Smart sous vide cooker to start charging $2/month for 10-year-old companion app

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Were gonna need to pirate sous vides now

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

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

yeah...ummm...no

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.

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.

You wouldn't download a sous vide

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Enshittification strikes again. 🤬

someone can just make a cracked version people can sideload

I will never throw a brick through the headquarters of Anova, nor would I advocate for others doing it.

I bet the app requires cloud hosting for it to run, and its starting to eat away at the profits they made.

If it needs nothing but bluetooth, then this a pure money grab.

I have two Anova cookers and have never needed the app fwiw

Guess inkbird are going to get recommended a lot more...

For those of us on Android, can't we download the old APK which still talks Bluetooth and just never interact with the web/wifi for these?

I own one of these, and I honestly forgot there was an app. There's literally no reason for it, outside of the timed-start mode that I never use.

Honestly, the biggest mistake was making this an IoT device to begin with.

I have one of these. The sous vide cooker itself is very nice and easy to use, I’d highly recommend it. The app is a bit clunky and not necessary to use the device. I certainly wouldn’t pay $2 a month for it.

The app lets you set a temperature and cook time, but you can also do this using the buttons on the cooker. Sometimes the WiFi pairing is finicky, so honestly I skip the app half the time. The app also lets you view and write recipes. I guess the big advantage is you can click “start cooking” and it automatically sets the device temp and time, but doing it manually isn’t much harder. I’m also not wowed by the in-app recipe selection, and generally just get recipes from the internet.

They do this, because plebs pay...

There is a lesson in there

Lol. Hell no.

Oh good, it's not the joule. That would suck big time. You can only use it via the app.

Y'all should read Unauthorized Bread from Cory Doctorow. This hits so close to home.

Cost or no cost, IoT should not be able to brick devices on the whim - or unexpected dissolution - of a faceless corporation.

Unfortunately too many people are trusting of monolithic entities which promise the moon and then decide what they really meant was "bend over".

I may be channelling a bit of Louis Rossman here.

That said, the other comments here suggest that the device in question still has all features when accessed from the front panel, which is a step up from a lot of other IoT behaviour. Owners who don't want to pay for the app should still disconnect it from any connectivity and keep it that way just in case the manufacturer decides to remove that functionality as well.

And if it stops working altogether without network connectivity, take the L and maybe mail it back to the company's head office with no return address. Let them deal with the e-waste.

I was given one of those. I tried the app once and immediately uninstalled it. It's worthless. The "let's put AI in your computer mouse, toothbrush, and toilet scrubber!" of ten years ago.

Oof, you too with the enshittificafion and planned obsolescence, Anova?

Lame move. That being said, I never use the app. It's very easy to set the temperature without it.

My new microwave rotates for free!!. The 9 dollar MW subscription gets me 500W, the 15 dollar gets me 1500W and with the $30 monthly subscription I can get 3000W! It's wonderful!

Permanently Deleted

I forgot my ANOVA when I moved this summer. Now, I'm not that sorry I did.

Ten years before they pulled this. Hopefully the cookers can be used without the app.

Honestly the Bluetooth app is dog shit. Haven't used it in years because it's far easier to just roll the dial. ANOVA should be paying me for distress.

I used the app once when I first got mine and never needed it again. I haven’t had a need for it as I start it, and then come back later. If I need a timer I can set one on my phone.

First Inwas like Yeeeah to all the "smart stuff". But more and more I'm thinking - what happens to current cars after some time? When all the connected crap gets disconnected? Currently you can fix and drive any old piece of junk and drive it in theory forever. What happens when the smart cars lose connection to mothership? What happens when all the electronics go bad and there is no way to fix it? Same goes for your fridge, coffee maker, etc.

I have owned an Anova sous vide cooker for probably 6+ years. I use it probably at least once a week. The hardware is great. I have never once used their stupid app, though. It's totally pointless. If I want to cook anything for 90min I just set an alarm from my phone. If you fuck up food using a sous vide cooker you've gotta give up on cooking food entirely.

You know, This kind of shit happens so frequently anymore that if you're dumb enough to buy things that, for absolutely no reason, requires an internet connection and/or an app.. Then you deserve what you get.

It's not unreasonable to start charging for an app like that if it is under active maintenance, that costs money for the company after all.

But the lesson for the consumer is: Don't buy tools that rely on apps or servers ran by someone else unless you want to eventually start paying rent..

Imagine buying a devices that makes you install a program on a device you have to keep on you at all times and which probably contains all of your personal and financial information.

Like 98% of the human race are absolute fucking morons.