@kirschner the Harmon Kardon Invoke "smart" speaker with Microsoft Cortana.
Discontunued suddenly and users were given a 2 month window to download a patch to turn it into a Bluetooth speaker. The patch was unavailable after the 2 month "grace" period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invoke_(smart_speaker)

Spotify was planning on bricking all of those car thing players a few years ago. They ended up not sending the brick command so that community development could continue - But it took quite a bit of pressure to get them there if I remember correctly.

It's a good example of why vocal advocacy is important.

@kirschner #Y2K: Our VHS recorder's clock was off by some random time (several weeks, hours, minutes) and couldn't be set, as it was automatically retrieved from the TV signal. A mess to program any recording, and it wasn't clear to us that it was a Y2K problem (not that many recordings).
However, in January 2001, the clock was suddenly correct again.

@kirschner my robot vacuum is basically useless because the device can't connect to the wifi and therefore app anymore because of a screwup with the firmware at the company.

@kirschner

If you haven’t heard of Louis Rossmann who has a YouTube channel discussing these very topics, I would recommend looking him up. He also has website dealing with these topics.

He’s a fabulous resource if you need any more than what people here produce

@kirschner

Sonos.

@kirschner I gotchu covered:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

@kirschner Perhaps the biggest impact: Dell and Consumer Reports estimate 4-500 million PCs can't be upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. This is completely artificial.

@kirschner well, old Kindles still work but you can't put new books on them and if you deregister them then they stop working. Amazon never gave a technical reason for doing this.

@kirschner well, old Kindles still work but you can't put new books on them and if you deregister them then they stop working. https://i.redd.it/xaapbexz8stg1.jpeg

@kirschner

Inspiring: The #JuiceRescue project for EV chargers about to be bricked.

https://natematias.com/portfolio/2025-08-22-unchaining-from-broken-software-tethers/

@natematias has posted on the Fediverse about it.

@kirschner Wemo devices were shut down not *too* long ago

@kirschner i see no-one yet mentioned the mother of all disasters: THERAC-25.

@kirschner Amazom Paperwhite Kindle readers were “bricked” a few months ago due to unwillingness to support.

@kirschner this post was right above yours! https://social.v.st/@th/117166896813250739