jueves, 10 de diciembre de 2015

Cloud Exclusive Hardware

Today we can see a lot of hardware that is being sold that only (exclusively) works only against a cloud service.

There are many examples, like the Belkin NetCam HD+ (wifi webcam) that only works if you run it against their service (by seedonk / iSecurity+) and if you don’t want to use their cloud, this hardware is useless. 

This is happening with a lot of new hardware and it does mean that you get the device cheap for being locked to their cloud, you are paying full price for this devices. On the internet there are just little groups trying to hack some of this hardware, but the consumer does not seems to care that if the manufacturer discontinue the service the hardware will be useless. 
  • Why there are no complains against this kind of hardware on the internet?  
  • Is it useless to fight “cloud exclusive hardware”? 
  • Should we care about it? 
  • Are we so used to disposable hardware that we don’t care anymore?
I'm scared that someday Sling goes out of business and my "Sling Box SOLO" will be turn into a useless piece of garbage... or even worst, that Sling just decide to cut support of that model. 

The same with Belkin NetCam HD+ (wifi webcam), what if iSecurity+ just want to drop support for this camera?

Is that the future of hardware? to be turn into something that the manufacturer decides when it stops working so you are forced to buy a new one?