https://staceyoniot.com/the-unbearable-fussiness-of-the-smart-home/
"As we head into another gifting season and more and more connected devices
make their way onto gift guides, I want to offer a cautionary note. The smart
home is like a cat — mostly self-sufficient and nice to have, but also
possessing a mind of its own that can lead to frustration and confusion for its
owner. Indeed, when you gift or get a connected device, ownership turns into
active participation with the device and various other ecosystems.
What do I mean? Three weeks ago, three of my devices stopped working — all for
different reasons — and required different steps to fix them. This week, one
device suddenly start working again, another connected after some initial
struggles, and a third became so intrusive I had to move it to another room.
This isn’t a device or brand problem. It’s an industry problem. Smart home
products look like hardware but are really software, subject to updates and
changes that will break integrations, contain bugs, and add new, unwanted
features. For most consumers, there’s a gap between what they expect from
hardware and what they get with smart home devices that leads to
dissatisfaction, returns, and poor user experiences.
For the manufacturers, there’s a lack of tools and/or research to ensure that
software updates don’t cause problems or that new features don’t frustrate
users. I’ll offer up a few examples of fussy devices to illustrate these
issues. Let me be your cautionary tale before purchasing a smart bulb or
speaker."
Via
The RISKS Digest Volume 32 Issue 94:
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/32/94#subj19
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
