• palordrolap@fedia.io
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    5 months ago

    Cost or no cost, IoT should not be able to brick devices on the whim - or unexpected dissolution - of a faceless corporation.

    Unfortunately too many people are trusting of monolithic entities which promise the moon and then decide what they really meant was “bend over”.

    I may be channelling a bit of Louis Rossman here.

    That said, the other comments here suggest that the device in question still has all features when accessed from the front panel, which is a step up from a lot of other IoT behaviour. Owners who don’t want to pay for the app should still disconnect it from any connectivity and keep it that way just in case the manufacturer decides to remove that functionality as well.

    And if it stops working altogether without network connectivity, take the L and maybe mail it back to the company’s head office with no return address. Let them deal with the e-waste.

  • Codilingus@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    I have one of their’s that can connect to your phone. It’s not needed, it just adds extra cook book functions. It even hosts it so you can control the sous vide when you’re not at home, almost like a reverse proxy.

    But yea the physical buttons work fine without the app.

    • fatalicus@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      What I like about having the Bluetooth connection to the app, is mostly just to see when the water has come up to temperature.

      But that was apparently too much to ask, since it says that they are also removing the Bluetooth functionality from the app…

    • roofuskit@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      My car works fine without a seat warmer, but if you sold it to me as part of the car then later it started charging me a subscription I’d be pretty pissed.

      • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        Yeah, I barely use the app, but this is a bullshit anti-consumer move that leaves me with zero reason to trust the company going forward.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    It is utterly bullshit. But is the app required for using the device?

    Also

    The subscription fee will only apply to people who make an account after August 21. Those who downloaded the app and made an account before August 21 won’t have to pay. But everyone will have to make an account; some people have been using the app without one until now

      • Prox@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Unless these people paid a premium for this kind of “smart” device vs. the cost of a basic version.

        • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          I think the bigger issue is that they’re bricking all support for the oldest models, trying to force customers to abandon a fully functional device just because they want more money.

          The app subscription fee is obnoxious as all get out, but punishing your oldest customers for your profit margins is what’s a bit infuriating.

          At least, imo.

          • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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            5 months ago

            Honestly, after a decade of keeping compatibility and stuff, and that the sous vide still works fine without the apk, I don’t really see this as much of a big deal. An apk for a sous vide is nearly useless, anyhow. What are you going to do with it?

            • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
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              5 months ago

              It’s more about the principle. Why is it ok for a manufacturer to remotely disable a feature that was bought & paid for by a decades worth of customers?

              Now that they’ve done it once, what’s stopping future attempts to gin up higher profits using the same tactics?

              I don’t think anyone here is angry enough to go all Kid Rock on their Sous Vides, but I do think there are plenty who will look at a different brand when it is time for a replacement.

              • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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                5 months ago

                Well they’re on v3 now and this ends the version 1, so I doubt they’ve sold the v1 for the past 5 years or so, but again, it’s not an apk that you need to use it. If it were a device like a garage door opener that let’s you open/close or see when the door is opened or closed I’d be bitching up a storm. Same if it were like a door deadbolt to lock/unlock your front door. But a water cooker? What do you need the apk for? It couldn’t functionally do anything over bluetooth to be of any help.

                • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
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                  5 months ago

                  Would you buy a refrigerator from a manufacturer that wanted to make the ice maker a subscription service out of nowhere?

                  I get that the app isn’t a requirement for the device, but neither is an ice maker required for a refrigerator to function as designed.

                  They’re both features advertised as part of the original purchase price. Why does one get an expiration date out of the blue?

                  The people who are likely to be losing Bluetooth functionality are also the most likely to be from the original kickstarter batch.

                  Even if some-many of them have already upgraded to a newer model, that’s still one hell of a statement to make to your original backers.

      • subtext@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Except, prior to this announcement, there was apparently another statement from Anova that you can’t control the first gen ones.

        the announcement follows an Anova statement saying it will no longer let users remotely control their kitchen gadgets via Bluetooth starting on September 28, 2025.

        • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          You can set the temperature and the cook time on the device without having the app at all. The biggest benefit of the app is that you get a notice when the water is to temperature, which for certain more sensitive foods is needed to put the food in. (If you’re doing a 24 hour slow cook, it’s not really needed, but if you’re trying to do something with more precise cooking lengths, you don’t want the variance of starting water temp affecting how long the food is in the bath.

          • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemmings.world
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            5 months ago

            Friendly reminder for others that you can setup this quite easily with home assistant and conditional notification alerts. I do it with my govee. Open. Source. Everything.

            • Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com
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              5 months ago

              I looked into that and you need to build a Bluetooth bridge out of a ESP32. Pretty easy once you have the dev platform set up, but not for your average Joe.

              There is an anova integration, but depends on their cloud service. When they stop supporting old devices, they will no longer function.

              That’s what I understand anyway.

  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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    5 months ago

    Imagine buying a devices that makes you install a program on a device you have to keep on you at all times and which probably contains all of your personal and financial information.

    Like 98% of the human race are absolute fucking morons.

    • Dark_Dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      Think about it after 10 years either the app is not supported by your operating system or their server is offline.

      I need to gadget that’s works with flip of switch and has all the functions offline even after 10 years.

      If people don’t understand this facts they are morons.

  • Vanth@reddthat.com
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    5 months ago

    I was given one of those. I tried the app once and immediately uninstalled it. It’s worthless. The “let’s put AI in your computer mouse, toothbrush, and toilet scrubber!” of ten years ago.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    My new microwave rotates for free!!. The 9 dollar MW subscription gets me 500W, the 15 dollar gets me 1500W and with the $30 monthly subscription I can get 3000W! It’s wonderful!

    • john@lemmy.haley.io
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      5 months ago

      That was my first thought as well. I love that thing but I hate that it requires the app to run

      • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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        5 months ago

        Yeah. I have two different sticks. A cheap one because “no way is the joule that good” and the joule because “shit, maybe it is”.

        And it is. But an interface on the stick would make it perfect.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      “Be evil so they have to stomp us out” shouldn’t be a standard. Stop allowing a world that rewards villains. Stop being a villain.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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        5 months ago

        Coulda woulda shoulda…

        People either accept the reality and act on it or keep getting fucked over because the world “shouldn’t work like this”

        • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Speak for yourself, snowflake. The world isn’t a safe place for shitheads to be shitheads. Culpability doesn’t make you a victim.

      • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        I have an Inkbird & really like it. Significantly less expensive than Annova, offers all of the same features from what I can tell, & it’s never given me any issues.

        The app is of course a bit clunky & ultimately unnecessary, but it does actually function as advertised.

  • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    The subscription fee will only apply to people who make an account after August 21. Those who downloaded the app and made an account before August 21 won’t have to pay. But everyone will have to make an account; some people have been using the app without one until now.

    “You helped us build Anova, and our intent is that you will be grandfathered in forever,” Svajian wrote

    Fuck everything about this, but at least they have the decency not to pull the rug on people who bought it without this stupidity.

    The only real benefit of the app to me is the push notifications, but losing those would be douchey. It would be far better to allow that basic functionality and put all the recipe shit behind the wall.

  • kevindqc@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I haven’t used the app in a while and opened it and saw this… Well never buying Anova again

    But hey at least they gave me a coupon that expired two months ago.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      Do you need the apk to use it at all? Or is it just a little perk to go along with it?

      Hopefully, someone hacks the apk so it just keeps working.

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        I bought one of these years ago, and took a look at it. The app let’s you remote control the stick and pick recipes that will autoset the temps. That’s about it. The stick has buttons on it, and it’s not like you can have it add the food to the water bath remotely. It’d pretty easy to knock in the temp at the heater while you’re there

        Sous vide is a “set and forget” cooking method like a crockpot. You can walk away and leave the thing running long past the minimum time and have no issues because the whole point is it takes food to an exact temp and no further. So even any alerting “temp reached” it may do now isn’t really useful.

        This feels like a “pick the carcass” attempt to make some money at all. I expect the company is probably in a bad state if this is the game they are playing.

    • SpacePirate@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      Actively encouraging people to toss perfectly good hardware to fuel their subscription bullshit… and these guys weren’t even recently bought by a VC firm or anything?

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        They were bought by Electrolux in 2017, and have been enshittifying ever since. Cheaper, lower quality parts, etc. They’re just profiting from the brand as they turn it to shit. Never buy their products.

    • Kushan@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Unrelated but how would you rate sous vide cooking? I am tempted for a bunch of reasons but I’m worried it’ll be just another kitchen appliance that I rarely use.

      • kevindqc@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I was using it for steaks and it’s been great - sous vide then cast iron pan - but I moved somewhere where the smoke alarm is extremely sensitive so haven’t used it much lately 😞

        • baru@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          There are different type of smoke alarms. Some detect smoke. There are two ways of doing that. Near a kitchen area it’s usually best to get a completely different one that just uses changes in temperature. Though they will only notify you way matter. So highly recommend keeping the existing one and moving that one somewhere else.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        For steaks, they’re excellent. About the only thing I haven’t been able to do over a good steakhouse restaurant is an extremely crisply outer layer. There’s some techniques there that I haven’t learned yet that might fix that. Everything else about the juiciness and taste is easily the same or better.

        You’re basically taking all the art of out it that you would have to learn to become a top steak grill master, and replacing it with precision.

        • Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          Make sure you dry your steak extremely well, and then basically shallow fry it in a cast iron or other heavy pan. Don’t need to deep fry it, but if you really want it as crispy, you want a real layer of oil.

          One strength of sous vide is you can get even normal steaks much more tender than otherwise possible, just by extending your sous vide time up to two or three hours.

      • morbidcactus@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        If you’re not committed, you don’t actually need an appliance for it, have had great results with a Dutch oven and a programmable BBQ thermometer monitoring the water temp. One of my burners goes really low so just a matter of adjusting to keep in range. You don’t get forced circulation (get some natural circulation though) and it’s not set and forget, but you can do with stuff you probably already have on hand. Done with heavy freezer bags before I was gifted a vacuum sealer.

    • Fester@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Imagine seeing that message and buying another product from them.

      “It’s time to artificially create waste. Don’t worry, you won’t see this message again. Our new cookers are designed to not last 10 years.”

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Imagine Goodyear 500 tires!..for just 30 bucks a month you too can get the most inexpensive tires of all. 500 mile tires!. After 500 miles they don’t spin or hold air so we recommend setting your odometer properly.

        • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          Ung

          (Don’t) hope they did their math right and the “well, it’s just $2/mo” crowd is large enough to offset the principled crowd

          • ripcord@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            That notice doesn’t even say there is a $2/mo option. App just won’t work at all.

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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      5 months ago

      I can’t imagine why these things even need an app.

      You have to set the thing up, just hit the buttons on the device.

      • Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com
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        5 months ago

        It’s kinda nice to just search what you are making, click cook, and all the settings are preloaded and the device starts. The manual interface is clunky.

      • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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        5 months ago

        The one and only time I used the app it lost connectivity and left my chuck roast in lukewarm water for who knows how long. Tossed it because I didn’t want to kill my family with food poisoning. It’s nice if you have a WIFI connected device, so you can put something on the counter in an ice water bath in the morning with the sous vide wand in there and flip it on before you leave work in the afternoon. Also seeing that the water has maintained an appropriate temp during a long cook is nice too. It’s a niche case use, but that’s why it’s nice to have it connected.

      • Reyali@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        My partner has an Anovo affected by this and he knows the details better than me, but IIRC the app allows you to set times to change temps or things like that. The device still works without the app, but you lose the convenience factor of being able to monitor or make changes at a distance.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I have a different brand, but I can see the value. The interface on the small screen on the device I have is very clumsy. Took me a while to figure it out, and I’m very tech savvy. I can see a mobile app being useful, also for notifications so I don’t independently have to set timers.

        Also as a former mobile dev, mobile apps take maintenance to keep up with OS changes over time. And developers are expensive.

        What I imagine happened is that they probably outsourced their app development to a 3rd party, because they make hardware, not software. That contract probably expired, including their ongoing support agreement, and they’ve probably negotiated an hourly rate for support on-demand going forward, maybe with a different 3rd party dev.

        So in all likelihood, they’re just passing the cost for ongoing maintenance on an EOL model to the customer.

        However, that looks absolutely insane from a consumer standpoint.

        I don’t know their Financials, but they may not be big enough to just swallow the cost for brand PR if they’re not selling at a volume and profit margin to be able lose money on old products.

        This is why, even as a dev that used to work in the mobile and IOT space, I tend to purchase dumb devices if there are good options. Smart devices get dumb as soon as the shine has dulled.

      • kelvie@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        Size and easy to clean (and waterproof) is one, I have a ChefSteps Joule which is app control only, but it is much easier to clean, and much smaller than my old Anova (fits in a drawer with other crap)

        Granted it is more annoying to use the app than the controls, but the trade off for us was worth it, if not for everyone.

        • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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          5 months ago

          They could just use capacitive touch for controls, inferior to buttons but just as cleanable. There’s little reason to not have both options