Logitech will intentionally brick Harmony Link devices next year | Hacker News Reader

Logitech will intentionally brick Harmony Link devices next year

techspot.com

15 pointsShivetya9 comments

I still don’t get how this can be legal. I understand that it is up to the consumer to repair the devices when they break due to cheap components (which are only meant to last one or two years) and are out of warranty, but if a company knowingly destroys your goods (via a software update) which is 100% intentionally and there is no way for you to fix it (either via a self hosted solution or any other solution) just sounds criminal to me.

I hope that one of these days, a laysuite will be filed against any of those companies which sets a precedent how to handle those situations.

I believe it's not quite an "intentional bricking" in the sense that Logitech sends out a suicidal ROM update. What's going on is that the product depended on a cloud service for its core functionality, and now that service is being discontinued.

This is the double-edged sword of the convience that cloud-powered products deliver. You're not buying something that will last decades. You're buying a service and the hardware to utilise that service.

Maybe I'm not getting the function of this device but what does it need the cloud for? This is just a fancy remote with app support. It really should not rely on any could server expect for updates maybe. The app should just connect to the remote using the locale network.

My Apple TV does not need internet either. I can still stream media to it using any device on the locale network (which is what I use it for mostly anyways). Sure the "apps" do not work without internet but I have never used them anyways (I always stream them using my iPhone) so even if Apple shut down the old Apple TV, I can still use it just like before and only use the function partially.

If they have such heavy (and unexpected) cloud dependencies, they should warn consumers and (even better) put an expiration date on them, and say which functions are required for them to work. I remember that Nintendo games used to have a disclaimer if the game needed internet to work with (either partially or at all). This way parents (and the store clerks) can better help the consumer understand what is required to play the game and understand how it can be played without internet.

What a terrible move. If I had bought it I would definitely want a full refund, no discount.

This is really disappointing because I used to love Logitech the company, am friends with the founders and in general always thought of them as an example of a business done right.

I'll mail Daniel to see if I can persuade them to put the emergency brakes on this decision, I can see a very bad PR debacle happening if they do not undo this decision.

> What a terrible move.

The more terrible thing is the whole system's design made this actually possible. An electronic soap dish lying under the TV should not depend on internet access to just do its work. Though nobody thinks about it nowadays and everybody is happy to switch songs played by music centre with their iPhone.

Home automation suffers from the same problem. I'm hard-pressed to find a home automation hub that doesn't require "the cloud." You mean to tell me turning on the lights 5 feet away requires I go through some North Carolina data centre some 800 miles away? This frustrating trend is over-engineered and insecure.

Lutron’s wireless offerings work off local ISM bands. No cloud required.

I wasn't able to find a cloud-less home automation solution. Ended up going the semi-DIY route and installed Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi. It's not plug and play, but it beats having to rely on some cloud solution that'll disappear whenever the manufacturer feels like it.

As if I didn't already need another reason to absolutely distrust Logitech.

I've already seen the company's failure to honour warranty obligations.

https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/5y-ggnul129j7mogblrsmg

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