What about open sourcing stuff, instead of making it just “unsupported”?
But that would take woooorrrrk 😤
Often, these include code that they don’t have the rights to publish.
10 years isn’t the worst run, but it still proves the point that anything which needs an app or connected web service to function will inevitably become e-waste, and maybe sooner than you’d like.
Earlier today, I was looking at reviews of portable Bluetooth speakers. One had a bullet point “No equalizer app, with only basic EQ functions available on the speaker itself.”
The review intended that to be a negative, but I was like “Hell yeah that’s what I want!”
Functionality in pure hardware means it will keep on working as long as the hardware works. It means that I myself get to be the one who decides when I need an upgrade, not when the company forces my hand.
Every single tech purchasing decision I make these days, having freedom from apps, cloud, or any other ticking time bomb is top of my feature list.
Unless the company removes that. Like what Google did with Stadia for their controller…?
Eh sorta but not really? Google released firmware to let you convert it to a regular Bluetooth controller, and although it was for a limited time, it’s still available on GitHub.
I love my Elite but I think it’s absolutely stupid that I have to connect to one of their servers in order to change activities and buttons. There is literally zero reason for that. You could easily have an app that connects locally to the device and can do it there. I could see needing their service if you want to download new remote profiles but that should be it.
Their app is predominantly a web front end. You could previously program your remote entirely via their website years back iirc. They had to program this component as you say for getting new remote profiles.
To be fair, why would they bother programming a ‘local only offline mode’ for your specific use-case when Internet connectivity was ubiquitous long before these devices were released?
Like yeah in retrospect it would be helpful now, but as a business decision it would have made very little sense to Logitech.
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I desperately wish they would make a new harmony remote or someone else would make a full featured universal remote. I know I am in the minority there I am sure.
Switchbot is making that
Logitech has gone from one of the best tech brands to essentially garbage. The hardware might still be ok, but their software is crap, and those comments about selling a mouse subscription…
Even their hardware design these days is them copying popular products from smaller tech companies
Those devices are from 2008/2009
I’d be surprised to get 10 years of support on any technology product, let alone 17 years 🤷
I’m bummed about this, but it’s not a shock given they retired the brand back in 2021. So much for “we will support these devices for as long as they continue to be used” however. This will generate a lot of e-waste.
I have an 880 that my family use regularly with the TV/AV/etc. I don’t mind so much navigating the three remotes and several buttons to get movies or TV running, but it’ll be annoying having all the extra remotes out on coffee tables all the time now, and repeated instructions to the rest of the fam on how to use them 🥲
Boo! Hiss!
