An engineer got curious about how his iLife A11 smart vacuum worked and monitored the network traffic coming from the device. That’s when he noticed it was constantly sending logs and telemetry data to the manufacturer — something he hadn’t consented to. The user, Harishankar, decided to block the telemetry servers’ IP addresses on his network, while keeping the firmware and OTA servers open. While his smart gadget worked for a while, it just refused to turn on soon after. After a lengthy investigation, he discovered that a remote kill command had been issued to his device.
Play stupid games win stupid prizes.
I have a standard vacuum. I spend about 10 minutes a day vacuuming. Miele has no telemetry whatsoever lol
Ugh. Stop shaming people for wanting to automate mundane tasks. No one’s playing a stupid game here, the problem isn’t robot vacuums. The problem is that manufacturers insist on holding features hostage on the basis that you connect said vacuum to the Internet, so they can harvest (and then sell) your data. Be mad at that, not at normal people wanting to make a boring chore less burdensome.
speak for yourself. I enjoy vacuuming! I have a small space so it doesn’t take as long to vacuum.
Disagree. My experience is they still don’t get everything, can’t do furniture or corners well or under furniture. They’re stupid. They’re expensive and if you really can’t spend 10 minutes or less to vacuum your house daily or every other day it speaks volumes on the type of person you are.
I stand by what I said. More money than brains.
Yeah good for you, but that’s hardly the point now is it? There is nothing wrong with automating stuff like this and expecting it to work without bullshit like the post happening.
The point is it’s stupid and people who want to automate 10 minutes out of their day are equally stupid
I hope this stupid phrase dies in the coming year. It’s about time.
Yes and the point being spending 300$+ to eliminate 10 minutes a day is absolutely hilarious.
Spending $300 to eliminate 60 hours per year makes sense to me.
I gotta say, I’ve never really found the appeal of the self-propelled vacuum cleaners. They’re incredibly finicky and prone to getting snagged on surfaces. They don’t have particularly good suction and their waste storage is minimal. Tons of moving parts that wear through easily over time. Belts, fans, and wheels all get worn away from the device’s heat and exhaustive regular use.
The time savings is minimal and the expense is extraordinary. I just don’t think its worth the trouble.
I used to have a Roomba in my apartment. I had a small step that was about 2 inches off the ground, and the Roomba kept falling off of it. It got caught on a small area rug that I had; it was pretty fluffy, so that it kept getting caught on the floofs was valid. but the Roomba could not clean up my cats litter. it just ran over it. absolutely no suction power in that thing. I eventually sold it on Facebook for 15 dollars. I paid about 400 dollars for it to do nothing at all. I then purchased a Dyson for 500 dollars. I still have it. it works perfectly.