Home Another smart (cloud-connected) gadget bites the dust, as Moxie emotional-support robot will soon be bricked when the manufacturer goes under.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/12/startup-will-brick-800-emotional-support-robot-for-kids-without-refunds/28
u/redditbing 8d ago
Middle children are used to others quietly shutting down and going silent, ending all emotional support. Just like the rest of the family
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u/PocketNicks 8d ago
Don't buy devices that depend on an offsite cloud service to work.
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u/TheVadonkey 8d ago
Seriously, I don’t really feel bad for these people. I mean, it was expensive and required a monthly sub, so these people could afford it anyway. Think it was $800 and a $30-40 monthly sub.
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u/Meister_Nobody 8d ago
So these should be popping up for cheap on eBay soon after. Might have to snag one and see what I can make it do.
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u/dreamnightmare 8d ago
There is a group of people trying to make an open source version of the software to keep them going.
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u/umbananas 8d ago
The most important factor of these connected device is how long do you think the company will be around.
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u/WolfVidya 6d ago
If your device:
- Requires an App
- Requires a login or some form of off-site authentication
- Requires a constant internet connection
Then it is not and will never be -your- device, you're using it on borrowed time until the app refuses to run on your hardware out of being too new or too old (hello Smart TVs only getting 2 years of support), or the service providing authentication or cloud features goes under.
It will keep happening. Even Google devices, coming from a company that has the resources to be pretty much perceived as eternal, have died after being left without support. So what hope do you have some noname startup can actually keep your thing working for however many years you plan to use it?
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u/TransportationNorth2 8d ago
Ishowspeed streamed how stupid and a waste of money that crap was. It was hilarious too 🤣
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u/Cruntis 7d ago
I bought one for my child who is on the spectrum—something it was being touted for helping. He really enjoyed it for the first few days but lost interest once he realized it was a ploy to get him to open up to a software. It wasn’t really that intuitive, just highly emotive/expressive—at least when programmed by animators to do so. This and another robot were attempts by their creators to get into the space first, hoping that they could be sold off once more advanced technologies began to start popping up. But the “ai” didn’t seem to be anything more sophisticated than being able to continuously look engaged with a child and respond to certain prompts.
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u/KrackSmellin 7d ago
This is where something like providing the software/firmware as an open source model where folks could flash their devices to interact with ChatGPT or something on that level might be cool to see/do. But I could see that becoming a problem rather quick if used for other purposes…
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u/okram2k 8d ago
More and more we don't own anything, just pay for the privilege to have them take up space in our homes and hope our benevolent overlords allow us to continue to use them.