Well I used to have nest smoke detectors. My recent call to ask why all of my nests have stopped working came with a “oh well, your on firmware v1 and we aren’t releasing for that device anymore.” So I have a thousand bucks worth of smoke detectors going in the trash. The box said 7 years, but the firmware updates ended after 6, so recycling here we go. But the thing HN needs to understand is that the way google enforced expiring was to make the smoke detectors, one after the other, start chirping at high volume, often in the middle of the night, and with no warning in the app. So even if a corporation deciding that I have to replace all my smoke detectors after 7 years is reasonable, understand that the devices are worse than bricked — they are literally beeping to be replaced and there is no way to stop the behavior. We ended up with a stack of them on a counter trying to figure out what was going on, as one after the other hit their manufacturing date and expired in the same way. It was strangely dystopian. Like the company has spoken and you peons must upgrade.

My favorite call was after I put in the next thermostat and had a $1500 bill. Apparently if your kids come home from school and it’s hot, they crank the AC down but being young they just turn the dial all the way. We learned of it after a particularly hot period (the kids would apparently always adjust it up again before we got home from work). This the system “learned” to make it arctic cold at 3:25 every day and stop doing so before 6. A well time vacation later, and our utility company was sending us quickly to the bill (it was regularly less than 300). Google support said, “yea, we hear about problems like that all the time,” and told us, “my suggestion would be to turn off the learning feature of your thermostat and just use it as a regular thermostat.” Ok. Will do. But wow, to find out it wasn’t an unusual use case was mind blowing.

I stopped using Google for devices some time back because of firmware issues with support on phones. I realized after we have a series of iPhones hit 5 years or even six years old that I found them, batteries barely holding a charge but still working, charging for use above a drawer filled with my old android devices which were collecting dust, but were years younger, that the value isn’t there. Our form of response to the current fast fashion electronics industry to to use our devices as long as possible. Apple is a better value in that respect, despite their outright hostility to independent repair — which definitely dents their reputation in our house — so we ended up standardizing on their technology. Common sense environmentalism is making sure you minimize how much you buy.

It’s interesting how much the longevity of devices (and privacy concerns) are becoming the major criteria for which devices we allow into our lives these days. Google has failed us repeatedly and lost our trust and we probably won’t ever buy another device from them. There was a time when I loved and adored them. Their growth seems to have lost what made them special in their DNA (transforming towns with savior Internet service, connecting the Worlds information > explaining yet another ocean of ad fraud, sunsetting every product we liked, afore mentioned firmware bugs) and we kind of look at them as the company we used to love. Honestly makes me sad. It was at one point one of the best hacker groups on the planet, insanely innovative, and run like one.

I hope durability and reliability becomes a major tech trend.