I got a Sonos speaker for Christmas a couple years ago.
As soon as I realized I needed an account for it to simply play music, I went to return it. The guy in the store told me that there were no speaker brands that did not require an account these days, and that I shouldn’t be so petty. He said “but you also have a Google account, right?”, “Why is a Sonos account such a problem?”.
I told him indeed, I already need a Google account for my phone to work, a Spotify account for listening to my music, and now a Sonos account for my speaker that plays that music , and I thought that was ridiculous.
My previous speaker was a Sony, and while that did have an app to configure it, it didn’t require setting up an account with any personal data, which I think is fucked up for a device whose main purpose is just to produce sound. I left the speaker in the store and got my money back.
I did some research and found Teufel devices, speakers from Germany that work fine with an app that doesn’t require an account. Now all my speakers and soundbars around the house are Teufel, and I’m very happy with them. I think also Yamaha has (or at least had) accountless speakers. So win/win - buying European and keeping my privacy a little more in check.
I did the same for my smart scale. I don’t want my weight in the cloud somewhere, or on the servers of some Chinese or U.S. company somewhere. An app on my phone can store daily weight and other health data just fine.
So when I wanted a smart scale, I also did some research. It turns out there’s an open source app called openscale that does exactly that: just store the data locally on my phone, and it supports a bunch of devices.
I got myself a Beurer scale (coincidentally also a German brand) because I read you can skip the whole account setup. Then used openscale to register my weigh ins. It works, I’m sure the cloud apps of larger brands have a nicer user interface, but they come at the cost of my privacy, which I simply refuse to sell out for a piece of hardware whose main purpose is to show me what I weigh.
I think people should be more conscious about their data. I don’t use apple pay or Google wallet, my bank already knows most of what I pay, where and when. Why would I want to share that with these big corporations? I will gladly trade in a little convenience for a lot of privacy.
Teufel
It’s hilarious that you literally have to make a deal with the Devil for this.
God I love lemmy, tysm for posting genuinely
I have a scale that shows my weight.
And a speaker that plugs into my phone with the jack.
Nothing wrong with checking “oh I’m down since 3mo ago” w/o ever having copied numbers between screens :)
My JBL soundbar has no app.
Your only option is configuring it with the Google Home appYou don’t need Google account for your phone to work.
Peoples expectation for “working” is “has absolutely all features that you would have with google, no exceptions”. If even a single feature is missing, people will scream thats its unusable.
The problem starts when a government service or your bank requires an app that needs play services/ uses play integrity API.
I’m starting to think that I want to carry around 2 phones, one cheap android for stuff like this, and a main device that’s fully free since it doesn’t have to make compromises
In my experience microG runs all of those apps without issue.
no speaker brands that did not require an account
Thats interesting, I have never bought a speaker that requires an account. My one doesn’t even have an app.
Is it a smart speaker? (In the sense that it supports playing music over the network and Spotify connect?)
Because if so, I’d like to know the brand and type. I couldn’t find a lot online.Ah, smart speakers. Thought this was about generic wireless speakers.
I got a sonos speaker given to me, and the app setup and sync was so fucking frustrating. I ended up having to call their support. Just FYI though, once you have it set up, you no longer need the app.
I got the same camera. I did not want to side load an android app just to use it, but I legit thought “three tries only, this can’t be serious”. Sure enough if you exhaust the trials you cannot use the device. None of the reviews or vids I read and saw mentioned this, or glossed over it. I returned that bitch. Told DJI the reason was I cannot use the camera and I don’t have an iPhone and I also don’t want to side load an app on my android phone. They accepted thankfully.
This speaks directly to GoPro. Fuck them and their bullshit.
You can’t even properly use their hardware without using their crippled app. And if you aren’t paying for their subscription to use the app they force you to use, be prepared to be harassed endlessly about subscribing.
They even cripple new hardware with the inability to stabilize video unless you have their shitty app do it.
Could you imagine headphones that only play music through an app that requires a subscription? That’s the level of enshittification we’re going to start seeing.
It killed them. They went from THE camera for active life. They were synonymous with Hoovers in their field.
Then they got eaten alive because all they did was bullshit instead of making better cameras. Good riddance.
It killed them. They went from THE camera for active life.
I have the Hero 11 Black and their new “4k” mini one (both gifted). The mini is pretty much unusable for two reasons:
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Their built-in battery likes to die just from being “off” for a little while. Even though pretty much every GoPro seems to have a bad problem with phantom battery drain, you can’t replace this one, so you’re losing charge cycles without actually using the camera.
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You simply cannot use the videos out of the camera without running it through an image stabilization process (through their app, or using third-party software like Gyroflow (thank god, this is FOSS). It’s embarrassing that they’d even sell a camera without image stabilization. I have a $60 no-name gopro knockoff that produces better footage out of the camera.
If someone paid me to design a flawed product, I’d basically make a GoPro camera. Such a shame!
Curious here . Would the phantom battery drain mean even when it is off it is " doing something " ?
I wish I knew! On my Hero 11, I can sometimes hear it turning on by itself… Days after the last use.
Other times, I refises to then off. If you force it off, it turns right back on!
But at least you can remove the battery on that one. The mini one has no option for that.
Wow , that’s creepy 😳
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Who else heard “gargle my balls” upon seeing that pic of Louis Rossman?
For those not familiar, check out his YT channel, his work with futo.org (https://wiki.futo.org/index.php/Introduction_to_a_Self_Managed_Life:_a_13_hour_%26_28_minute_presentation_by_FUTO_software), and his Consumer Action Taskforce wiki (https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Main_Page). Here is a person with an electronics repair business trying his hardest to make sure nobody ever needs his services.
What you need is design with purpose. Why is there an app vs physical controls. Because everyone’s doing it, or to collect data to sell, or because it offers real value to the user?
If it doesn’t benefit users, don’t be surprised when you get flamed and lose sales.
This is why I like marine devices. By necessity, they have to operate offline. There’s no cellular service in the middle of the ocean. I have a Xantrex LiFePo BMS and a Victron solar charge controller on my boat, and neither requires a cloud account to use the app.
I keep saying framework laptop guys should come out with Linux phone that runs postMarketOS or Mobian. It’s can’t be that crazy of an idea considering Pine64 and Purism could literally push out their own phones. Obviously given the state of things right now, sure maybe not going to happen… but I will keep preaching this.
The only thing holding back linux phone other than the SOC is the modem. It is a black box computer on its own with no fixed way to interact with them.
VoLTE is nearly impossible to implement across all the countries. Same will be true with 5G.
You can’t build a open hardware modem because of all the patents.
Biggest difficulty for me with a pinephone was SMS tbh, data was fine.
Software vehicle integration.
Very good points my friend. Capitalism strikes again… 😔
Most of the time it’s not the hardware that needs to be open-sourced (i.e. CAD, Gerber PCB files, etc.) It’s mostly just that the hardware should use standard, open protocols. It would be nice to have the full PCB design so you could rewire things if something breaks. But, most of the time, it’s good enough if the device uses standard HTTP or standard Bluetooth, rather than something proprietary.
I made the mistake of getting a hwawei (can’t be bothered to spell it properly, sorry) smartwatch.
They play store app doesn’t work properly, so I need to install their own appstore (that they made because of sanctions) and get the app there.
I lost it a while ago, but I learned to never buy another.
I got a fitness armband as a gift and use gadgetbridge (free and open source Android app) https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/wearables/huawei-honor/ Maybe it supports your watch?
It was a huawei band, and seems to be supported, but as I said, it just disappeared one day.
I can accept optional apps. If it’s mandatory I will return the device. My oven can connect to the wifi but has never been connected.
My buddy wanted to give me some OLED tv because he baught another one he didnt need recently but im happy with my 2010 toshiba non- smart TV.
Apps should have to send a monthly statement of how much money they make from and how they used your personal information. Possibly even cut you a check each month
Why would an oven need to be connected to WiFi? Do people start cooking something then leave the house?
If they don’t need me to register the app, do they still get personal data, i.e. who I am? Does the phone rat me out?
Welcome to the world of fingerprinting and shadow profiles. You are unique by the data you generate, even if it doesn’t have your name on it.
Fun related fact, Facebook has an account for you even if you don’t have a Facebook account, and your Facebook account has all sorts of information like relationships and employment status.
This is because all of your friends have Facebook accounts, and all of them give the platform access to their contacts, so Facebook knows that you’re “John Smith,” “John work,” “John tech support,” “John coworker,” etc. They also know your email, thanks to your HR lady storing that alongside your phone number
Hah, you assume I have friends.
absolutely yes
we’ve gone to a house email account with a tablet that is hooked to it and all those accounts stay on that and it never moves. But even then all those things that need it are put on a list for getting rid of and if we NEED the smart tech of it we will start to look for other options.
I tried to get Rogers internet a few months back, I actually answered the door for one of them annoying salespeople, and they gave me a price straight up that was $1 more a month than I was currently paying, so yeah I signed up
Oh cool I need an app on my smartphone with an internet connection in order to set up my home internet connection? Oh and this thing doesn’t even let you manage DNS? Oh and there’s no web portal to manage settings, literally everything has to be done through the app?
yep I fucked right off out of that, never trying Rogers again. ever
There’s a call for you… line 2.
It will get worse than this and I’ll tell you how:
At some point Apple may be forced to allow alternative app stores.
Win for consumers, right? Hahaha… nope!
Because now the device you just bought not only requires an app, that app is only available at the shady AppStore that some salesman convinced a CEO to use or whatever.
So now you need an account with this new App Store who surely protects your privacy and is held to the same scrutiny as Apple. /s What could possibly go wrong?
Oh and it won’t be your device just for you, it’ll be your new washing machine or car or spouse’s car or the refrigerator or something else that you can’t easily return/your family won’t see the big deal.
