Logitech limits number of additions and deletions of Harmony Hub devices
reddit.com
reddit.com
Not only is it anti-consumer, it's ecologically unsound, preventing re-use of a working product and encouraging more plastic crap to go to landfill.
Interesting to note that these are both premium brands. Are they relying on the majority of their customers being non tech savvy and unaware of the policy, or are they betting that most customers will accept the practice?
My guess is that they're assuming that revenue from customers forced to purchase a new, not secondhand product, exceeds revenue loss from those who are aware of the policy and won't purchase. Short term thinking, at best.
It's easier to buy a new product than complain about it to support, so out of a 100, maybe 5 will complain, and maybe 60 will buy a new product.
Companies do dumb, expensive stuff all the time. Aside from quite often deliberately doing stuff that doesn't "maximise profit", they also frequently make quite catastrophically bad decisions which accidentally avoid "maximising profit".
It's baffling to me that you ascribe such a level of skill and professionalism, when most organisations seems to be accidentally successful!
> Microsoft
* MS Office is still the best office suite as of today, I don't think anyone would argue.
* Windows is still the most 'compatible' and 'easy to use' OS today for non-apple hardware. I don't think penguin system users will argue. This is coming from someone who used linux with breaks for 10~ years. It is still _hard_ to get it working as it was years ago. However, for years I heard many developers refusing to consider anything .NET, MSSQL,... related to be picked for tech stacks due microsoft history and current ecosystem. Money definitely lost on their part
> Oracle
* Same, tech people refusing to get involved with Oracle due their litigious nature. Money definitely lost
> Ethereum
* I am not the best person to talk about this and this might not be the example. Fork reduced my trust in cryptos in general as my expectations were different.
* Gmail is great email service. On top of that free. Same with Google search. However I would argue that Google new products which "lock you in" will not be as popular because of their abandonment of many services
> Apple keyboards
* This is more personal, but I saw similar experiences from others. Terrible keyboard, terrible replacement keyboard reduced my trust so much that I moved from their ecosystem. This is on top that components were soldered resulting in non modular expensive laptops (can't replace it myself fast/cheap). Money definitely lost on their part
Edit: formatting
This is planned obsolescence at its worst, opening up firmware once you drop support for a product should be mandatory.
I would say what they are doing with Squeezebox is the best case scenario for a lot of these connected devices, even though the complexity of having a self-hosted option is in no doubt part of what lead to their failure.
The squeezebox ecosystem is my go-to example of how to do it correctly and build a product that respects the consumer.
The server is open source (just a bunch of perl) and freely distributed. It runs locally and the players don't need internet connectivity. It can never be obsoleted or killed because everything is local.
Sure, the company has long, long-since discontinued the product so they aren't developing updates. That's fair. But they also don't (and can't) do anything to disable existing functionality.
I have many squeezebox systems (including a transporter) scattered around the house and they work great, just as they did in 2003 when I bought the first one. More importantly, they will never stop working (other than hardware failure, but I have many spares).
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/esiv9b/psa_...
I wonder how the product manager sold this feature to management? I don’t think many people’s bonus is contingent on “let maximize how hated our brand it”.
but yeah, the Hub was an interesting piece of tech I maybe wanted to get sometime, not anymore.
Now, I purchased the G502 and used it for a year (at work and home, lot of use). I had to stop, their pointy finger area is elevated instead of "dropping" like traditional mouse. The consequences are that you put strength through the whole finger for a click, rather than a soft push on the tip. I developed finger pain after a year, had to switch mouse.
How can this possibly be a thing on a device you paid for and own?
I mean, I know how it can be implemented through software, but why is it not illegal?
I don't think this distinction would hold up in court, though, at least in the EU, where consumer rights are somewhat protected. When you buy a physical device with certain functionality described on the box, you have a reasonable expectation that it will deliver said functionality.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
Vodafone DE had exactly what you describe with their home 4G modems - limited to within a km or post code of your home iirc. Still probably does.
IMHO, Logitech has (or is it had?) pretty outstanding hardware. I had two RumblePad 2 (the original ones) that survived over 10 years of abuse (buttone mashing, dropping, rage due to losing to my brother 30 times in a row in fighting games). Still the best gamepads I've ever used.
Are there any realistic alternatives to Logitech?
It reminds a bit of movie piracy where exorbitant losses were claimed while ignoring that people would not have bought each and every movie instead of pirating it.
I mean, there must be a set number of allowed resets/additions/deletions.
Two possible extreme cases:
1) this (unknown) set amount is so large that the overwhelming majority of users (let's say 99%) won't ever hit it
2) this (unknown) set amount is so small that the overwhelming majority of users (let's say 99%) is likely to hit it before or later
If #1 it makes no sense as it affects such a small number of devices to be irrelevant, if #2 it makes no sense because it would cause an uproar of the customer base.
And the sheer fact that there is a set limit to reset/additions/delections that is not explicited in documentation exposes the manufacturer to possible lawsuits.
Cui bono?
I bought a Harmony Hub a while ago to turn my projector on and off (and set my stereo to the right input) with Amazon Alexa. The UI and setup process are really terrible. Can anyone recommend a good alternative?
(I actually intended it just as a stopgap until I hack my own IoT IR blaster, but haven't gotten around to it)
It sucks, I kinda like Logitech products and own many, but unless they change their practices, they're on my blacklist.
That seems a bit excessive.
Is there a way to down-vote stories? This is just a link to a reddit thread where one or more random people think it might be "to prevent reselling", and there are numerous other hypotheses in the same thread...