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Comment by pmiller2 | Hacker News Reader

I know people are going to be upset about the "can't upgrade the firmware" bit. But, where this story goes wrong is that a toothbrush has firmware to upgrade. Things like this are some of the reasons I avoid 'smart' devices (e.g. doorbells, toothbrushes), when lower tech ones work perfectly well. I cannot imagine needing an app for my toothbrush.

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A few weeks ago I installed a Phillips Hue light bulb I had laying around. The bulb itself required a 1hr software update.

I have to reboot my TV every six weeks, it clearly has a memory leak.

I guess I'm lucky. I've only had to reboot mine a couple times since I've owned it (over 2 years).

Incidentally, my TV is the only "smart" gadget I have beyond a phone, tablet, and some laptops. There's significant value in being able to run Netflix and other apps on the TV.

When toothbrushes start coming with LED screens, then maybe I'll upgrade. :P

I think a dumb TV and a small, physically connected network device is optimal. I mean, I just discovered that my TV phones home once a day for software updates, and this cannot be turned off! The tendency for these devices to include microphones, and phone home with information about what you're watching...not to mention that Roku's software has an indelible adspace on a device I paid for. It's all just really disgusting, and it is insane how quickly everyone has sold themselves out, and with such enthusiasm.

> it’s insane how quickly everyone has sold themselves out

I’m old enough to remember the culture of ‘90s internet. It was already clear that the original “anarchic” tendencies were on their way out, and mobile/IoT has been the nail in the coffin.

> I think a dumb TV and a small, physically connected network device is optimal.

I wish this would be a possible choice but I don't think anyone make dumb TVs anymore. I've searched recently to find a new 4k tv and couldn't find any. So I finally bought a smart one...

A lot of people are perfectly happy with their Firestick, Apple TV or Chromecast. It really felt like such a waste to have to buy a TV with software I will never use.

There are still some dumb TVs in the very low price segment, with questionable panels of course, or im the signage segment, very expensive, of course.

I recently bought a 2018 Samsung TV that I fully expected to use with some extra device, but it turns out the software isn't even that obnoxious (closest thing to an unremovable ad is the linear TV guide in the source selection). It has YouTube, Netflix (which can't play 4K on Linux), and can play modern formats reliably and quickly through DLNA/UpnP.

I do have my concerns about its security - maybe it's already part of a bot net. Feature updates are out of the question anyway, so let's see when I'll have to get a secondary device.

I don't know the others, but the Tizen platform seems relatively light weight. While other systems (Android in particular it seems) can take a long time to cold boot this one only needs a couple of seconds.

Oral-B recently introduced the iO series, featuring color oled screens.

Same here. I have a Vizio that was rock solid when I first got it - I don't use any of the TV's native apps/OS, but heavily leverage the built-in Chromecast and Airplay functionality.

It randomly updated the firmware at some point, and has been flaky ever since. At some point it'll (anywhere from a few days to a few weeks), it'll simply stop showing up on the network for both Chromecast and Airplay. And requires a hard restart to get working again.

I literally have smart plugs laying around so I can hard reset some of my devices because they can't operate while always being on.

I'm terrified of the day we figure out energy storage to just have like 30 years built in energy store in these devices.

Is it still in warranty? Can you roll it back? Crippling a device after it has been purchased ought to be illegal.

Why would you have TV going on for anything even close to 6 weeks?

Many TVs go into a power-saving mode when you press the "power" button now, rather than truly turning off. They usually require the plug itself to be pulled or a trip deep into the settings menu to find a "full restart" option in order to get it to truly power cycle.

Some don't actually turn off, nor do they restart when you turn them on. You notice for the first time that they have never been actually off the first time you experience a bug and freezes and then you unplug it and after you turn it on you see that every app takes longer to start and look slightly different due to some unattended background upgrade.

Maybe it's on standby power (remote wakes it up), and the memory leak persists until it's properly rebooted.

"Booting" takes forever on my TV. Standby definitively retains contents of RAM.

It's on standby. I measured the power draw and it was too low to register on my kill-a-watt on standby so I never turn it fully off.

why are you keeping your tv on for 6 weeks straight?

Newer TVs don't truly turn off by default, they just go into standby.

where "newer" means "anything with a remote control", which has been pretty much standard on TVs since the late 80s

How did you go about even initiating that? My bulbs are acting weirdly (don't remember the last light intensity, stuff like that) and I didn't even know updating them was a possibility

> How did you go about even initiating that?

This video about reseting a GE bulb shows how you reset a device with "one" button. I love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BB6wj6RyKo

I feel like this video is an excellent example of why “dogfooding” can be so important. I’d bet that back at GE, the engineers had a programmable power supply, or some micro that automated this reset process. I’d also bet that on paper, the reset process looks pretty straightforward.

I’d love to have been in the room when they realized they needed to make a public facing video.

Parent was asking about lights from Phillips. The software update for that is initiated by the Phillips app one presumably has installed on their phone.

I think that would be the last time I would ever buy a product of that type.

> I cannot imagine needing an app for my toothbrush.

The problem is if all toothbrushes become 'smart'. Then you won't have the choice of buying a simple toothbrush. Seems like the trend today is the put chips into everything. Toothbrushes, light bulbs, shoe laces and eventually humans.

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