Smart devices were supposed to make life better, but constant updates have made them worse
  • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    If you want a smart home/devices, only opt for locally controlled, non-cloud, open source, and self hosted options. Home Assistant is great for home automation.

    My mini splits used to be controlled by an Alexa dongle with no other choice from the manufacturer. After some research, I discovered that there was an ESPHome module for controlling them with about $8 worth of stuff. It’s more responsive, reliable, will never stop working because some company decided it’s no longer worth their time, and has more elaborate controls than anything the manufacturer provided. And I can control three mini splits for half of the cost of one “cloud dongle” from the manufacturer.

    The best way to combat enshittification is voting with your wallet. Support projects by people who produce open source solutions. Donate the money you would have spent on the “turnkey cloud” option to help fund the open source project through donations. Until we stop giving these companies money, they’re not going to stop screwing us.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      The best way to combat enshittification is voting with your wallet

      Which is why enshittification will only to enshittify.

      Cause while there may be rare individuals like you and me who cause ourself stress and headache by trying to find work arounds to avoid certain companies and practices… The overwhelming majority of people just don’t care, even if they get absolutely properly fucked over by a company or product. They’ll bitch and moan about it, maybe even curse its name… But they will eventually go crawling back, to that same company or another one who does the exact same thing, because the average person would lose their mind if they had to deal with even the most mildest of inconvenience in their everyday life, even if that inconvenience is something as small as learning a different product.

      at least thats been my personal experience dealing with consumers over the past 20+ years.

  • just another dev@lemmy.my-box.devEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    What a stupid title. As if anybody’s buying smart devices in the hope they’ll be worth more someday.

    My on topic advice: if you rely on your smart TV to get to your content, you’re going to have a bad time. Get a small computer instead, and treat your “smart” TV as a monitor, nothing more.

    I did get myself an nvidia shield last year, and after switching out the stock launcher for something that doesn’t show ads (and better yet, launches straight into plex at boot), I couldn’t be happier.