Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale lock

arstechnica.com

11 pointspseudolus4 comments

Great. So this smoke alarm basically becomes a hanging brick in a few years?

I have a pre-Google Nest thermostat which I like quite a bit ... it's probably saved us thousands of dollars in the decade we've had it. Is this also destined for the Google hardware graveyard?

All smoke alarms have expiration dates. Mostly due to the isotopes used in them, which decay.

The alarms themselves should be able to work even without network connection, but you won't get to use any of the connected features, loosing all the "smarts" that they charged about $100 premium over other smoke alarms for.

It seems the current plan is to let the device reach their use by date before they shut off the servers, but Google being Google, who knows if they won't change their mind and decide to shut off the server before that.

I swapped out all of my Nests for Ecobees. Never trust Google to continue a product.

Always minimize your dependence on the availability of both proprietary clouds, and ongoing software updates.

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