flop_leash_973“Immensely disappointing”: Nike killing app for $350 self-tying sneakers
Admiral PatrickRemember folks: Any smart device you have that requires an internet connection or app is e-waste waiting to happen at the company’s whim.
talI mean, there are some devices that fundamentally have to be online to be useful. You’re not losing anything there.
A Roku stick requires the Roku streaming service to be functioning to be useful. If there wasn’t a service with streaming media, the stick would have nothing to stream.
The problem is when you have a device that doesn’t have that fundamental requirement but is then unnecessarily tied to an online service. Home automation requiring Internet connectivity, for example, when virtually no home automation actually requires access to any online services, or converting non-live-service video games to live-service video games.
A Roku stick requires the Roku streaming service to be functioning to be useful. If there wasn’t a service with streaming media, the stick would have nothing to stream.
Still becomes e-waste if Roku drops support for it. Granted, that’s not the best example as I’ve got an old-ass Roku that still works, but the point stands. Same goes for Fire sticks and other devices like that.
They really should be forced to, at minimum, release unlocking tools to allow 3rd party firmware. (Think flashing OpenWRT to a Roku and using it as a travel router or something). Ideally, they’d also release a development kit to foster “after-life” uses of such devices.
Lots of companies will accept old devices back (supposedly to recycle), but there’s another “R”, re-use, that’s also an important part of the process.
Still becomes e-waste if Roku drops support for it. Granted, that’s not the best example as I’ve got an old-ass Roku that still works, but the point stands. Same goes for Fire sticks and other devices like that.
Just look at Spotify’s Car Thing.
Thank you, lol. I knew there was a very recent example but was blanking on it.
There are other risks, such as the functionality changing without your knowledge or input (see again: Roku): theverge.com/…/roku-tv-update-motion-smoothing-tu…
Are kids still even taught the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle)? I was always taught that they were listed in order of importance, but that seems to conflict with modern capitalism.
Honestly, no idea. But yeah, the latter two seem in direct opposition to the line always going up at all costs.
Apart from their use in the slogan, I don’t remember any importance being placed on reduce or reuse when I was at school. I guess “recycle” is the only one compatible with continually buying more shit we don’t need.
Darkassassin07A Roku stick requires the Roku streaming service to be functioning to be useful. If there wasn’t a service with streaming media, the stick would have nothing to stream.
In cases like this; it’s still only artificially dependant on Rokus services.
The hardware is perfectly capable of streaming from any number of services, including entirely self-hosted solutions like Emby/Jellyfin/Plex; yet the device can be remotely bricked just by nolonger providing Rokus services to it.
AnActOfCreationA Roku stick requires the Roku streaming service to be functioning to be useful.
That’s not true at all. You could use a Roku with only Plex/Jellyfin and it would be immensely useful.
FredselfishSo if you own pair of these shoes you will no longer be able to use the features on said shoes?
Without the app, wearers are unable to change the color of the sneaker’s LED lights. The lights will either maintain the last color scheme selected via the app or, per Nike, “if you didn’t install the app, light will be the default color.” While owners will still be able to use on-shoe buttons to turn the shoes on or off, check its battery, adjust the lace’s tightness, and save fit settings, the ability to change lighting and control the shoes via mobile phone were big selling points of the $350 kicks.
Yeah I be pissed if this was done to me. Someone should find a way to access the changing of the lights without the app.
I own a pair. You do lose some functionality without the app. The ability to change the light colors, set and recall presets.
You can still tighten them without the app. And I think you can set one preset as well (not sure tbh)
They announced the sunsetting of the app like 2 months ago but the media is capitalizing on the announcement now for some reason. It sucks but it’s not the end of the world not having the app.
Not like the apk won’t still be obtainable. I still have a pandora apk from around 2012 I use (ad free, cost free) that still works just fine.
The apk will likely outlast the shoes. Ever since all the shoe companies started using polyurethane soles, hydrolysis eventually just disintegrates them, even if you almost never wear them. After about 10 years they’re usually not wearable any longer.
Just by chance because Pandora is very conservative about API changes and it happens to use Android APIs still supported.
And Nike will never mess with an old Bluetooth apk and pair of sneakers. It will work as long as android allows for an apk designed for Android 14.
Losing the app means that people can’t change the color of the light on the shoe. You can still do all the other shit manually.
That said, I feel like companies should be required to open source shit like this once they drop support for it. Otherwise stuff like this adds to the mountains of e-waste poisoning the planet.
m-p{3}Sounds like something Gadgetbridge could handle if requested.
companies should be required to open source shit like this once they drop support for it
Damn right they should!
BlackmistAs if putting a bunch of circuits and lights on a fucking shoe wasn’t e-waste to start with…
Flying SquidI don’t disagree with you, but I find the concept of an open source shoe to be amusing.
I find the concept of a closed source shoe horrifying. 🙂
Just don’t do it
Just screw it
Just do it yourself.
dactylothecaThese sneakers be like
Anything requiring a smartphone app to use should be an instant non-starter for everyone.
The problem is that there are usually no other alternatives, or at least not any easily accessible. Heck, these days even routers require app activation for no reason other than to be shitty.
There should be a law against this. All hardware requiring an app should also have an open API.
Heck, these days even routers require app activation for no reason other than to be shitty
There are more often than not alternatives that exist that don't have this requirement.
How did you post this comment?
Were you using an app?
I willed it into existence.
At least you got the joke.
Comedy is hard.
ikiddThere isn’t one app to post to Lemmy, there’s a dozen. And they’re open source mostly. And there’s a web page. And you can self-host a fediverse node. And ActivityPub is an open standard. And and and.
Now if this was Reddit, you might be closer to the mark.
And how did you post this comment was a via an app?
jjagaimoWhoosh
You mis woosh’d there.
Way way off the mark buddy
This is getting funnier
Lvxferre [he/him]How did you post this comment? // Were you using an app?
Please refer to the context when interpreting what others say dammit. Your questions stink “ackshyually lol lmao” from a distance.
The OP is talking about sneakers unnecessarily requiring an “app”; in this context, Farts’ “anything” should be interpreted as “physical goods” (like sneakers), not “internet services that may be accessed through a browser or specialised software” (like Lemmy).
I’m sorry oh mighty one.
I’ll go and enjoy the pun over here while you try to figure out if what I wrote was intentionally funny or accidentally funny, or funny at all. Social ques are hard aren’t they.
Cut off the crap.
“Ackshyually I was totally joking! Yeah, it was a joke! You’re just too stupid to get the clue” doesn’t work if there’s no clue that it’s a joke on first place, no matter if you rephrase it with Reddit style passive aggressiveness.
Please do everyone in Lemmy a favour and stay in Reddit. You’ll be in more suitable company.
Sorry didn’t realise you needed me to include the /s
You might have intended it to be funny, but it wasn’t received that way by the majority, as it is clear from the downvotes. So instead of trying to convince everybody in multiple desperate comments that they are wrong, maybe just move on.
Ya a little late to the game buddy. Convo is a day old at this point.
But thanks for trying
He posted it from his shoe tying app
woelkchenIsn’t the point of self-lacing shoes that they shouldn’t require manual user input at all? What is the app for then?
That’s what my shoes were missing: spyware!
Oh god! The Chinese know how tight my shoes are? They could overthrow the entire globe with such devastating info!
It’s adorable you think “shoelace tightness” is all that app has awareness of.
I don’t know why my first thought from this was Ruth Gator Binsburg. Now I just want something like a shitty_watercolor of that.
How long before it requires a subscription?
Default_DefectOf all the overpriced bullshit people flock to for no reason other than to be suckers, sneakers are the one that made the least sense to me.
I talked to a bunch of sneaker heads over the years and i don’t think i’ll ever get it. I don’t like to shit on someone’s hobby, but buying shitty super overpriced sneakers made by slaves is a weird ass hobby.
Especially considering most of the time they likely won’t even wear the things because of either how much they cost or because they find them to be a collectors item.
Personally I’d rather buy the slaves. And set them free of course. Yes, of course.
Let me guess… AI enchanted feature?
So will there be a pirate app floating around for those who own these? Are there enough peeps who bought these for there to be interest in making one? Can’t be tough