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Update, Dec 21, 2:47pm: In response to customers' frustration, Logitech issued another statement today with instructions on how to enable private local API controls.
Many users of Logitech's Harmony Hub smart home hub and remote were recently met with a nasty surprise. The device's latest firmware update, version 4.15.206, reportedly cuts off local access for Harmony Hubs. As a result, many users who created home automation and smart home systems using third-party APIs haven't been able to control many, and in some cases, all of their connected IoT devices.
Logitech began pushing out firmware update 4.15.206 last week, its release notes stating that it addresses security and bug fixes. Users immediately flocked to Logitech's community forms to complain once they realized the systems they built up to control their smart home devices essentially became unresponsive. Users with Homeseer and Home Assistant APIs have reported parts of their systems broken, preventing them from controlling things like smart TVs, sound systems, and more using the Harmony Hub and its remote.
Last night, Logitech responded with an official statement on its forums, saying in part that the firmware update addresses "security vulnerabilities" and that those "undocumented" APIs that some have been using for home automation were never officially supported in the first place.
Source: Logitech disables local access on Harmony Hubs, breaks automation systems [Update]
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday December 23 2018, @02:38AM (4 children)
I'm pretty sure you don't have to set it up that way unless you want to. For one thing, even if it was (or is... I've been following them for a while but haven't bothered to build one) 100% baked in, you have all the source code, and you could un-bake it right back out. If you look at the setup page for that [mycroft.ai], you'll see that the account is used by some third party skills to connect to other servers and to set up some preferences such as English vs. metric. You could just hard code the latter, and skip any (or all) of the third party stuff you don't trust.
But for anyone who is looking for a canned, pre-setup experience, yes — they're using a central server to do STT and link you to 3rd party skills. I think what it boils down to is they're just trying to make it easy. The fundamental difference here is that you can set this up locally. That's not the case with Google, Amazon, etc.
But: If I'm wrong about this — and I could be — such that they have proprietary stuff you can't change, I would be pleased if someone would point me to evidence of that, and I will stop making suggestions anyone use the thing. And think a few very dark thoughts.
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All generalizations are false.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday December 23 2018, @03:00AM (3 children)
I've posted a question [mycroft.ai] on their forums to see if I can get a straightforward answer on this from the MyCroft [mycroft.ai] people themselves. Will report back if I do.
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Government: Designed to provide you with "service" and...
...the Media: Designed to provide you with Vaseline.
(Score: 1) by DeVilla on Sunday December 23 2018, @10:44PM (2 children)
I was looking a night or so ago. It depends on the home server right now. They've mad e a few incomplete attempts to implement a "local" home server that you could run yourself. The issue is speech to text. They are using a cloud service they are aren't too happy with.
This isn't everything I found on the topic. There are a lot of link in these two.
https://community.mycroft.ai/t/can-i-use-mycroft-offline/5306 [mycroft.ai]
https://community.mycroft.ai/t/the-mycroft-personal-server-starting-the-conversation/4691 [mycroft.ai]
(Score: 1) by DeVilla on Sunday December 23 2018, @10:46PM (1 child)
I see below now that you've found everything I did. Sorry for the dup. I was hoping they'd have a different answer.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday December 23 2018, @11:41PM
No problem. The more the merrier.
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Reality is that thing which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.