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© 2023 AFPThe oven won't talk to the fridge: 'Smart' homes struggle
By Julie JAMMOT LAS VEGAS©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2023 AFP
23 Comments
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ArtistAtLarge
Why would anyone want their home controlled and spied on by strangers? And why does any of this have to be connected to anything outside the home? Rhetorical question: it does not and never did, need to be.
Moonraker
Big Brother would be overjoyed.
Anonymous
Can a dependable power supply even be guaranteed?
Garthgoyle
WALL-E here we come.
GBR48
I don't have any of these pointless gimmicks and I don't plan on having any.
wallace
I have an oven and a fridge but I walk the talk.
kohakuebisu
We have dimmable multicolor smartbulbs, a smart tv, a music system that works natively with Spotify, and heating that works off wifi based thermostats. I see value in all these things, some of which are cheaper than the non-smart way. I could not afford hardwired dimmable lights with mood settings by Lutron etc. That kind of system costs thousands of USD. A stack of CDs containing everything I play on Spotify would cost a fortune and take up a huge amount of space. I have lots of music on vinyl and CD but it sits in another room increasingly untouched.
We do not have a smart toaster or a smart fridge, and I can't imagine them adding much value.
Gaijinjland
These devices really are not that smart. I gave up with Alexa. It’s actually faster to click on the tv than ask Alexa to do it for you. So basically Alexa is a great voice controlled speaker for music and setting an alarm. Anything else Alexa can potentially do, I’m just too lazy to figure out or don’t care.
Anonymous
The one got in heated arguments with me while the other always gives me the cold shoulder.
So much for this article.
tooheysnew
A lot of these smart products are actually in the business of collecting your personal information - what you eat / drink, listen to, watch etc.
these companies make most of their money from selling this information
Gobshite
How did humans survive this long without such junk...... the mind boggles :-)
gaijintraveller
Iremember VHS and Beta. I rememberPre-Windows Japanese computers with diferent incompatible versions of DOS and unlike anywhere else ion the world 640kb 5.25 in floppies. Has Japan learnt anything? Will we have Panasonic smart things incompatible with Sony and everyone else? I expect so. I wonder if the Chinese will be more organised.
I also suspect versions sold in Japan may like many cameras refuse to operate in English and oher major languages.
englisc aspyrgend
Yet again industry selling you a dream of products you neither need or want for money you can’t afford. The benefit to you is marginal if that much, the benefit to them is huge. As others have said above, you are the product, they are harvesting your data for very profitable resale and you are paying them for the privilege, nice business model!
Mark
My first boss Mr. J.J has always told me to keep it simple for a lesser chance of a failure or breaking down. I still believe that to this day, The best design of anything is the most RELIABLE including us humans.
kurisupisu
And this was said with a straight face?
Cynical_Skeptic
I wonder if that has anything to do with the financial liability that’s inherently involved with security breaches or exploits that comes with commonality of software code?
Desert Tortoise
I'm an analog soul in a digital world.