Google bought a company and decided to shut off the product it once produced.

GRtak

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The time that Tony Fadell sold me a container of hummus.

On May 15th a critical Nest product will go dark. I?m shocked this isn?t bigger news.

I don?t mean that the Nest product will reach end-of-life for support and updates. No, I mean that on May 15th they will actually turn off the device and disable your ability to use the hardware that you paid for.

Google/Nest?s decision raises an interesting question. When software and hardware are intertwined, does a warranty mean you stop supporting the hardware or does it mean that the manufactuer can intentionally disable it without consequence? Tony Fadell seems to believe the latter. Tony believes he has the right to reach into your home and pull the plug on your Nest products.


...


Here is the full story:

17 months ago, Google acquired Revolv, a very cool home automation hub. It is a small circular device about the size of a small container of hummus that uses a variety of common home automation radios to communicate with light switches, garage door openers, home alarms, motion sensors, A/C controllers etc. It also uses WiFi to talk to the Internet so that I can control my home remotely using an app on my smartphone.

I am a home automation nut. When I arrive home my lights turn on. In lieu of motion detecting lights, I have a Z-wave motion detector that notifies my Revolv when there is motion on any side of our home and turns on the appropriate lights. Although I do set a home alarm, there is really no more effective vacation security than the programatic turning on, dimming, and turning off of lights in a manner that would indicate that people are home. After buying my Revolv I put my outdoor landscaping light on it and threw away the old timer. Now at Sunset my landscape lighting turns on. Holiday lighting does the same. It?s magical.

As proof of my geekdom, I bought a globe lamp, put in a UV bulb and set up a dimming program so that over 20 minutes in the morning, my room goes from dark to light slowly and softly accompanied by NPR on my Sonos (which is also controlled via the Revolv).

Revolv is the director and my devices are a beautiful orchestra of home technology.

On May 15th, my house will stop working. My landscape lighting will stop turning on and off, my security lights will stop reacting to motion, and my home made vacation burglar deterrent will stop working. This is a conscious intentional decision by Google/Nest.

To be clear, they are not simply ceasing to support the product, rather they are advising customers that on May 15th a container of hummus will actually be infinitely more useful than the Revolv hub.

Google is intentionally bricking hardware that I own. They don?t even dance around it, here is Revolv?s FAQ.

What happens to my Revolv service?

As of May 15, 2016, Revolv service will no longer be available. The Revolv app won?t open and the hub won?t work.
Is my product still under warranty?

No. Our one-year warranty against defects in materials or workmanship has expired for all Revolv products.

That?s a pretty blatant ?fuck you? to every person who trusted in them and bought their hardware. They didn?t post this notice until long after Google had made the acquisition, so these are Google?s words under Tony Fadell?s direction. It is also worth pointing out that even though they have my email address, the only way a customer discovers this home IoT mutiny is to visit the Revolv web site.

Look, I?m a big boy. It?s not the end of the world. The fact is that I can fix the problem by purchasing a replacement device such as a Samsung SmartThings hub. It?s not terribly expensive, a few hundred dollars. I?m genuinely worried though. This move by Google opens up an entire host of concerns about other Google hardware.

Which hardware will Google choose to intentionally brick next? If they stop supporting Android will they decide that the day after the last warranty expires that your phone will go dark? Is your Nexus device safe? What about your Nest fire/smoke alarm? What about your Dropcam? What about your Chromecast device? Will Google/Nest endanger your family at some point?

All of those devices have software and hardware that are inextricably linked. When does an expired warranty become a right to disable core device functionality?

Imagine if you bought a Dell computer and Dell then informed you that when your warranty ends your computer will power down.

Imagine if Apple put out a new policy that not only won?t they replace the device for defects, but they will actually be bricking your phone 12 months after purchase.

Is the era of IoT bringing an end to the concept of ownership? Are we just buying intentionally temporary hardware? It feels like it. I own a Commodore 64 that still works.

In conclusion I leave you with this quote:

Hummus where the heart is.

From the Revolv website: http://revolv.com/

A letter from Revolv's founders:

We're shutting down Revolv.

Revolv was a great first step into the connected home. It wasn?t perfect, but we worked hard to make something we - and other smart people - could build on.

And it worked. In 2014, we were bought by Nest and the technology we made became an integral part of the Works with Nest platform. Now Works with Nest is turning into something more secure, more useful and just flat-out better than anything Revolv created.

So we?re pouring all our energy into Works with Nest and are incredibly excited about what we?re making. Unfortunately, that means we can?t allocate resources to Revolv anymore and we have to shut down the service. As of May 15, 2016, your Revolv hub and app will no longer work.

Thank you for your support and believing in us. We?re sad for the end of Revolv, but this isn?t the end of the connected home. This is the beginning.

- Tim & Mike


This is complete BULL SHIT! I can understand them stopping the support, but not in killing the devices.
 
And this is why buying anything that relies on a cloud service is a stupid idea.
 
Yup. If a device doesn't work if you lose your internet connection (as several people pointed out in various reviews of the Revolv at the time) and that's an issue for you, you may want to buy something else because your device/game/whatever is only usable as long as the servers it connects to stay up. In fact, you don't actually own it. You just got it on a permanent loan; as long as the device depends on that server it is owned by the people running said server.

Something to consider - what if Revolv had gone out of business instead of getting bought by Google? The same thing would have happened. Would there have been the same outrage? Or would we all be mocking the idiots that didn't think about this before buying?
 
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Revolv was a great first step into the connected home. It wasn?t perfect, but we worked hard to make something we - and other smart people - could build on.

And it worked. In 2014, we were bought by Nest

Nuff said. Glad they're being honest about their motivations.
 
And this is why buying anything that relies on a cloud service is a stupid idea.

Yes, the speed at which silicon valley cloud companies start up and close up deems anything outside of consumer non critical systems pointless.

You're better off with a full on PLC based automation system. :D
 
And this is why buying anything that relies on a cloud service is a stupid idea.

This is true, but the company could release some small program to allow a computer at their home to act in it's place, or at least set the hardware free to be developed independantly.



Yup. If a device doesn't work if you lose your internet connection (as several people pointed out in various reviews of the Revolv at the time) and that's an issue for you, you may want to buy something else because your device/game/whatever is only usable as long as the servers it connects to stay up. In fact, you don't actually own it. You just got it on a permanent loan; as long as the device depends on that server it is owned by the people running said server.

Something to consider - what if Revolv had gone out of business instead of getting bought by Google? The same thing would have happened. Would there have been the same outrage? Or would we all be mocking the idiots that didn't think about this before buying?



If the company had gone out of business, there wouldn't be anyone to push for DMCA charges that prevent new software from being developed.
 
This is a long term problem for Google - It's hard to tell which services will stay and which they'll randomly kill.
 
This is like blaming GM for Saab going under.
 
This is true, but the company could release some small program to allow a computer at their home to act in it's place, or at least set the hardware free to be developed independantly.







If the company had gone out of business, there wouldn't be anyone to push for DMCA charges that prevent new software from being developed.

You are apparently unaware that there are scavenger companies out there who buy up the IP of defunct companies for just this reason - so they can sue and get money.
 
And this is why buying anything that relies on a cloud service is a stupid idea.

Like buying a game that relies heavily on online play will never be a classic cos 10 years from now there will be no servers and nobody playing (with very few exceptions).

Did it have a paid monthly/yearly subscription? Because if it doesn't, then they're not forced to keep the servers running, if sales drop or something. Internet is not free, updates are not free, manpower is not free. Companies can't operate at a loss for a long time.

Secondly, entrusting something like your whole house to a device which is connected freely to the internet is a very big risk. The most secure sites get hacked if people care enough to do it, how long until most houses are relying on these little things for stuff like "locking the door" and how long until hackers figure out how to simply tell your home to open the doors so they can empty it of the very valuable electronics you purchased to have that "geek automated home"?

I'm not a technophobe, but this has bad idea written all over it. Just like those cars with internet connection were easily hacked and forced to crash off the road for demonstration purposes only, this is just... no.
 
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