Emails are okay but by the time I saw the email, whatever was going on would be long over. A notification from an app would let me take immediate action AKA call police if it's a burglar. Maybe it could be setup to send a text?
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Smart Home Company Wink Gives Users an Extra Week Before Surprise Subscription Fees Are Required
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Here's to hoping my SmartThings hub gets here before then.
Not really, push email notifications are nearly instant. Besides, various DVR/NVR software can have their own apps with push notifications of motion or other events. The important thing is, once you have cameras of good enough resolution and if you take time to wire them up with reliable PoE, none of this wifi junk, you have a system that's upgradeable for years to come.
Pfft! (spits milk)
Yeah, like "an extra week" is the problem. It says right on the box: NO FEES OR SUBSCRIPTIONS
Wink is so very clearly on the precipice of shutting down and they're just trying to get as much of our cash on the way out.
Fortunately for me, when I thought I'd start building a Wink smart home and purchased a Wink Relay, I immediately got a bad feeling about the company when they kept blaming me and third parties for their bugs so I didn't buy anything else. HomeKit came along soon after and I built my smart home with that standard instead.
Yeah, like "an extra week" is the problem. It says right on the box: NO FEES OR SUBSCRIPTIONS
Wink is so very clearly on the precipice of shutting down and they're just trying to get as much of our cash on the way out.
Fortunately for me, when I thought I'd start building a Wink smart home and purchased a Wink Relay, I immediately got a bad feeling about the company when they kept blaming me and third parties for their bugs so I didn't buy anything else. HomeKit came along soon after and I built my smart home with that standard instead.
Anybody else have a Wink Relay? It runs Android. By covering the IR sensor and pressing the bottom light switch for 45 seconds in the setup menu, it'll reboot into Android. You can then install Android apps. I'm thinking of installing the Alexa app and just using that.
Judging by the May 20 deadline, they're bankrupt already. Just haven't admitted it.
[automerge]1589337558[/automerge]
Dream on. The company's in serious financial distress.
Some customers will pay the ransom, but only as part of an exit plan. It's over.
[automerge]1589337966[/automerge]
Sounds like a good exit strategy. Kudos.
I mean, Amazon's not about to run out of cash, is it?
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I had a small outdoor company do something like that to me. They charged some kind of fee for something. A few months later they went out of business. It was just a way to get some cash before closing the doors.
This. This is why I'm not tripping over myself to hook up every damn light switch or appliance I own to the internet.
You just have to make good decisions about which horse to hitch your wagon to. Every smart home accessory I have is HomeKit compatible. Because of the way HomeKit works, even if a device maker went out of business or decided to charge a fee for cloud services, the devices would still work perfectly fine through HomeKit, because it doesn’t utilize communication with the vendor, just Apple. I also tend to stick to well established companies like Schlage, Chamberlain, Ecobee, Philips, etc.
But you already lied to me once, so why would I ever believe you again. Trust me, that's a rhetorical question. See, when I found out last week you apparently cannot run a company correctly and now decided that extortion would be a better remedy for your balance sheet, I made up my mind then on what to do with your wonky product. You may have it back right now - for free!! But you have to hurry - just stop by our house anytime before 10.00 tomorrow morning because that is when the garbage truck picks up and guess what is down in the trash bag?!
Admittedly, I've done a lot of that smart home "hooking up" myself. But I've avoided critical systems (like physical security, doors and locks) and stuck to "blue chip" companies with good cashflow.
But this is a timely wake-up call nonetheless:
"Open the pod bay doors, HAL"
"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that without a monthly subscription..."
Breaks the meeting of the mind from the contract of sale With a change of conditions after first sale doctrine.
Options are to grandfather existing products into subscription for free, or refund everyone who returns product.
See: Uniform Commercial Code.
Options are to grandfather existing products into subscription for free, or refund everyone who returns product.
See: Uniform Commercial Code.
We have a winner.
Also, if they are knowingly implementing this cash grab to pay out to insiders (even salaried employees) and do not intend to stay in business, they are committing criminal fraud.
It sounds like...
forums.macrumors.com
Everyone hates subscription pricing.
I am looking at you, Microsuck Office...
Airmail Users Frustrated About Sudden Switch to Subscription-Based Pricing on iPhone and iPad [Updated]
Airmail users awoke today to find out that the popular email app has switched to a subscription-based pricing model on the iPhone and iPad. Airmail for iOS is now free to download on the App Store, but push notifications and multi-account support have become premium features priced at...
forums.macrumors.com
Everyone hates subscription pricing.
I am looking at you, Microsuck Office...
I guess they forgot to figure in the cost of the upcoming class-action law suit, or the fact that they'll have 50% fewer customers to pay the bills in a couple months. They should have at least waited until they had a notable hardware/software product update to hang this kind of change on, but no.
Reminds me of Lowes discontinuing their smart plug products. At least they gave me some money back.
Reminds me of Automatic. Great product until they made subscriptions. Now, a dead company.
I don't begrudge them the subscription, but this is the wrong way to do it. They should at least be offering a discount or some kind of grandfathered subscription plan.
OTOH, maybe they're out of cash. Making hardware is expensive, and bandwidth + storage costs eventually will chew up your profit.
OTOH, maybe they're out of cash. Making hardware is expensive, and bandwidth + storage costs eventually will chew up your profit.
This is exactly the price people need to pay for all sorts of “smart home devices”, either customer themselves as the product or an upfront subscription cost. True, hitting existing customers by such surprise is bad, but shouldn’t those customers realise how those smart home devices work? They all need internet connection of some sort? A big part of implementing IoT devices is to maintain internet connection for as low cost as possible, which is not free.
Someone writes an article discussing the potential problem of those “smart devices” and “planned obsolescence” crippled by software, consequently creating huge amount of e-waste and tons of bricked devices contributing to landfill. I hope this “surprise move” will alert those customers and inspire them to understand the true cost of using smart devices.
Someone writes an article discussing the potential problem of those “smart devices” and “planned obsolescence” crippled by software, consequently creating huge amount of e-waste and tons of bricked devices contributing to landfill. I hope this “surprise move” will alert those customers and inspire them to understand the true cost of using smart devices.
App devs have been doing this for years. Surprise, we know you bought it but now you’ll have to buy it...forever! We just became deeply invested in the Lutron Radio RA ecosystem of switches, shades, and other devices. I vehemently oppose all these asinine class action lawsuits, but if Lutron were to suddenly blackmail us with a pay-forever-or-be-bricked ultimatum I’d have an attorney retained before the day were out. And the middle finger of a whole weeks’ reprieve would only make me dial faster.
It's pathetic isn't it? No time to decide, look out for other options, etc. They literally put the gun to their own customers' heads. I wouldn't be surprised (and not disappointed either) if this turns into a round of Russian roulette badly gone wrong for the company.