$800… for an emotional support toy?
Is this why there’s so much poverty in the world? Because once people have enough excess wealth, this is what they choose to spend it on instead of helping those who need it more?
Yes, most millionaires are cringe but you should go after billionaires first.
Obviously it are the avocado toast
No, it’s because of billionaires that hoard more money than 1000 people could reasonably spend in a lifetime.
I’m with you…except I choose to believe there’s a reason they’re going bust (because no, folks aren’t choosing to spend on this)
That said, I’d like to remind everyone that Elon Musk has the money and power to end homeless and poverty in the US and chooses not to.
Well he’s not American so why would you expect that?
He can do it for SA though
No, but you will be happy to know the product failed
What a waste of resources just to make somebody richer!
Amazon Dash buttons have entered the chat.
OpenSourcing is a good move
What is “trying to” open source though? Make the GitHub repo public, include the database schema, and you’re done.
What ever could go wrong with that?
Oh, right. Winamp very recently showed us exactly what could go wrong with that.
They might rely on parts that have non open sourced drivers or firmware. Perhaps different parts of the code were authored by different people and they need everyone approval.
Yeah it’s so simple, no way they could be the good guys, can’t have that.
Likely they have proprietary or otherwise private information they want to clean out first, or they want to make it more presentable or documented.
I agree I’m not a fan of the “trying to” phrasing either.
I just don’t get it with these proprietary cloud connected devices. Do people just not realize that keeping server infrastructure running for free after a product is sold is not in a company’s best profit-seeking interests? I thought of this almost fifteen years ago when I started seeing smart thermostats. There should always be an option to go local, even if it requires the consumer to acquire a skillset in IT. Maybe we can start working things like that into right to repair legislation if it isn’t already.
maybe they don’t even think about how things on the Internet actually work, I dunno
bingo! that’s the reason behind most of their illogical decisions
just ask around, and you’ll find that they want things to just work without understanding how they work
I once had a tech support ticket for a computer not turning on. When I checked it out, they had connected a power bar to itself. This 40yr old man genuinely didn’t understand why that wouldn’t work.
Most people don’t think about how things work. I’d guess that most customers thought all the smart features were internal and the Internet connection was just an arbitrary requirement
Exactly. Another example of people who are on forums like this are worlds apart from people who know quite literally less than nothing about computers.
Is there missing punctuation in that headline or am I an idiot?
I clicked on this thread only to figure out what that title is supposed to mean.
This should be a standard requirement for abandoning an internet reliant product (with all IP and internal documentation released and becoming public domain in the event of a bankruptcy, and keys handled by some consumer protection agency capable of facilitating community projects working to unlock them for owners).
But questionable value of the product aside, the fact that they’re making the effort to not be assholes and try to do what it takes to give their costumers’ products the life they can is better than most, so they deserve credit for that.
EU pushed new product liability bill. After it takes effect companies will be responsible for breaking of devices and software.
Seems like a good move but it will also raise the risk of releasing new tech. Startup money will have to include some kind of coverage for that, making it harder to get startup money. Rather than simply impose a liability I would feel better about requiring orphaned IP to be opensourced so interested parties can do exactly what’s happening in this case.
Nah, if a company goes bankrupt, their entire software base should just be posted online.
Or sold like their many assets.
I agree if they simply go away, what they produced should become opensource. Sometimes this involves removing dependencies on proprietary software, which anybody who used the opensourced portion would in turn have to pay to license. So they have to rewrite those parts or make special arrangements. Anyway it’s not the slam-dunk you might think. Like after what happens in an action cop movie everybody walks away, but in reality they would spend months or years in court over damages to buildings, passersby getting hurt, etc. Nothing is ever as simple as outsiders think.
But that’s communism!!1!1!!
Using some creepy robot with a proprietary algorithm to provide “emotional support” to children sounds like a good thing to go out of business.
