yeah…ummm…no
For those of us on Android, can’t we download the old APK which still talks Bluetooth and just never interact with the web/wifi for these?
The app phones home to access recipes.
Maybe it works without access to the server, but maybe it just refuses to do anything.
Lemmy.world needs an internet-of-shit community. This could be a solid first contribution.
It might fall into the remit of @[email protected]
That links to a user for me.
Web link is https://lemmy.world/c/enshittification
Community link: [email protected]
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
I have one and I can use it without the app
Better make an account in the next 5 days
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.)
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.
Is there a bridge? I’d definitely be interested in that.
Just need to configure Bluetooth and the govee integration.
Whoa! Really! That would be awesome. I couldn’t find it at all last time I had it out. Interesting it would use govee though. Is there something special I’d have to do to set that up?
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.
No mine connects right to my pi with Bluetooth already present. Just bridge and go!
So it’s not as bad as it seems, at least.
Unless these people paid a premium for this kind of “smart” device vs. the cost of a basic version.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Translation:
“Fuck you for not replacing your perfectly fine and still working 10 year old machine and making our line go up more. We’re gonna do our best to brick it because we want all of your money.”
Fuck capitalism. I will (and have been) doing my absolute to avoid buying any kind of physical device that requires an app to function
if I see something requires an app, no matter how good it is otherwise. the product is dead to me. I know it is, effectively, going to break within a year or two.
I’m getting that same way.
Currently trying to chase down some automatic sun shades that don’t need an app to do time-based cycles. Shouldn’t be this hard, but every band wants you to use absolute garbage apps.
if its not open source; it doesn’t exist.
Switchbot (hardware) and home assistant (controlling server) might fit your needs. It still would require an app, but home assistant is self hosted and is a fantastic automation platform. It won’t be as smooth as an all in one setup, but I find the tinkering is half the fun.
I’ve installed so many hardware items that are either “appless” and are controlled by home assistant or home assistant is compatible and replaced the app. Absolutely worth it IMO. I have been able to make a full self hosted/controlled and offline functional smart house.
I have one of these, and I use it just fine without an app fwiw
you never know for sure until you try though, so if it requires an app, it’s dead to me and I don’t trust anything else the company makes.
if it has an API i get very wet very fast.
About two phone changes ago I never reinstalled the anova app.
It’s like pressing the buttons on top of the cooker with extra steps.
yeah there are apps I want on my phone, but if anything says ‘there is an app’ I’m instantly averse.
even the things I do want phone apps for, I have to browse on fdroid because default options are all terrible. basic shit like file browsers and media players in commercial OS’s are just, like, vile and do not function. even if I didn’t care about the endoscopes they try to snake up every orifice, they are deliberately nonfunctional.
That’s fair, but the point I was trying to make was that I have tried and, for the one I’ve got at least, the app isn’t required. I’m not trying to defend them or anything, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
Tbh I’m kinda glad it doesn’t have an API, because I’d end up wasting a lot of time playing with it haha.
see, if it had an API, I could integrate it into an open smart home app, and it would be cool as FUCK.
I will (and have been) doing my absolute to avoid buying any kind of physical device that requires an app to function
Same. It’s becoming more difficult every day.
And that’s so sad. There are a lot of (mainly Elderly people) who don’t even have a smartphone who now often can’t use the most basic stuff necessary because it needs an app.
A lot of this stuff is only useful if you have money, anyway. And poverty rates among the elderly have been climbing since the Housing Crash of '08
I’ve said this before, I’m going to say it again: people with money spend it to save time.
Managing 2FA, software updates, account signin, device pairing, billing, privacy policy updates, cookie notices… This shit does not save people time. It does the complete opposite.
These products are not built for consumers. These products are purely anticompetitive schemes, propping up crappy business models, trying to cash in on the data harvesting gold rush.
These products are not built for consumers.
they’re often built for investors. they are feasible enough products that some people will even buy them, so you get investors. then, the thing is always just “one more issue we need to fix” away from “mass adoption”, “for real this time”… to keep milking the investors as long as possible.
I’ve been screaming this at the top of my lungs for 20 years, and oh my god the “I told you so”'s I get to say now feel SO good.
i mean, I don’t have any friends anymore, so mostly im just calling up people who hate me now and saying “I told you so”, but, like I DID, so, worth.
I mean, not, like, ‘worth’ in the sense that anything in my life works or wasn’t torn apart by my adherence to materialism and avoidance of dark patterns, but, like, you know, feels good for a few minutes when they haven’t changed their number.
Yeah, I need to start being better about this. It’s a shame because I bought my joule sous vide because I like the simplicity and ability to monitor and program it remotely (helpful when cooking for 5-6h). App stopped working properly and now they’ve been purchased by breville and if I want to use it I need to switch and I’m guessing it won’t be long before they start to drop functionallity or require some sort of subscription. There are things like this where the app is much more than a gimmick. But it sucks to have some company pulling the strings of what you can or can’t do with your own hardware.
water+heat proofing is hard, or I’d suggest a DIY solution.
can’t just root the sous vide?
I mean it is shitty still, but people with an old device and an account already are unaffected, plus the old devices like the one I have is completely operable offline. I’ve not connected it to WiFi except when I first got it to check the app out.
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.
entities which promise the moon and then decide what they really meant was “bend over”.
LOL, nice one.
First Inwas like Yeeeah to all the “smart stuff”. But more and more I’m thinking - what happens to current cars after some time? When all the connected crap gets disconnected? Currently you can fix and drive any old piece of junk and drive it in theory forever. What happens when the smart cars lose connection to mothership? What happens when all the electronics go bad and there is no way to fix it? Same goes for your fridge, coffee maker, etc.
In the long run, having it all running Free Software is the only way to ensure it can be supported indefinitely. I have a zero-tolerance policy against proprietary software in my devices, and you should too.
Oof, you too with the enshittificafion and planned obsolescence, Anova?
The wifi ones work with Home Assistant so you won’t lose remote features. The bad news is you have to run home assistant and set it up.
As for the BT only version you need more work and a BT proxy. https://community.home-assistant.io/t/anova-ble-control-via-ble-proxy/550295
The original models will. While Home assistant has an Anova integration, it is cloud dependent and it’s the cloud that will discontinue support. As I understand it.
Local control uses a Bluetooth bridge which I guess is my next project.
BT Proxy Bridges are super easy to make. Just flash a esp32 with the premade package and power it. I have one on every room of my house just so whatever I have will just work everywhere.
This is lemmy and so I understand it but flashing an esp32 is not super easy for 99.9% of the population.
True but this was in response to the previous post where they stated that are about to make one. My original post I stated the BT proxy is more work.
Yup! I have the stuff, just haven’t gotten around to flashing one yet. Working on a wind meter at the moment.
Other than my computer, phone and xbox, I own nothing at all that can connect to the Internet. It’s incredibly stupid.
I have a smart TV and a Bluray player as well, but other than that, only phones, computers, and my Switch connect to the internet. My next TV will likely not be smart, because screw ads, and I’ve ripped all of my Blurays.
Why does a Blu-ray player need to connect to the Internet?
Bd players need internet as they only have keys for the discs made before they were made. So if you stick a newer disc in it won’t play until it gets updated.
It can play Netflix and a few other streaming services. But more importantly, I was able to stream videos to it through DLNA.
Oh, that’s cool!
I’ve stopped buying TVs. It’s difficult to find a dumb one nowadays. I watch on my phone or my computer monitor.
I just dont connect the TV to the internet and hook a separate media center up to the HDMI port.
Would be nice, but I have kids, and it’s really hard to watch a movie together on a phone. I need another soon-ish, so I’m going to look into hospitality TVs and projectors.
Why not just buy a TV and not connect it to the internet?
That’s the backup plan, yes. I haven’t looked at newer TVs recently, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they still had some kind of ads even if they don’t connect to the internet, or they require connecting to the internet to activate the TV or something dumb like that.
My current TV only connects for Netflix, and I’m this close to cutting that out (just need my wife to finish her series). Everything else is on my Jellyfin server, and if I can get everyone to switch to that, I won’t need any kind of internet connection for the TV.
My last two TVs were dumb ones.
It is getting harder find dumb TVs because the smart stuff included with most TVs subsidizes keeping the initial price low. Manufactures are betting millions of dollars purchasers will sign up for the monthly apps.
Buy smart TV. Open the back. Remove WiFi card.
Purchase cheap Chinese mini PC, put Kodi on it.
That’s all you need
That’s not always easy, sometimes the WiFi is on the board itself and not just an add-in card. Or you get annoying warnings or something on the TV.
Commercial TVs will probably last a lot longer than regular retail TVs, so if I’m not going to be using all the features of the TV, I might as well spend a bit more and get something that’ll last.
I own some things that can, but that doesn’t mean they do.
My bloody dishwasher asked for my wifi password when I first connected it.
I have never bought an appliance or physical product that requires an app to use, and I never will until our society has deteriorated to the the point where there is no alternative to that in order to get by in it. It’s almost at that point already with smartphones but for now it’s still possible to get by without one.
deleted by creator
I have one of these. The sous vide cooker itself is very nice and easy to use, I’d highly recommend it. The app is a bit clunky and not necessary to use the device. I certainly wouldn’t pay $2 a month for it.
The app lets you set a temperature and cook time, but you can also do this using the buttons on the cooker. Sometimes the WiFi pairing is finicky, so honestly I skip the app half the time. The app also lets you view and write recipes. I guess the big advantage is you can click “start cooking” and it automatically sets the device temp and time, but doing it manually isn’t much harder. I’m also not wowed by the in-app recipe selection, and generally just get recipes from the internet.
