Hahahah wtf is this world anymore, beds getting fucked up because an internet service broke, this is the stupidest timeline.
I get that the people who buy this stuff might not know what needing an always-online service to function entails, but what were the designers thinking?
Designers were probably thinking "well this is stupid but it's what I'm paid to do and I didn't decide to have a fucking bed be always online". The execs that made the decision are probably thinking "why didn't the designers think of this problem and prevent it? We should fire some. "
That assumes the execs didn't just contract out all the development and neglect to include an offline requirement.
The designers weren't going to get paid for the extra work so they didn't do it.
and neglect to include an offline requirement
Oh the innocence. Execs don't neglect that, they specifically ask for that. This bed doesn't work without a subscription so offline functionality would lose them money
The designers were thinking "we want to force users to a monthly subscription".
So against my preference, we bought one of these. Years ago and it wasn't so crazy expensive and the basic 'cloud' functionality was free. Over the course of the years of the initially decent warranty, the covers sprang leaks and so we got free upgrades carrying us all the way to a generation of the product where they replaced the crappy molded leak prone water mat with decent tubes that seem to be more resilient, all without needing to get in the subscription. As a consequence, I know about their evolution.
From the onset, they were hammered with "phone over the internet control is bogus, add a remote or buttons on the base or something", and they kept responding with vague "we are working a solution". Well, they ultimately did, they added earbud-style 'tap N number of times on the side to adjust things or dismiss alarms". Ok, super awkward and still no buttons, but at least it has local controls, right? Well, I go to try it and it just gives the long-buzz error indication. Turns out the app has to be used to activate the bed or schedule a start time before the local controls will let you control it. When they explicitly added a local control loop, they blocked it from working unless the cloud service said it was ok.
This is not "crappy developer stupidly doesn't know how to make local control work". This is "developer going out of their way to screw over a customer to force them to keep paying for every single month they want the product to keep working".
A shame, aversion to buttons aside, the hardware design is really quite good, quiet and effective and seemingly more leak resistant.
Here i am with my primitive bed with zero electronics.
These are the same people that elected trump AFTER seeing his stupidity for four fucking years.
I think coding a contingency for loss of internet connectivity has got to be as basic as preventing Little Bobby Tables from deleting your data.
But then you might be able to bypass the €25/mth subscription on your €3059 mattress cover.
This is spot on. Note these asshats eventually caved and added local controls when customers kept saying how horrible it was to use the phone. The local controls are explicitly disabled unless the cloud service has recently approved the bed to allow the local controls to work. You have to use the phone to enable the local controls. The phone can't do anything locally except tell it how to connect to wifi. If you don't have the subscription or grandfathered in before the subscription, the local controls do nothing.
Well, unless you jailbreak your cover with FreeSleep.
Wow, I didn't know freesleep was a thing. I wrote the sleep pod off due to the subscription snd cloud reliance. Looks like someone is working on a Home Assistant integration too! This is definitely something I'm going to follow.
I'm conflicted though, as I really don't want to give money to a company with such a terrible business model, but they're the only ones who make this kind of bed.
I'd research Chilipad harder if I were in the market again. At very cursory glance it seems like less of an uphill battle. I could be wrong and they could be douchey, or their engineering somehow sucks, but maybe they are good too.
FreeSleep is what I would do if they try to force the subscription on me, but I probably wouldn't buy the product hoping that I can change their firmware against their will. I don't want to give money to a vendor I would just be antagonistic with.
If they announced they formally endorsed use of FreeSleep as an 'advanced alternative', ok, but that isn't going to happen.
You have upset the shareholders.
You are correct!
But you know what isn't as easy or basic as that? Convincing Product Managers and others on up the chain that you should be able to take some time to code and test to fix an issue they don't give a fuck about because it doesn't affect their metrics.
“Eight Sleep confirmed there’s no offline mode yet, but they’re working on it.”
There's an offline mode after all. Unplug it!
And the air bladders have a leak that was usually dealt with by it being plugged in so it deflates and you’re left with a very flat and hard bed.
When AWS went down, users lost access to the app that manages its water-cooled coils, leaving them stuck with whatever setting was last active.
That's ridiculous. The app should merely talk to the device over wifi, if available. The cloud should only be used to connect from outside the wifi network.
Why is everything so crappy?
IoT devs avoid MQTT and Multicast traffic like the plague.
But even that makes little sense as it should take commands locally and any telemetry should be done after the commands are issued. This method basically says “if we ever miss out on telemetry data, it’s just not worth it to us to give you what you already paid for. “
Because we have webdevs and think of them as devs. They are not devs. They are mostly idiots.
What do you mean? Webdevs are devs, just within a specific platform. And like any dev, they can suck or be great.
i heard people got locked in, or out of thier house on thier smart"locks", and also ring cameras were affected because the ALARM SOUNDS WOULDNT TURN OFF.
eh perhaps to collect usage data and somehow benefit from it.
I'm sorry, but why the fuck those exist and WHO THE FUCK is buying them!?...
People wondering why this was designed to need the cloud, it requires a subscription fee. Overpriced greedy product. Its actually a good idea (bed temp control), but too greedy
I feel weird because I've like never had a problem with bed temperature lol maybe pillows but even then that hasn't been a problem for me in years.
anyone who buys a mattress that can't work without being connected to the internet deserves this
Reading the comment from the guy about his bed was a sauna all night from the heat. Did he not just think to unplug it? I mean I’ve never seen one of these beds, what happens if you do??
It will have to find power somewhere else.
They bought a $2000 bed with a 24/7 internet requirement, how smart do you think they are?
You can feel the smart in these.
Are they analyzing your sleep telemetry so they can send you ads for nasal strips and melatonin?!?
Less than 2 minutes of humping and Amazon sends you Viagra overnight.
Accidentally spill water in your bed and the next thing you know you're getting adult diaper ads on every device you own for the rest of your life.
Man, reality is way weirder than i thought..
And this is why I only buy "smart" tech that can be used offline, and then put it on a separate vlan with extremely restricted access. Screw the cloud.
Agreed. If it doesn't work with Home Assistant or requires me to use an account to use it, I'm completely not buying it.
First time I'm hearing of a smart bed.... who tf is buying this crap? I still see Teslas out in the open and drives me mad to no end.
NGL if you have the money, a Watercooled bed is amazing.
Getting one that doesn't work through the internet though, good luck.
Bed goes up. AWS goes down.
So far I've mostly avoided the whole "things that don't need to be on the Internet" situation.
Non smart TV (well that period when they started adding smart features but they're all out of date now so not even connected to the Internet)
All kitchen stuff is just kitchen stuff. No Internet.
Car is still offline.
Only real exception is smart thermostat, and that's just because when the boiler was installed that's what they put in.
Smart thermostats are really important for managing heat pumps efficiently. Especially when they're multistage. I mean, not necessarily that they have to be always online, but they do benefit a lot from more smarts than the basic thermostats of the past.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
