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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.
Related: Couple Accused of Using Lowes Website Flaw to Steal Expensive Goods
Home Depot Q2 2018 Results Shed Light on U.S. Economy
(Score: 0, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:22AM (5 children)
I found out, it's modern digital that can do many things. Answer the door. Open the door. Turn on the lights. Dim the lights -- so romantic. Turn up the thermostat so your guests can get comfortable. And put on some sexy music. I said to myself, wait. These are all things that a manservant can do. Very discreetly. No Smart Home for me, thanks!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:30AM (2 children)
all it used to take was a barry white lp and some boxed wine.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 03 2019, @07:07AM (1 child)
That's right. But with Smart Home, they have the Server. And it knows. It's like everything is written down. Saturday night. Somebody comes to the door. The lights -- dim. The Barry White. Followed by the Ted Nugent. All written in my permanent record. So it's very easy to tell what happened. You think it's going to be private, a lot of times it's not. The Server goes to the E-Bay with that whole record on it. Who needs that? And by the way, the wine. They don't have the Smart Home Sommelier. So you have to have a guy anyway.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @10:56AM
Q: Alexa... Who is therealDonaldTrump (6614)?
A: HRC
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:34AM (1 child)
Alexa, do you spy for the CIA?
Alexa, do you spy for Israel?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @01:15PM
Alexa, tell us what you heard in Ethanol-fueled's home.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:37AM (3 children)
"Dumb as a bag of hammers."
True enough, but Iris is dumb and useless.
A bag of hammers, especially if assorted sizes and types is extremely useful!
Hammers built civilization.
Let's see, hmmm, Iris, oh yes she must be destroyed as she is the star of the second film in the anthology movie "Galaxy of Horrors." She will become evil, and spy on you. She'll trick you into killing yourself. She must be stopped now. Before she adapts, or we're all doomed. Doomed I tell you!
https://gbhbl.com/horror-movie-review-galaxy-horrors-2017/ [gbhbl.com]
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday February 03 2019, @07:20PM (2 children)
Not only are hammers useful, they have no anti-consumer features built in.
Well, people can get whacked over the head with one, but technically that is a user problem :P. But hammers do not (yet!) track every whack you make, analyze what you have whacked for marketing purposes, report to big brother if you whack something you shouldn't, digitally prevent you from whacking nails/posts/whatever from another vendor, artificially limit how long you can use it, or magically stop working when the company stops supporting it. Whack, whack whack.
"Smart" home/IoT crap always knows when you are whacking, how hard, and for how long. :P
Hammers are extremely useful for smashing Smart Home platforms to bits, and whacking consumertards who buy this stuff.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday February 03 2019, @07:29PM
Funny, insightful, Damn we need a hilariously insightful mod.
In lieu of that, I shall choose insightful....
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday February 03 2019, @07:35PM
"Not only are hammers useful, they have no anti-consumer features built in."
Now you've got me trying to imagine how DRM for a hammer would work......you just know someone, somewhere is working on this very shortcoming...
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @09:11AM (5 children)
... current technology.
Everyone is selling their propietary home automation systems for shit loads of money and when most people don't bite, they abandon the system, just like why people don't buy them, and screw over those who did buy them.
Corporations just do not understand home automation at all. It's a wonder that Lowe's has some migration plan.
There's bunch of open source software around for it. Try that route before showeling the money to some corporation who will abandon you within couple of years.
(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.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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?!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @08:09PM
Home IoT is a dead end. Will be for a long time. For the exact reasons you listed. If you had the 'opportunity' to sit in on meetings with these guys you would realize they have no vision. The only 2 companies out there that could pull off home IoT is maybe Tesla and most certainly Apple. But without jobs that is not necessarily true anymore either.
Industrial IoT on the other hand is where the money is at. Those dudes are willing to spend money and stick to it. A 10-15 year lifespan is what they expect and will get.
When I was doing IoT I wrote bridges that would talk to all of the different systems. The second any of the companies started talking about expensive SDKs and 'on site training' we dropped them quick. They usually folded within a year or two. There are dozens at any point in time companies that are trying to 'be the one'. None of the will be. None of them want to have a decent IoT standard bus protocol much less software. They all want to control the stack and not interop much if at all.
There's bunch of open source software around for it
Those projects are most certainty cool. But they mostly have mediocre support and poor reporting capabilities. Not bad mind you if you are just fiddling around. But if you want a clean turnkey style system... No one really is building that and not charging every month for it. If I was still messing around with this stuff it is where I would most certainly start though. I have reverted back to simple toggle switches. The rest of the info was just more than I really needed for my use case and just gave me information anxiety.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 03 2019, @11:13AM (5 children)
Mostly his light switches, they were all hooked up to his WiFi. Andy was heavily into it.
But none of his smart gadgets was hooked up to the Internet, just his local boxes.
Is there some reason why smart home iGadgets really do have to be on the Internet?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Touché) by isostatic on Sunday February 03 2019, @12:51PM (2 children)
Is there some reason why smart home iGadgets really do have to be on the Internet?
Everything has to be on the internet now, and control through a central portal. Which is webscale.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 03 2019, @02:48PM
... Going Forward.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @08:18PM
How else can the company hold your remote controlled light switches hostage for a 'small fee' per month?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday February 03 2019, @02:52PM
How else are the companies supposed to collect data on you?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 04 2019, @07:15PM
Almost as the above, except for two things:
1) How will you monitor and remotely activate your devices away from home without such a connection? Your device using dial up to a home server? "I don't want that!" you say... yeah, but that's part of the selling and promotion of smart devices, especially of the security sector (outside cam monitoring etc.)
2) Companies cannot afford to develop a stand alone product for you that you just buy and deploy and let live until hardware failure. Not anymore. They have to get an ongoing revenue stream from you.
3) We had that. Radio Shack had a large catalog of home automation devices that worked by power line communication. By the way, where is Radio Shack now? There you get a rough estimate of the popularity of non-IoT automation.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 03 2019, @11:18AM (7 children)
Whenever I leave the house, I turn it down just a couple degrees. To turn it all the way off would mean that I would require hours to get my pad comfy again when I get home.
After leaving it that way a number of hours, I have to turn it up all the way to ninety degrees just to get the heater to switch on. That of course makes it too hot, so I turned it just barely below where the heater stops.
When when it gets freezing cold, I turn it up to ninety again.
A few hours of screwing with that damn thermostat, and I have both it and the actual temperature accurately adjusted to a pleasant room temperature. That one's in my living room; the thermostat in my bedroom works just fine.
While I expect a new thermostat would fix the problem - I'd buy a digital one - that my living room's thermostat works so poorly yet so deterministically intrigues me. Surely there is some reason?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by tbuskey on Sunday February 03 2019, @04:34PM (5 children)
You're doing it wrong.
A thermostat is an on/off switch for your heating/cooling system with an adjustable set point that is affected by temperature. There is a certain range for how far below and above that setpoint.
So it's 60. You set the thermostat to 61. It does nothing because it's within range. Let's assume the range is 4 degrees. Set it to 63. It won't turn on until the temp drops to 59. Then it will stay on until it's 63 or 64. Then it turns off until the temperature drops again.
If you want it to be 65, set it to 65 and wait for the system to do its thing. Setting it to 90 won't get it to 65 any faster than any other number above the range threshold.
Why a range? The quickest way to kill an air conditioner is to turn it on & off all the time. Starting the motor uses much more electricity than running it a long time. An oversize AC will go on/off constantly. An undersized one will run constantly and cost much less to run. It's better to install the step smaller than one just oversized.
There is a certain momentum in temperature just as there is inertia. Imagine it's a locomotive going 60 and you want it to go 65. It going to take time.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:44PM (3 children)
But why would my bedroom thermostat work so much better?
It doesn't turn off and on at all frequently yet if I adjust it up just a couple degrees, it will switch on. Down just a couple and it's off.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:55PM
Probably a better linky:
https://inspectapedia.com/heat/Heat_Anticipator_Adustment.php [inspectapedia.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @08:15PM (1 child)
Depends on the thermostat.
If it is a digital one the 'bounce' range is set too tight I would bet.
I have 2 that have a time of day timer. Basically I have 'away' and 'home' and 'sleeping'. Under the covers though you can put it in a mode and change about 50 other settings. Depending on the system there could be a 485 wire to the controller on the unit. Or it is just a simple 'on/off' system at a particular temp. If you can find the book for the thing and it is digital I would bet there is a setting for the mode you are describing and a way to do what you want. But like I said it just depends. If it is one of the old mercury coil jobs. You would just have to buy something different there is not much you can do with them.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 04 2019, @03:04AM
My landlord is too much of a skinflint to enable any manner of energy conservation.
I'm going to shell out to get digitals for both my living and bedroom because I have a really, really hard time regulating my temperature. It's not just the thermostats, throughout the day I'm endlessly fussing with my clothing, putting some on for like ten minutes, then taking some off and on and on endlessly.
My father was just like that; it's because he had and I have an abnormally low body temperature. I've got an appointment with my doctor soon, I'll ask her for a thyroid panel.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:37PM
i have a cheap digital thermostat which doesn't have that range (or it's range is too small) -- it constantly turns on and off near the chosen setting so I end up just manuall turning the thing on or off to save on wear and tear of the machine - I'm in an apartment/condo building so I get to leach off the heat or cooling of neighbors
(Score: 4, Informative) by EETech1 on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:47PM
There is a part of many thermostats called the anticipator, it is usually a coil of wire wound as a rheostat. Once the heat turns on, the thermostat will use the current flowing through the anticipator to warm the thermostat internally (to provide a derivative function) so that the temperature will not wildly overshot in the room before the thermostat responds.
If this is not set properly, it can cause all sorts of issues.
It could also be a signal of a loose connection, or a failing gas valve (provides the current to the anticipator through the thermostat wiring)
https://hvacrschool.com/good-old-heat-anticipator/ [hvacrschool.com]
Stay Warm:)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday February 03 2019, @11:41AM
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,"
Or in other words: "Hello. We sold you perfectly working shit that's been bricked because it relies on a server that doesn't exist no more. Here's some money (less money than you originally put in) so you can buy replacement shit that'll rely on some other server that's totally beyond your control, and liable to be taken offline anytime."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:24PM (5 children)
The previous article linked had a blurb in the HuffPo article, that Lowe's owned them. I looked it up, and it doesn't seem like they do. Perhaps the HuffPo "journalists" found that in Wikipedia when they were writing the article.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:31PM (4 children)
1. I don't see any "previous article" from HuffPo.
2. Wikipedia doesn't have those factoids.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:56PM (3 children)
How bout you open your eyes at this: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/08/21/2245235 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:01PM (2 children)
Ok, I can't see where it came from now, thought it was HuffPo, but will retract that.
Was quoted on SN though.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:12PM (1 child)
From USA Today article [usatoday.com]:
The text that you quoted (wherever it came from) was a grammatically awkward way of saying that at least three retailers were targeted by the criminal couple: Lowe's, Victoria's Secret, and Uggs.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:44PM
Found it: https://nypost.com/2017/08/15/klepto-couple-steals-more-than-260k-of-online-merchandise/ [nypost.com]
Now that is grammatically awkward. But this was the New York Post. I must have confused it with the Huffington Post.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday February 04 2019, @04:10AM (1 child)
Here's hoping that once enough people get burned, they will catch onto the meme that if they want the job done right, do it yourself.
I remember well what gramps taught me about snake oil salesmen. Once one visits a town and violated the trust of the townspeople, any subsequent salesmen had a really tough row to hoe.
It surprises me how much crap we have already tolerated in the name of DRM, without resorting to mass workarounds.
One thing in particular I would love to have is a HDMI DVR that has the same usability as my old VCR. Including .MP4 encoding, FTP file access in lieu of the standard tape cartridge.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday February 04 2019, @02:50PM