this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 236 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (15 children)

I haven't used the app in a while and opened it and saw this... Well never buying Anova again

But hey at least they gave me a coupon that expired two months ago.

[–] [email protected] 222 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Imagine seeing that message and buying another product from them.

“It’s time to artificially create waste. Don’t worry, you won’t see this message again. Our new cookers are designed to not last 10 years.”

[–] [email protected] 99 points 2 months ago (2 children)

100%. They've just guaranteed that the sous vide unit that I have now is the last Anova product I will ever buy.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (9 children)

I can't imagine why these things even need an app.

You have to set the thing up with water and all, just hit the buttons on the device.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

The one and only time I used the app it lost connectivity and left my chuck roast in lukewarm water for who knows how long. Tossed it because I didn't want to kill my family with food poisoning. It's nice if you have a WIFI connected device, so you can put something on the counter in an ice water bath in the morning with the sous vide wand in there and flip it on before you leave work in the afternoon. Also seeing that the water has maintained an appropriate temp during a long cook is nice too. It's a niche case use, but that's why it's nice to have it connected.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago

That’s bullshit

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Actively encouraging people to toss perfectly good hardware to fuel their subscription bullshit… and these guys weren’t even recently bought by a VC firm or anything?

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[–] [email protected] 161 points 2 months ago (6 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (9 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 149 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Wait

"Our community has literally cooked 100s of millions of times with our app. Unfortunately, each connected cook costs us money."

The cooker, It's FUCKING Bluetooth. It doesn't need to call home, it can't call home. The App, It has a list of 35 different sous vide recipes that could live on the app. The app has no business calling home, they don't need a server.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (4 children)

They need if they were to push firmware updates via the app that are then installed over Bluetooth, like some headphones do. But that should be a free service, and also optional. I don't really see any groundbreaking functionality added for a device that's basically a submerged motor with a temperature probe.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

It's a decade old cooking appliance .

What possible firmware updates could it need at this point?

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[–] [email protected] 86 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is the absolute worst possible way for me to first hear about a product and company that I would have otherwise been interested in

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Same. I've been thinking of replacing the cheap immersion circulator we have, and was going to go with Anova. This blatant enshittification is enough to make me look elsewhere.

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 months ago (11 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have one and I can use it without the app

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Better make an account in the next 5 days

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (5 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lemmy.world needs an internet-of-shit community. This could be a solid first contribution.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That links to a user for me.

Web link is https://lemmy.world/c/enshittification

Community link: [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago

Sounds like it's time for an open sauce alternative.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I passed on a lot of the fancier apartment buildings for requiring an app and a cell phone to gain access to your own home. I shouldn't have to agree to an arbitration/class action waiver to use my own front door, I don't feel comfortable with management getting a notification on their phone every time I come or go, I don't like the fact that 20+ listed partner companies have access to sensitive personal data, and I shouldn't have to wait for maintenance to show up in the middle of the night because I couldn't make it back home before my personal tracking device died on me.

The sad thing is that most of these locking units cost these apartments hundreds of dollars each on top of a monthly subscription.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What the actual fuck. In what country do you live?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

U.S.. Not an actual tracking device, just a cell phone. I usually leave it at home, which would have been impossible to do at many of those buildings.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (5 children)

They're just going to push people to the cheaper units at this point.

I was looking at sous vide cookers a few months back and was considering ANOVA but they were too expensive. Opted for a generic one instead.

The fact that they're more expensive and require a subscription for what's essentially a set of presets that my cheap unit has for free is just ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

Interesting, because when they were relatively new, they were also the cheap option. Sous vide used to be a $1000+ thing. I did a DIY version for around $200, but later Anova came out and it was less sketchy than my box of wires running mains voltage.

Instant Pot seems to make a pretty good one that fits around the sides of their pressure cookers.

Anova's app is basically useless. Could be nice for looking up temperatures and times for specific things, but I usually google it, anyway. Steaks are by far the most common thing I do sous vide, so it's usually preset for that. Never used the app outside of playing with it when I first got it.

One thing is for sure: I won't be recommending Anova to friends anymore.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago

Were gonna need to pirate sous vides now

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (14 children)

Other than my computer, phone and xbox, I own nothing at all that can connect to the Internet. It's incredibly stupid.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Oh ffs.. This is the one I have..

And, you know what? The firmware sucks.

You can't even connect to wifi if you have two AP's with the same name (which is literally everyone).

I haven't even installed the app in ages because it's a PITA and has never worked 100%.

But, they can guarantee my next one won't be an anova again. There are much cheaper alternatives now

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

"You helped us build Anova, and our intent is that you will be grandfathered in forever," Svajian wrote

Fuck everything about this, but at least they have the decency not to pull the rug on people who bought it without this stupidity.

The only real benefit of the app to me is the push notifications, but losing those would be douchey. It would be far better to allow that basic functionality and put all the recipe shit behind the wall.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

yeah...ummm...no

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I have one of their's that can connect to your phone. It's not needed, it just adds extra cook book functions. It even hosts it so you can control the sous vide when you're not at home, almost like a reverse proxy.

But yea the physical buttons work fine without the app.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My car works fine without a seat warmer, but if you sold it to me as part of the car then later it started charging me a subscription I'd be pretty pissed.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I barely use the app, but this is a bullshit anti-consumer move that leaves me with zero reason to trust the company going forward.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago

You wouldn't download a sous vide

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (5 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

2$/month for a fucking thermostat....

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

I personally think it's perfectly reasonable for a company to eventually start charging for a service they provide that costs them money to provide. They might bakenin some number of years into the product price, but they can't keep providing the service for free forever.

It seems like something that should be expected if we do want certain services to be provided and maintained. Heck, I also think that offering a subscription is better than the usual alternative, which is that the company just shuts the service down.

However, the way this is done is almost always slimy and shitty and likely is only going to get solved by regulation.

  • It's incredibly rare that IOT devices NEED cloud integration. Most of the time it really SHOULD just be local-only, or have a local option.
  • If they are going to start charging for something to continue to work, unless there was already an explicit agreement that - and when - this would happen, they need to provide an alternative.
    • Either documentation or open software for how an alternate cloud - including local - could be used instead.
  • That info really should be mandatory to be made available beforehand in case the company shuts down.
  • The subscription fee needs to be reasonable.
    • Personally, I think $24/year is still far too much, but it's still WAY more reasonable than some I've seen.

Should be a no-brainer.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Enshittification strikes again. 🤬

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I wish people would stop threatening companies switching to subscription that they'll lose business. The c-suite know they'll lose much of the current customer base. They're banking on the data telling them that the market acceptance of their product is gaining traction with new customers.

That will float them until they tell grandfathered users to go screw themselves and will face all sorts of new charges to use their app as previously established.

This is what happens when you have companies run by MBAs and lawyers. They respond to the data, and as long as the data says any negative responses can be overcome in some other way, they'll do it. They don't care about their clientele (or their employees for that matter). They care about the extra millions of dollars they were promised for the degrees they paid for.

Start finding alternate solutions to any product that connects to the internet. Then they can't spy on you or handcuff a sub fee to their product.

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