I'm really having trouble finding a use case for connecting some of this stuff, especially one that merits the risk.

It's because advertisers have armies of psychologists and mountains of data they can use to pull your ear and put it right up against a loudspeaker telling you to purchase stupid stuff.

It's an arms race, and we measly individual consumers with real life concerns that don't center around defending our psyche from nonstop sensory ambush stand a very poor chance.

One word: convenience

I don't know what is convenient about a connected dishwasher. You still have to load the thing. Is pushing a physical start button that hard?

But it will tell you when it is done, same for a connected washer/dryer. Or a connected refrigerator that tells you when the filters are low or when you need to buy more eggs.

I think it is silly. You think it is silly, but people will buy this crap. They think apps will solve their problems.

They said we'd buy 3DTVs and such too, we didn't. The age of obsessing over appliance technology is over. They meet our basic needs and until they can save us massive amounts of time with more improvement the minimalist trend will continue and these will primarily be bought as designer item.

People with money to spend are choosing design, real estate (location over structure), experiences and food.

Yeah, but a lot of that stuff is already doable. It's just not telling you remotely. For instance, the filter light is on when you walk by the refrigerator or the dishwasher beeps and shows an indicator when it's done.

It's really more than sufficient to me. In fact, with everything else I have going on, I don't need my refrigerator texting me whenever it thinks it deserves my attention. That would actually be inconvenient.

Then, there's this hidden cost of the purported "convenience". More stuff updating, hacked etc. And, with the thousand other devices, now I have to spend time configuring what I want to manage, etc.

Reminds me of something I read years ago about the hidden costs of some tech. In one anecdote, subway riders were excited when A/C was installed on the train. Now, they could ride in comfort. What they didn't realize was the A/C exhaust heated the platform another 10 degrees or so, and they were actually less comfortable while waiting.

Oh great, so my dishwasher can flood my kitchen and my network. Woohoo!

Whatever. What's the worst that could happen? My dishwasher opening and spraying pressurized water at me?

In all seriousness, it could be a good niche market "not internet capable".

With an internet connected thermostat, someone could turn off your heat while you are away during the winter, causing your pipes to burst and flooding your home.

Alternatively, in the summertime they could crank up your heat and potentially kill any pets you have at home.

To give in, what about blowing up? If some dishwashers do this without tampering, imagine what a dedicated attacker could do.

http://www.recode.net/2016/9/29/13099092/samsung-exploding-r...

Water damage could run to hundreds of thousands of dollars in a few hours.

I think that there has been a report of an IOT running machine being hacked and the settings suddenly being changed to max speed - causing the user to be thrown off the back of it.

And because these devices are proprietary, there is no way to know. None of this stuff is going to be in my house any time soon.

There was a talk at DEF CON where they ransomwared a thermostat. Example, it could turn the temp in your house up to 105F and demand 1 BTC from you to work normal again.

I'm quite interested in what will happen when a significant proportion of people have internet-connected thermostats, and malware of some kind makes them all turn the heating to full power at the same time. I think it would be interesting to see what happens to utility distribution grids in that case.

Your machine can go in flames and burn your house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq6T5BojXc8

Your dishwasher potentially flooding your house doesn't sound bad enough to you?

What if you have wood floors? What if water shorted electrical devices? All of this could cost you thousands in repairs.

My main concern is these devices causing bodily harm. The dishwasher spraying hot water at me is pretty scary. A flooded house isn't nearly as bad as being disfigured.

  My main concern is these devices causing bodily harm

That's a reasonable, genuine concern, and one that should require physical interlocks (not just software code) to guard against.

That's a good situation for mandatory safety codes (such as the FDA requirements for 2 physical interlocks on microwaves [1]).

[1] http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRS...

What about food poisoning when I make your refridgerator turn off?

A flooded house is effectively extorting you with threat of bodily harm, because it costs money to dry it, and if you don't dry it promptly then mold will grow, which will cause health problems.