Discussion
I need the power of the #fediverse : For an upcoming presentation I am looking for examples many people will understand where the software caused consumer electronic devices not to work anymore.
E.g. company decided not to update the software which caused the device to stop, company disappeared and e.g. servers not available and therefore the device did not start anymore, etc.
Currently interested in some fresh examples I could use. Any pointers?
@kirschner Our 2017 Honda's GPS/NAV can't be updated. They stopped doing that years ago. Works perfectly otherwise, but since the maps are old as all hell ...
@kirschner
Try posting to #selfhosted - lots of people there will be selfhosting after a company pulled the plug on them.
Also, @ironicbadger hosted a podcast that regularly played the sad trombone sound to announce a company pulling the rug on people.
@kirschner Ehhhm...
With the absolute probability of 0:
@kirschner Take a look t the YouTube channel, DammitJeff. He has a number of videos about manufacturers or OS makers bricking devices, while he shows you how to reclaim your device. Specifically Spotify CarThing and Amazon Kindle.
The German health insurance provider #TK offers an online consultation service exclusively for users of Apple and Google smartphones running their original operating systems.
@kirschner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence#Programmed_obsolescence has some examples about printer cartridges.
Not sure if you're also looking for more positive examples? If so, you could mention that mobile phones have a unique identifier that lets networks block them if stolen (So, not entirely bricked, but not usable as phones)
@kirschner The consumer rights wiki is the best resource:
@kirschner Camera in Bosch smart fridges turned off: https://www.heise.de/news/Bosch-Smarte-Kuehlschraenke-verlieren-Kamerafunktion-11193144.html
@kirschner Heard about a situation about some hearing implants that stopped working when the company went bankrupt, but I no longer remember details
VanMoof bikes? (there may be some other examples from China)
I don't think the bikes stopped working entirely, but this was a "dangerous close pass" when the company went bankrupt. Many customers were worried, especially about support, proprietary pieces and software updates.
The "Maison Connecté" service by Orange, French telcom : https://www.quechoisir.org/actualite-maison-connectee-d-orange-questions-reponses-sur-l-arret-du-service-n104003/ (article in French (sorry))
There have been a few discussions on this topic across the Fediverse in the past, but the options for searching through old posts are limited. Some people have asked questions on online forums about what to do with their equipment that no longer works. I can try to find more threads this evening to send to you if you need more material (in case the article is not enough)
@kirschner BeerMKR had an appliance which brewed beer for you given a recipe and ingredients. All was done via an app which needed to communicate with some AWS servers.
The company went bankrupt and the AWS servers finally shut down this year (they had been prepaid for some years when the company started up).
@kirschner Brotherdrucker, MFC 5890CN gibt einfach keine Treiber die noch problemlos zu Installieren sind.
Mit Mühe und Not kommt an an die 32-bit Abhängigkeiten ran, die gängige Distributionen nicht mehr ausliefern.
@kirschner My mother has a Asus Zenphone 10 which won't receive any more updates. When I bought it Asus had promised unlockable bootloaders but later they declined it and now even their smartphone business has been shut down.
https://xdaforums.com/t/court-action-against-asus-false-promise-on-bootloader-unlock-tool.4657042/
@kirschner I bought a lot of Squeezebox music players on eBay, because they no longer worked with their original software, because Logitech shut down the servers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_player)).
Reflashed with new software, and with a self-hosted music server, they work really well still.
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