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Lowe's is shutting down its Iris smart home platform at the end of March
In a move that may seem obvious in retrospect, Lowe's has decided that its Iris smart home platform is not in fact going to take off. Instead, the home improvement-focused retail chain is shutting the service down on March 31st, 2019 and advising all Iris users to kindly avoid taking their no-longer-functioning products back to a Lowe's store. The company says it will however give you some money back in the form of a prepaid Visa card that will help you "migrate to another smart home platform," reads the company's website.
[...] Alternatively, Lowe's says that a number of the products that are compatible with Iris are also compatible with Samsung's SmartThings platform, and SmartThings is apparently agreed to help with the transition process. Some other Iris products use standard protocols like Zigbee and Z-Wave, notes Android Police, meaning they should also work with other platforms beyond SmartThings if you don't feel like trying to get your money back.
Dumb as a bag of hammers.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:26PM (3 children)
At the end of the day, what can your IoT home automation devices actually accomplish?
Control lights using an app on your phone? Well, that's mildly useful. Expensive LED bulbs that have colors, dimming, and act as Bluetooth speakers or Wi-Fi repeaters? Greaat.
You've got the smart thermostat, assuming it is smart enough to actually save you money. You've got home (in)security systems like a doorbell camera and ability to unlock the front door remotely. Maybe you have an IoT fridge with a tablet embedded in it that can order food for you at a ridiculous markup.
Home automation consists of a bunch of stuff that is only marginally useful but much more expensive. Maybe you want just the LED bulb, thermostat, or front door camera, but not all of them connected to a hub. Meanwhile, where's the robot that can cook and clean (not a panini grill duct taped to a Roomba)? Nowhere, you still have to get a domestic servant or wife/husband for that.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:54PM (1 child)
Let's be honest here, you meant waifu / haifu(?)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:56PM
Nani?!
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by toddestan on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:14PM
To me, a real smart home would be smart enough to handle the automation, whatever it may be, all on its own instead of outsourcing the smarts to some server controlled by someone else. Of course, this isn't the way it's done because all these rent-seeking companies want to sell you a service indefinitely as well as collect all your data and sell that too.
That it is all about money is why they also kill this stuff off as soon as they find it's not bring in the profits they want.