FTC Pushed to Crack Down on Companies That Ruin Hardware via Software Updates

Re:FTC Pushed to Crack Down on Companies That Ruin Hardware ... by commandar on Monday September 09, 2024 @06:04PM (#41494563)

>I really wish that what we got instead of "Hey, your device can connect to smart-things.com and do stuff, ain't that need!" we had "Hey, this device speaks Protocol 1.2.3 over bluetooth which you can import to smart-things.com or other services".

I made a conscious decision to build out absolutely everything HA-related that I could using Zigbee and Z-Wave devices. I intentionally avoided anything based on wifi and proprietary apps. It's basically what you're describing. I switched from SmartThings to Home Assistant about a year ago, and everything flipped over without any real drama.

As others have said, Matter is another step in this direction with the end goal of making setup a little bit easier; it's still incredibly immature at the moment, though. But Z-Wave and Zigbee are both here now and work fine.

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Re:FTC Pushed to Crack Down on Companies That Ruin Hardware ... by dotnet00 on Monday September 09, 2024 @07:48PM (#41495598)

Same here, when I was getting started I bought some wifi light bulbs, realized they expected you to have them connected to the internet and immediately returned them, instead getting zigbee ones. Has been working for years with zero issues, was great when Philips started going cloud focused for their Hue bulbs since I didn't have to worry about it affecting me.

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Re:FTC Pushed to Crack Down on Companies That Ruin Hardware ... by brewdad on Tuesday September 10, 2024 @06:52PM (#41506421)

I bought a bunch of zigbee light switches years ago. A couple of them have failed and I replaced them with dumb switches. For my use case I found I was rarely using them as anything other than dumb switches anyway.

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Re:FTC Pushed to Crack Down on Companies That Ruin Hardware ... by cogman10 on Monday September 09, 2024 @06:17PM (#41494743)

I'm currently doing home assistant + zigbee/zwave as well for everything. The main issue I have is it seems like the amount of those devices being released is fairly limited. It can be hard to find devices for some applications (like high current switches, for example).

Be that as it may, the issue is also that you can't take your phone and hook up directly to these devices which is the bigger issue for wider adoption, IMO. It's fine for someone like me that has a home server laying around where I can plop in HA. But what about the average consumer who's only device is probably their phone and maybe a smart speaker?

That's more the problem I was talking about that needs addressing.

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Re:FTC Pushed to Crack Down on Companies That Ruin Hardware ... by ppseafield on Monday September 09, 2024 @07:01PM (#41495196)

The iPhone 15 pro has a Thread radio, so we may start to see it become more common.

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Re:FTC Pushed to Crack Down on Companies That Ruin Hardware ... by commandar on Monday September 09, 2024 @08:02PM (#41495707)

Yeah, that's specifically what Matter+Thread are intended to address. The intention is that most devices that aren't battery powered and have an internet connection can act as a Thread border router and build out a mesh from there. The controller can be practically anything from that point.

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Re:FTC Pushed to Crack Down on Companies That Ruin Hardware ... by ssl-3 on Tuesday September 10, 2024 @05:30AM (#41498953)

Neither Matter nor Thread nor Matter+Thread requires an Internet connection in order to chooch.

(And that's kind of the entire point.)

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