he succeeded
Unless there are major, and I mean "declaring bankruptcy" and "CIO's in jail" major fines and criminal consequences for the piss poor shitty security in the IoT shovelware, nothing will change.
I don't buy anything that connects to the Internet unless it needs to (router, modem, laptop etc.) My lights don't need to talk to a network, nor does my microwave, fridge, dishwasher etc. I even bought network cameras that do not make internet calls; they only talk on the local subnet so people out in the world cannot find them.
Internet of Things is going to either drive me insane or make me a ton of money setting this crap up and keeping the bad guys out.
In my opinion, the problem with smart devices and Internet of things is that it adds a lot of complexity for, in most cases, a small convenience. Complexity adds bugs, or at least potential for bugs, and bugs can add more inconvenience than the convenience the device is supposed to offer. Not to mention the security aspects. There's still a lot of security and reliability improvements to be done before I personally switch my light bulbs for wifi connected smart bulbs, if I ever do that.
It should also be noted that while a lot of these gadgets may seem unnecessary and even straight up retarded, the small conveniences they offer could mean a great deal for people with disabilities. Assuming they don't stop working randomly due to firmware upgrades and things like that.
- A key problem seemed to be that Rittman’s kettle didn’t come with software that would easily allow integration with other devices in his home, including Amazon Echo, which, like Apple’s Siri, allows users to tell connected smart devices what to do.
Ahh, yes. Buy thing, decide its specs don't suit you, break thing, take to Twitter to express your outrage.
The modern news cycle.