, each connected cook costs us money.”
The cooker, It’s FUCKING Bluetooth. It doesn’t need to call home, it can’t call home. The App, It has a list of 35 different sous vide recipes that could live on the app. The app has no business calling home, they don’t need a server.
It’s a cooker. Why the hell does it even need bluetooth, let alone an internet connection?
I have something similar, but wifi. Never even tried to connect to it, because you just use the buttons to set temp & time.
I can imagine, though, that an app might have buttons for ‘eggs’, ‘yogurt’, ‘steak’, etc. Or maybe let you program temperature-time sequences. Or let you check how much time is left from the next room. Conveniences. Definitely no need for them to phone home, though, except maybe for an ad-driven ‘recipe of the week’ type thing.
So it can notify you when the water has reached the set temperature or the time you set for cooking is up. Which can be handy. However, I found the BT very weak on my Anova and it would lose connection when I went into my home office a mere 25’ away, so I stopped using it. There’s actually no need for the water to be up to temperature before you put your food in, and food can sit as long as you want; half the point of sous vide is to be able to hold food at temp without overcooking. So you don’t really need the timer either.
And if each did cost them money - they’ve been paid when the stupid thing was purchased!
Yeah, it’s a $200 heater. Probably $30 in parts. You can run a small cluster for the profit in a few sales a month.
They need if they were to push firmware updates via the app that are then installed over Bluetooth, like some headphones do. But that should be a free service, and also optional. I don’t really see any groundbreaking functionality added for a device that’s basically a submerged motor with a temperature probe.
Even in that case the app doesn’t need to phone home. It doesn’t even need an internet connection on its own. You’d have to download the update yourself and then use the app to apply the patch, which is less user friendly to not-so-tech-savy users but possible. Just send an email with the necessary information to users who have subscribed to receive these kind of updates.
It’s a decade old cooking appliance .
What possible firmware updates could it need at this point?
Firmware updates should not cost a subscription fee and could open them up to lawsuits.
Temperature Temperature set point Deadband Heater power Time Display temperature Display time
This can literally be handled with two non-microprocessor integrated circuits and $5 in other electronic Lego components.
It doesn’t need firmware. It’s a $200 oversized fish tank heater.
Enshittification strikes again. 🤬
Imagine buying a devices that makes you install a program on a device you have to keep on you at all times and which probably contains all of your personal and financial information.
Like 98% of the human race are absolute fucking morons.
Think about it after 10 years either the app is not supported by your operating system or their server is offline.
I need to gadget that’s works with flip of switch and has all the functions offline even after 10 years.
If people don’t understand this facts they are morons.
I have two Anova cookers and have never needed the app fwiw
I honestly didn’t know there was an app and use mine a few times a month.
Other than my computer, phone and xbox, I own nothing at all that can connect to the Internet. It’s incredibly stupid.
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.
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.
I’ve stopped buying TVs. It’s difficult to find a dumb one nowadays. I watch on my phone or my computer monitor.
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 just dont connect the TV to the internet and hook a separate media center up to the HDMI port.
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.
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.
I forgot my ANOVA when I moved this summer. Now, I’m not that sorry I did.
I have never bought an appliance or physical product that requires an app to use, and I never will until our society has deteriorated to the the point where there is no alternative to that in order to get by in it. It’s almost at that point already with smartphones but for now it’s still possible to get by without one.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’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.
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.
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.
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.
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
I bet the app requires cloud hosting for it to run, and its starting to eat away at the profits they made.
If it needs nothing but bluetooth, then this a pure money grab.
It use to operate only off of Bluetooth, & then they added single band WiFi. They just added dual band WiFi as a new feature & are now removing Bluetooth functionality completely.
Absolutely a cash grab.
Usually, if it needs cloud hosting, it’s because they’re collecting your data. That presumably is a revenue stream for them.
I have one of these, and I haven’t touched the app. Works perfectly fine without it.
You wouldn’t download a sous vide
I own one of these, and I honestly forgot there was an app. There’s literally no reason for it, outside of the timed-start mode that I never use.
Honestly, the biggest mistake was making this an IoT device to begin with.
