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Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges (arstechnica.com)
submitted 5 days ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Some Samsung smart fridges stopped working on Tuesday due to a firmware update.

Korean outlets were the first to report the problems, which affect Samsung’s Bespoke AI line of fridges. Star News Korea, per a Google-provided translation, said that most of the affected devices were four-door fridges from 2024 or later.

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[–] 60 points 4 days ago (46 children)

It's a fridge. It doesn't even need an 8 bit microcontroller from the 1970s.

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  • [–] 52 points 4 days ago (10 children)

    My washing machine keeps asking to be connected to the WiFi. 2 years I've been ignoring it, which has been very convenient. I think it just wants to watch porn.

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  • [–] 20 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    So that's what it means when it asks for a full load...

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  • [–] 17 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    I caught my mother's dehumidifier connecting to WiFi to watch porn. The damn thing was actually dripping wet.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 days ago

    It can use a 32 bit microcontroller, like mine does, but it only has some pretty basic functionality like setting temperature and shutting down the fans if door opened. Anything beyond that is just overengineering.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 days ago (33 children)

    it does, for massive user convenience. however, the more you add, the less convenience is gained from each addition, sort of like a law of diminishing returns-type thing.

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  • [–] 19 points 4 days ago (23 children)

    What convenience? You open the door, a light goes on, it is cold or freezing cold inside depending on the door.

    The end.

    My parent's McClary fridge from the 1960s still runs on the original refrigerant.

    Don't tell me about energy efficiency when

    1. We are awash in renewable electricity

    2. Building new fridges every five years filled with e-waste running garbage software requiring a networking infrastructure on top of it surely used a few joules as well.

    3. It's not in a landfill.

    I can't wait for the global energy crash, maybe we'll be calmer and wiser when gas is 100$/liter.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 days ago (15 children)

    for one, beeping after you leave the door open for 30 seconds. considering the longevity of a fridge, adding a microcontroller that does that is more environmentally friendly.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago (14 children)

    I think you don’t need microcontroller for that?

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  • [–] 7 points 4 days ago (4 children)

    Microcontrollers are cheaper then analog clocks

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (2 children)

    A 555 is $0.05

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 child)

    A NE555 runs out of sync very fast, so it is not that usable as a clock long term. If you want that you would need further components you don't need for a paduk MCU which is like 3 cents

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (8 children)

    i think you do, for the counting and beeping.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (7 children)

    No I don’t. I can use common door switch and a time relay for that, which triggers buzzer. It cost a lot more than microcontroller, but you can do it.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (5 children)

    and why'd you do that when you can save money and get a microcontroller instead?

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  • [–] -1 points 3 days ago (3 children)

    That wasn’t the point. You said it cannot be done without microcontroller and I told you it can be done.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago (6 children)

    beeping after you leave the door open for a few minutes, also electricity is over a quarter a kilowatt hour some places.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago (5 children)

    Y'all just leaving fridges open all day where you are? In my neck of the woods "Stop staring and pick something, you're letting all the cold out."

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  • [–] 4 points 4 days ago (4 children)

    fridges don't always close properly

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago (3 children)

    Well

    A) Close it properly then. We have one of those at work, old worn out gaskets, fridge pops open when you close the top freezer, and somehow we can manage to figure out how to close it back up every time.

    B) Replace your gaskets.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    a microcontroller, couple sensors, and a speaker are cheaper

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  • [–] -1 points 4 days ago

    And yet you still need to replace your gaskets when they're failing, because the gaskets are also important to the function of the fridge.

    Now, am I going to spend the $15 to get gaskets for my bosses fridge? No, that's his problem, but I can still "A) keep it closed."

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  • [–] 7 points 4 days ago (7 children)

    Might I inquire as to what the convenience would be?

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  • [–] 9 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    Digital display for thermostat/thermometer is nice.

    Party Mode is convenient when adding large amounts of beverages (or leftovers) as it temporarily changes the compressor setpoint/cycle for a couple of hours in expectation of heavy usage.

    Night mode / vacation mode can similarly change the compressor working profile to be either more quiet or energy efficient at times when it's not expecting the door to open for extended periods of time.

    None of these are essential features of a fridge, but they can be convenient.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago

    all that is regulated by a simple thermostat, since the 1960s.

    more quiet or energy efficient at times when it’s not expecting the door to open for extended periods of time

    This happens at night anyway, and the thermostat controlling the compressor only works when required. You think analog fridges just run constantly?

    Consumers have a screen and fake tech fetish.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    Some things off the top of my head are:

    • you could set the temperature to a number of degrees via a numerical display, which would be much harder to implement without a microcontroller.
    • maybe you could have PID control over the compressor rather than bang-bang control, so the temperature would be more stable.
    • these days, a bimetallic strip costs more than a microcontroller and a chip thermometer, despite the chip being much more accurate.

    All of this only requires a really dumb microcontroller, though, not one with networking. I don't see how that could be useful until your fridge could magically track what it contains so you could ask it if you needed to buy stuff while you were shopping. I don't think we have the technology for that yet.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    I think we probably do have the tech to track what's in the fridge but we'd need a camera and some kind of ai watching it always...

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago

    Image recognition will be able to figure out the obvious items, and hopefully the expiration dates, too, but it's not going to be able to figure out that opaque containers are nearly empty or identify leftovers in tupperware. It's also probably going to be unable to identify when loose produce is past its best unless it's extremely rotten.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    beeping after the fridge hasn't been closed for a while, or controlling the temperature, or turn on the lights when the door is open.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago

    Yeah that can moatly be done without one. The beeping maybe not but the temp and lights can be done completely analog. Our old fridge literally had a push switch that turned off the light when closed (20yr old fridge)

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  • [–] 4 points 4 days ago

    My washer/dryer is "smart" and there's no convenience there at all, honestly. It argues with me, it sits and flashes suggestions freezing the entire interface, it decides to just not do things at times. It's hella annoying.

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