The Internet of Things Hits Home

[BvBPL]

They promised us refrigerators that would connect to the internet that will send us emails when we need butter.

Who needs that?

You want to talk about awesome things that are connected to the internet? How about Budweiser's Red Lights, a goal light that lights up when your team scores a goal.

Hell yeah.

What piece of nonsense do you have or want to have hooked up to the internet?

Review of the Red Light:


Link to video.

 

[Aea]

IoT is in its infancy and sucks ass. The only working device I have is my Nest Thermometer.

 

[BvBPL]

Is that like an egg incubator?

 

[Aea]

Oops meant thermostat:

 

[Zelig]

Internet of Things is already a disaster.

Smart TVs, smart fridges, smart washing machines? Disaster waiting to happen

Welcome to The Internet of Compromised Things

tl;dr - Don't buy anything that connects to the internet unless the manufacturer or software provider has a clear and believable plan to delivere regular software updates.

 

[warpus]

Goal-synced Budweiser Red Lights are changing the way Canadians celebrate goals. Just connect your light to WiFi, use the Red Lights app to sync to your favourite city(ies), and your light will sound off every time a goal is scored! Get the big game experience at home, and celebrate with your buds like never before.

The problem of course being that some TV broadcasts are on a slight delay, sometimes by several seconds, and so your stupid toy might very well end up spoiling every single goal for you. But I suppose there might be a setting to delay it as well.

Even so, it seems like a mostly stupid thing. Plus this guy is a Leafs fan, I don't think they really score goals very often at all.

 

[BvBPL]

On occasion, I might rather a goal light go off before the puck goes in the net. I'm not always watching a game very closely and getting an early warning of a goal might be nice. Still, I've seen some reviews where the goal light is delayed by six seconds or so from when it was shown on TV. All that probably has to do with the broadcast and the speed of your wifi.

And of course it is stupid. But being stupid doesn't keep it from being awesome.

 

[downtown]

We have that exact goal light hooked up in our office. I think Bud sent it to us a few months ago. It doesn't seem to work perfectly well, but still kinda cool.

 

[warpus]

Some TV broadcasts mess up the synchronization of the picture with the sound, and I've watched games before where the sounds happen 1-2 seconds before the action on screen. Most of the time you don't notice it, but when a goal is scored or someone almost scores, you definitely notice it, because everything gets announced before it happens. It's crazy annoying to watch a game like that, I almost can't do it.

Anyway, things that are stupid can't be awesome.

 

[Darkflight]

I can't really see the need to connect anything but your computer to the internet. Maybe your phone if you really need e-mail on the run. But fridge? What the hell is that supposed to be good for?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

They promised us refrigerators that would connect to the internet that will send us emails when we need butter.

Who needs that?

Apparently people who are incapable of just opening the fridge and looking to see if they still have butter.

 

[warpus]

There are fridges out there that will figure out what you need and order it for you so that you don't ever have to go grocery shopping. I think. But I'm not really sure how that is supposed to work.

Like, I'm sure at some point in the future you're going to be able to turn to your fridge and say: "I want to bake a lasagna, do I have the required ingredients?" and your fridge would say: "Only for 4 recipes I found online, here's a printout of all those recipes" or "Only for 4 recipes, but I know that you love beef lasagna, and you're all out of beef, would you like me to put in an order for some beef so that you can make it tomorrow?"

We're sort of really far away from that I know, but at some point it will make sense to connect your fridge to the internet. Probably not now though, but it's trendy, so people are doing it.

 

[civvver]

I would like if my fire alarms were hooked up to the internet to alert me if they went off and I would like cameras and motion sensors to view online, but those costs money. They offered us a system when we built the house for like $1200 and then $30 monthly. Didn't seem worth it. I live in a very low crime area. It would also be cool to have a smart house where I could turn on and off lights, unlock/lock doors and set thermostat, but again I don't really *need* those things and cost makes it not worthwhile.

It would be awesome though if my water softener was online so it auto ordered more salt when it was out and I didn't have to go downstairs and check it every couple weeks. And if my furnace could tell me when the filters expired without visually checking them. I mean you can kinda just go by duration but a visual inspection is still best bet.

 

[civvver]

There are fridges out there that will figure out what you need and order it for you so that you don't ever have to go grocery shopping. I think. But I'm not really sure how that is supposed to work.

Like, I'm sure at some point in the future you're going to be able to turn to your fridge and say: "I want to bake a lasagna, do I have the required ingredients?" and your fridge would say: "Only for 4 recipes I found online, here's a printout of all those recipes" or "Only for 4 recipes, but I know that you love beef lasagna, and you're all out of beef, would you like me to put in an order for some beef so that you can make it tomorrow?"

We're sort of really far away from that I know, but at some point it will make sense to connect your fridge to the internet. Probably not now though, but it's trendy, so people are doing it.

The thing is most people don't even order perishable groceries online right now, that step needs to come first. Amazon is real close. Maybe if they can get drones to deliver milk that will happen. Right now ordering perishables deliver is too expensive.

 

[warpus]

Enough people order groceries online, there's a grocery store just a 10 minute walk from here that specializes in that service even. They have a storefront here at work, but most of their business is done online, from what I understand.

I have a couple friends who used to buy groceries like this, and yeah, it is more expensive, but not overly more expensive than doing it yourself. From what I remember the last time I looked, the rates were reasonable.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You can order non-perishables online from Walmart, which is what I did before they changed their ordering so a $50 minimum is required for free delivery... and it's via Canada Post, who stated that for apartment buildings they only deliver to the lobby, not the suite. So that means I've had to stop ordering from them - there's no way I could possibly get all that cat litter up here myself without making half a dozen trips, and in the meantime what's left would likely be stolen and I'd be in trouble with the management for leaving things lying around in the public areas.

I order groceries (and now cat litter) over the phone from the local Co-op (just finished placing an order a few minutes ago). So today I'm getting my usual order of cat litter (twice Walmart's price, but at least it gets delivered to my suite).

 

[BvBPL]

There are wifi cat litter boxes.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I don't see how that could possibly work in a multi-cat household, unless they were kept separate so they couldn't ever use each other's litter boxes.

They can call me when they figure out something that will actually clean the litter box (yeah, I know there are self-cleaning ones, but even those eventually have to be manually cleaned, and it supposes that all cats have the same litter box habits).

 

[uppi]

tl;dr - Don't buy anything that connects to the internet unless the manufacturer or software provider has a clear and believable plan to delivere regular software updates.

In my opinion it is a stupid idea to let everything connect to the internet, anyway. If anything, the devices should have a documented interface and connect to a local server. The server can than make a connection to the internet if necessary.

Because regular software updates for embedded devices are not going to happen anytime soon. And nobody wants to keep track of the firmware updates of all their lightbulbs or whatever. Even for the devices I built myself, of which I know exactly how they work, firmware updates are a pain. So better accept that the devices are going to be insecure and separate them from the actual internet.

 

[innonimatu]

IoT is in its infancy and sucks ass. The only working device I have is my Nest Thermometer.

That's funny, because apparently many of those ceased working recently

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35311447

We should call it the IoG. Internet of Gimmicks.