Technology

If you want a smart home/devices, only opt for locally controlled, non-cloud, open source, and self hosted options. Home Assistant is great for home automation.

My mini splits used to be controlled by an Alexa dongle with no other choice from the manufacturer. After some research, I discovered that there was an ESPHome module for controlling them with about $8 worth of stuff. It's more responsive, reliable, will never stop working because some company decided it's no longer worth their time, and has more elaborate controls than anything the manufacturer provided. And I can control three mini splits for half of the cost of one "cloud dongle" from the manufacturer.

The best way to combat enshittification is voting with your wallet. Support projects by people who produce open source solutions. Donate the money you would have spent on the "turnkey cloud" option to help fund the open source project through donations. Until we stop giving these companies money, they're not going to stop screwing us.

What a stupid title. As if anybody's buying smart devices in the hope they'll be worth more someday.

My on topic advice: if you rely on your smart TV to get to your content, you're going to have a bad time. Get a small computer instead, and treat your "smart" TV as a monitor, nothing more.

I did get myself an nvidia shield last year, and after switching out the stock launcher for something that doesn't show ads (and better yet, launches straight into plex at boot), I couldn't be happier.

TLDR, enshittification is getting worse and unless there's some laws passed to help consumers it's only going to plunge us into the dystopian future we're already fearing.

this just in: buying closed-source black boxes that are wholly under the control of a faceless profit-seeking entity results in a bad experience when said profit-seeking entity starts scraping pennies out of the user's asshole against their will and also has zero incentive to improve user experience or freedom when the user is already platform locked

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Zigbee2mqtt + homeassistant = all I need at home and away.

All my zigbee devices just report in and I automate my home that way.

I have high hopes for matter but in the interim: I've got shit working great. Window sensors to automate air filters going on and off, a humidifier running in response to a few sensors around the apartment, grow lights on and off on some simple timers.

More complicated things like fans and lights for a 3d printing enclosure? Easy: octoprint has a homeassistant hook and I can listen in for printer start/stop.

Local control will always beat out the "easy solution" IMO. It's just a bit more setup.

But it's not a solution I could hand off to technically illiterate grandparents.

This person prioritized buying the new hotness over researching longevity, and they got burned.

Amazon and Google's products are not where I would invest my money if I was concerned about long term support. Both of those companies have a solid track record of killing stuff off.

Buy that stuff if you want, but don't be surprised if something gets killed off in 3-5 years.

Smart tech is good when it is limited. Soon as something must be connected to wifi to be accessible, It can become a chore. Read reviews and try to find good trustworthy products.

Some smart devices.

The $20-30 cheap garbage is exactly what it is: cheap garbage.

Apple charges a premium for their streaming box, but guess what: the 4K AppleTV they released in 2017 is still going strong. I’ve had this thing for seven years, it shows no ads on the main screen, and still gets updates. And it’s still fast as hell.

Maybe the enshittification is just on all these Android streamers? I have a Chromecast with GoogleTV in my bedroom, and it’s fine. But it’s just about two years old and already sluggish (especially compared to the AppleTV), and every time I turn it on it takes longer than it should to update the Home Screen with trash I don’t care about.

If you need a cache cleaner and other third party maintenance software constantly available on your video streaming box to make it nice to use… maybe you should have abandoned that platform years ago.

But the article is otherwise correct, the enshitification of platforms with ads and the removal of enthusiast features does suck.

Never buy a (non computing) device for your home that depends on the internet, and especially a cloud service. You will inevitably get burned. There are countless articles online about these pitfalls.

Use ZigBee, Zwave and Matter

Depends on how you use them, I think. Magic boxes that are tied into the cloud and just give you an app to control your lights, dumb. Setting up a system that automates your home electrical appliances in a thoughtful manner can actually deliver savings and maybe even improve your life. Even as someone getting into smart home stuff, though, mainly what I'm seeing is the ability to save power by having some kind of intelligent control over your devices. Everything else is flashing lights and surveillance.

Problem is, your average user isn't going to be setting up a LAN-only, zigbee-to-homeassistant automation. They need the magic box type of interface. So as a mass market thing it seems kind of doomed.

I disagree. I bought a smart light bulb a few years ago and it has been a fantastic investment!

Uses way less power than a normal incandescent bulb, lasts waaayyyyyy longer, has lots of different colours and white colour temperatures, has schedules that it runs through every day based on sunrise and sunset... I never have to turn it on or off or adjust it!

It's fantastic, I bloody love it. LIFX.

One of the best investments I've made this decade, absolutely.

Oh and don't forget LIFX bulbs don't require any hubs, and there's a python library available to do local LAN API stuff, no need to speak to a remote server if that's not your jam.

I don't buy things because they are investments. I buy things because I believe they will bring me joy in some way.

Just wanted to give a tip, from someone who is happy with his Fire Stick: hold down the home button, on the remote, for an ad-free app drawer thing.

I usually just hold the Home button and select the app I want. Works fine if not a minor inconvenience to do when launching the device.

I'm literally buying new smart plugs today because the manufacturer discontinued the firmware. They're still in perfect condition, and the exact same set up that I've always had. It's extremely frustrating.

The article isn't talking about smart devices generally but corporate owned devices subject to enshittification

So the author is surprised that companies that makes a large chunk of their revenue from advertising is using the stuff it sold as billboards. Color me shocked.