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Comment by HiPhish | Hacker News Reader

I think a lot of normies still think that when they buy a smart appliance they are buying an appliance like from yesteryear, except with more features. In reality they are buying a computer shaped like an appliance of yesteryear. Your smartphone? That's not a phone, it's a computer shaped like a phone. Smart TV? Computer shaped like a TV. Smart watch? Computer shaped like a watch.

This brings with it all the advantages and disadvantages of a computer. Except that the user is not given any of the advantages they have with a desktop or laptop computer. Companies get away with it because in the normie's mind the smart watch is a watch first and foremost, and who would expect to log into a terminal on a watch? Why would you need security updated for a wristwatch? This is how artificially restricted technology is slowly being introduced into people's live, one appliance at a time.

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The term "smart appliance" has changed radically since the 1960s [0]; it didn't necessarily mean "ubiquitous connectivity, data collection, building a profile on the occupants and monetizing it with advertisers/data brokers". We only end up at that through decades of legislative inaction.

Your second point is about the extent to which manufacturers are allowed lock their product behind proprietary interfaces (protected by the excesses of the DMCA, and lack of compliance with Right to Repair). Remember the 2023 bankruptcy of e-bike manufacturer VanMoof, locking out its customers, even ones who had purchased it? Probably legislatures will only pass meaningful consumer laws after a wave of smart bankruptcies and data asset transfers. If even then. Perhaps one flashpoint will be the rise in subprime auto lenders using "kill switches" as a high-tech repossession alternative. How are consumers protected when the company itself fails (as is currently happening with Tricolor [1], likely followed by others)?

[0]: https://www.impulselabs.com/blog/the-past-and-future-of-smar...

[1]: https://www.kbb.com/car-news/a-big-auto-lender-went-bankrupt...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the trend.

But one could argue that a computer is just a cheaper implementation of the yesteryears discrete electronics. Which was itself a cheaper implementation of old school mechanical gears, switches and timing wheels, etc.

A locked down computer, could have been mechanical for all the user cares.

Fixing a dishwasher a while my dad told me that back in the day, they operates with a timing wheel that switched between different stages, and they had a lot of wires.

Todays dishwashers are cheaper and have fewer mechanical control parts (if any).

which should in theory make them more dependable but I've seen friends go through a few yet my 25 year old whirlpool has only ever had the door seal replaced and it works fine if loud as hell compared to modern ones.

Could be survivorship bias ;)

But yes, the don't make them like they used to -- in fact they never did!

People said the same thing 25 years ago, and 25 years before that.

A modern fridge is probably cheaper (corrected for inflation) and more energy efficient.

Moreover, few appliances lives to be 30 years old just because they don't break.

Case in point: my better half is looking for a new oven. Because the 10y old one we have is noisy, compared to the new smart ovens. (I personally hate the fact that the top models are so smart, I must spend a second or two watching animated Siemens logo, before it's ready for input).

Over those 25 years manufacturers were able to optimize mttf of all components to ‘a few months over warranty’. Solution would be to legally increase minimum warranty as the market extracted all value and is now socially inefficient.

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