I feel like we need some sort of "Offline-First" or "Offline-Compatible" certification process for "smart" devices. It would require some threshold of usability and total safety without network connection, which would vary depending on the device category. Companies in compliance could put a badge on their products so wary consumers know who to trust.
The best piece of home "automation" in my house is a big flashing red LED in the ceiling near the front door that is connected to a magnetic reed switch that tells us if we left the garage door open.
That's essentially what Matter + Thread is. The Matter smart home standard, which can run on the Thread wireless protocol, allows products to work without an internet connection for local controls.
Matter is pretty common on newer smart home products, while Thread is a bit newer so it's only supported on some products right now.
Not entirely related, but sleeping hot I've managed to mitigate the terrible sweaty nights in summer by using an outlast topper. It's not a miracle, but at least I just feel hot and not incredibly hot. I honestly didn't believe it would do something, but it does something
I've found thermal cooling with a bit of a dab of cold water on my body (sleeping above duvet), with a fan blowing on it for a few minutes is enough to get me to sleep.
this isn't fallout from the AWS Outage, it's fallout from a bunch of idiots at another company designing a product badly and then selling it and not caring how bad it was
Soooo you couldn't change some mattress setting on a cloud-controlled mattress. Not exactly "ruin sleep worldwide" and "go rogue". What trash journalism.
Also those images, wow, I really would have preferred no images over these soulless, generic AI-generated impressions.
> But when AWS went dark, the system locked into that toasty preset, disabling any cooling override. Browne spent the night marinating in his own perspiration, tweeting updates like a man betrayed: "Backend outage means I'm sleeping in a sauna
I'm curious as to why this would have a heating element and why that would be the default.
I thought that a cool/cold bed was better for getting to sleep, since the body lowers its own temperature at night as part of it's natural circadian rhythm and because cooling helps produce melatonin.
And when you are asleep, cooling gives you a deeper sleep and can reduce insomnia. So instead of a £3000 mattress that heats up (and by default does so), you just need a thin duvet (or even just the cover in summer).
The article (quasa.io, first time seeing this domain, first time ever on HN) doesn't inspire confidence with those AI generated images (which seem to be all over other articles too). It seems to be AI slop to me.
Although googling on the subject, there are other articles in other websites on the same subject.
Haven't read the article but sounds like the Cory doktrow's radicalized where a lady cannot go to work because her toaster is not working because the cloud provider used by the toaster company went bankrupt.
The more I see shit like this, the more I want to pursue my little fantasy job of starting a factory that builds dumb devices. A simple microwave. A simple dishwasher. Stuff that isn't connected to any garbage cloud and just works. No touchscreens. Just physical buttons. Something that works equally well for elderly as for us geeks.
That was exactly my first thought when reading the headline, together with fond thoughts of Squornshallows Zeta. I was really surprised to have to scroll this far down to see a Hitchhiker's Guide reference. I mean, the joke basically writes itself.
Roomba redux[1]. Seems ill advised to have appliances that cannot function when offline and reminded me of push back I got at Google for telling them offline maps were essential (in spite of the product manager insisting "everyone has internet everywhere, and where it isn't at the moment it will be by next year.")
Unrelated: That entire article and illustrations are all gen-AI. yuck.
It's wild that they needed this even explained to them, but I figured as much given how terrible Maps and some other Google products are at working in offline mode. One of the most basic features in Maps, simply adding a pin to the map, has been broken for many years if you don't have an active internet connection. There's absolutely no reason you need internet to save a pin locally and it originally worked fine, but they clearly can't be bothered to fix simple glaring issues like that now.
It was unusual for my Amazon Alexa to turn more into the paperweight that it has become. Too many devices are helplessly dependent on the cloud, and when that cloud breaks, or the company stopped supporting the device, consumers are left without.
And this is why all of my "smart" home devices are managed through Home Assistant without Internet access. I simply won't buy a device that can't be used that way. I shouldn't have to create an "account" or provide a name and email address to use a device that I physically own. A good way to start is to look for Zigbee devices; the protocol is local only by design and the Zigbee coordinator/router can be a simple USB dongle connected to an ordinary PC.
I have a Xiaomi one, and that also connects to the cloud if you wanna use the smartphone app, but you can just not connect it to the internet, set it down, push the button and it does its thing
Sadly the vast majority of consumers are not going to care, or worse, they could think that the local option is inferior. Most people don't run their own automation. A lot of people don't even set up their own WiFi. Mainstream products, as expected, aim for the least amount of required knowledge.
So much this, considering the wave of shitty cloud subscription based smart home products (half of which have already been bricked by their backing companies going out of business), Home Assistant sounds like something that's too good to be true.
It also demonstrates to a wide, non-technical audience that home networking, and eschewing cloud services is not difficult at all. I have strong hopes for a local-first future.
In fact, I hope, considering how much the EU has been pushing digital sovereignity, I'd love if they introduced some legislation that mandated that any product that could be concievably made to work without a cloud, should be forced to do so.
Half of the home automation crap they are selling phones home to some central server (Tuya I'm looking at you mainly), and there are lot of products like my AC which also only work with a cloud integration which I'm not super comfortable with.
60 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 84.9 ms ] threadMatter is pretty common on newer smart home products, while Thread is a bit newer so it's only supported on some products right now.
Also those images, wow, I really would have preferred no images over these soulless, generic AI-generated impressions.
He didn’t thought about… unplugging the bed?
I thought that a cool/cold bed was better for getting to sleep, since the body lowers its own temperature at night as part of it's natural circadian rhythm and because cooling helps produce melatonin.
And when you are asleep, cooling gives you a deeper sleep and can reduce insomnia. So instead of a £3000 mattress that heats up (and by default does so), you just need a thin duvet (or even just the cover in summer).
>“Eight Sleep confirmed there’s no offline mode yet, but they’re working on it.”
Although googling on the subject, there are other articles in other websites on the same subject.
https://trufflesecurity.com/blog/removing-jeff-bezos-from-my...
Oh well, I guess it'll remain a fantasy.
Mattresses disconnecting from the global God Computer and ruining everyones sleep, just .. I can't.
Its far, far too funny.
I'm pretty sure Mattress Software Developers are on the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B. Or maybe, C.
That was exactly my first thought when reading the headline, together with fond thoughts of Squornshallows Zeta. I was really surprised to have to scroll this far down to see a Hitchhiker's Guide reference. I mean, the joke basically writes itself.
Unrelated: That entire article and illustrations are all gen-AI. yuck.
[1] https://fntalk.com/tech/dead-roombas-stranded-packages-and-d...
It also demonstrates to a wide, non-technical audience that home networking, and eschewing cloud services is not difficult at all. I have strong hopes for a local-first future.
In fact, I hope, considering how much the EU has been pushing digital sovereignity, I'd love if they introduced some legislation that mandated that any product that could be concievably made to work without a cloud, should be forced to do so.
Half of the home automation crap they are selling phones home to some central server (Tuya I'm looking at you mainly), and there are lot of products like my AC which also only work with a cloud integration which I'm not super comfortable with.