This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
As useful a smart device are, it's very annoying that the company behind it are always either: 1) a scumbag that will collect data and will lockdown the device if people doesn't use it their way; 2)incompetent idiots that can't make a good software to save their life. So by using these device you basically have to pick the thing that you're willing to lose.
It's really too bad because robovac save me a lot of time and mental exhaustion.
I have just purchased a Dreame L10s Ultra and have had the PCB for a breakout board made and components for setting it up ordered. In a few days I should get the last bits and I will be able to root the device and have it connect to Valetudo managed through Home Assistant. Fully local operation with basically the same features but none of the privacy issues. As soon as I can get it connected I will be able to use it just like a robot I actually own should without some random third party being involved in every single operation.
I specifically got one which can run valetudo and it works great for over two years now. Without sending images of my flat to china or the us
Having not read the article: “Let’s apply Hanlon’s Razor: Oh, probably it just collects the data locally and caches it until the vendor’s servers are reachable. After a while the data partition was full and it stopped working as this case was never deemed possible when this was developed.”
Having read that the kill command was logged and he found it in the logs: “ok, there are no technical details, so there might still be a misunderstanding, but that’s not what I expected!”
I was thinking about getting one but I learned that they do require a lot of maintenance like cleaning the brushes and you have to change parts regularly. That sounds like more work they just sweeping from time to time. Also, broom has a lower carbon footprint.
I bought one and was disappointed to realise that i still need to (manually!) tidy up the rooms (kids' toys, cats' toys etc) for it to have good effect. yes, i am not very smart.
Ours has needed very little maintenance and has quickly become a necessity because it gets the floors much cleaner that we ever did. An unexpected consequence is that the whole house stays cleaner because we still spend some of the time and energy we were spending on sweeping on other cleaning tasks.
As much as the thing irritates me you'd have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.
I guess it depends on your use case. I know people with pets love them because sweeping hair is a lot of work. Probably the same with kids. For us with no pets or kids there's really not that much sweeping.
Had a kill command actually been sent, or does the device just not work without a remote server talking to it every so often?
Because the second one is probably worse from a "what if this company goes bust" standpoint.
Don't worry, the quality of the modern hardware is so shitty, it will not outlive the company for long
Man itd be great if there was an answer to this. Maybe in an article somewhere. Guess we'll never know.
Not to fear! Here is the relevant part so the next person coming by doesn't have to read the article:
deep in the logs of his non-functioning smart vacuum, he found a command with a timestamp that matched exactly the time the gadget stopped working. This was clearly a kill command, and after he reversed it and rebooted the appliance, it roared back to life.
(Image credit: Harishankar)
So, why did the A11 work at the service center but refuse to run in his home? The technicians would reset the firmware on the smart vacuum, thus removing the kill code, and then connect it to an open network, making it run normally. But once it connected again to the network that had its telemetry servers blocked, it was bricked remotely because it couldn’t communicate with the manufacturer’s servers. Since he blocked the appliance’s data collection capabilities, its maker decided to just kill it altogether. "Someone—or something—had remotely issued a kill command,” says Harishankar. “Whether it was intentional punishment or automated enforcement of 'compliance,' the result was the same: a consumer device had turned on its owner.”
Old news that's been posted several times in the last weeks
Jesus christ, just vaccuum your own house already. This is the largest tradeoff I have ever seen for the minor inconvenience of a single household chore.
...when i 'buy' something, should i not own and be able to use it and all functions until the end of it's mechanical processes?..
remote kill command had been issued to his device.
What the actual fuck?!
while this is good, we really don't need all these smart devices in the first place
