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After prolonged service outage, Petnet shuts down, citing coronavirus:
Cloud-connected, "smart" automated pet-feeder system Petnet has had a rough spring. The service not only went offline in February, but all its customer service vanished, too, leaving users in the dark until the company apologized and pushed a patch more than a week later. The service briefly returned for some users but fell off again in March. Now, after weeks of silence, the company is blaming COVID-19 for driving it offline for good—even though its problems started weeks or months before the novel coronavirus became a significant concern.
[...] "Last week on April 14, 2020, we briefed all of our customers regarding one of our third-party connected vendor's inability to fully resource their company and stay functionally online," the message reads. "As of this writing, this situation remains unresolved but we are confident it will be overcome soon."
But due to the exceptional circumstances the COVID-19 pandemic has created, Petnet went on, many of its vendors—largely startups like itself—were "severely and negatively affected in their day to day operations." In short: the funding dried up. Due to a lack of funds, Petnet said, it "re-prioritized and reorganized [its] resources," including:
- We have furloughed 100% of our remaining staff
- We have ceased all future product development, including bug fixes
- We have turned off all non-infrastructure related expenses
- We have terminated our office lease and are working remotely
- We have applied for all available CARES stimulus funding
Previously:
(2020-02-28) Petnet's Smart Pet Feeder System Back after Week-Long Outage
(2016-07-30) Cats, Dogs Go Hungry as Internet-Connected PetNet Plays Dead
(Score: 5, Informative) by Booga1 on Wednesday April 29 2020, @05:46AM (7 children)
This is why you don't buy Internet-of-Trash products.
If you don't control it, you don't own it. They're not products, they're services in the shape of a product.
It doesn't matter how good they are, they'll stop working when the company declares it obsolete, or in this case when the company folds.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @06:35AM (4 children)
Pets
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @07:07AM
On The Internet.
Profit???
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday April 29 2020, @09:50AM (2 children)
Wanna IoT coffin? Nano-ashes maybe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 29 2020, @02:17PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday April 29 2020, @04:09PM
... or stay dead but evicted back to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday April 29 2020, @11:43AM (1 child)
Circuit City did it to me. Divx disks.
I've been leery of this business model ever since.
If it has internet connectivity, buying such a thing is apt to bring much grief as it's creator may use it to compel me to his business model, including compelling me to click " agree" to whatever is on his terms and conditions. The alternative being considering my purchase to be a sunk cost, and stripping the now useless thing for any usable parts.
Study the thing before tendering your charge card. You may end up paying your trash collector to haul that useless piece of crap away.
There are many reasons I am so cynical. I sure wish I had kept my money in my wallet. And did something other than waiting on the damm phone. I have bought too many problems in a box, nearly every one of them coming in over the internet.
I'm an old coot, and I claim my right to grouse like one.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 29 2020, @03:56PM
Ah, Divx disks. Circus City.
I was going to reply, but wrote a journal article [soylentnews.org] instead.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.