Slashdot Mirror
Logitech To Shut Down 'Service and Support' For Harmony Link Devices In 2018 (arstechnica.com)
Logitech recently informed customers that it will be discontinuing service for its popular Harmony Link remote system, which allows users to control home theater and sound equipment from a mobile app. "Customers received an email explaining that Logitech will 'discontinue service and support' for the Harmony Link as of March 16, 2018, adding that Harmony Link devices 'will no longer function after this date,'" reports Ars Technica. From the report: While Logitech is offering a one-time, 35-percent discount on its Harmony Hub to affected customers that are out of warranty, that's not enough for Harmony Link users who are expressing their dissatisfaction on Logitech support forums and Reddit. Users have not experienced major problems with the Harmony Link system that would indicate they are approaching end of life. Harmony Link customers do not pay a subscription or service fee to use the device, either. The only reason provided comes from a Logitech employee with the username Logi_WillWong, who explains in a response post from September 8, 2017 that Logitech will not be renewing a "technology certificate license" that expires in March. No details were provided about how this certificate license allows the Harmony Link to function, but it appears that without it, those devices will not work as promised. "The certificate will not be renewed as we are focusing resources on our current app-based remote, the Harmony Hub," Logi_WillWong added, which seems to indicate that the shutting down of the Harmony Link system is a way to get more customers on the newer Harmony Hub system.
Better get used to it. It's the future!
They are also apparently filtering "class action lawsuit" on their message boards to "**************" and being generally scummy.
Don't buy "cloud" products, people.
You didn't read the thing you linked to. To wit:
Logitech stops website, users of concordance are just as bereft as everyone else.
In fact, you can't really start using concordance before you signed up through the windows-only logitech "app" because you can't do that directly through the website, or at least I couldn't, last time I tried. It just bitched about my browser.
Want to use your dishwasher because it still runs fine after 10 years? Well, that 'Smart Device' might not work any more because the manufacturer wants you to buy their newest model instead or wants you to sign up for some paid subscription service that you don't want or need. They just won't send some 'certificate' that allows the dishwasher to keep working past its 'due date'. Same for your fridge, your TV, your security camera, your stove, your sprinkling system, your ....
The worst part is that they were selling off remaining inventory at fire sale prices knowing full well they were going to brick them soon, and arranged the timing of the warranty to completely screw the buyers.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
We only have ourselves to blame.
Microsoft, Logitech and may other manufacturers KEEP proving that they can and will artificially shorten the life of even expensive products only a few years in, yet people just keep mindlessly buying products containing (often otherwise unnecessarily) nanny-net technology. Our buying patterns are just encouraging said manufacturers to keep getting worse with the blatant abuse on every product iteration.
We still need to learn as a society to look for, and prefer buying functionally equivalent devices that do not have any unnecessary internet connectivity, because its already freaking obvious that manufacturers already feel free to use that as an attack vector to totally abuse us.
Logitech has a history of this behavior. It did the same thing to its old Squeezebox product line, dropping hardware support and moving one of its remaining products (the Radio) to new software they thought would sell better (UE Smart Radio). It didn't. Fortunately, the original software was not as entangled with the Logitech-hosted service as the Harmony remotes, and both the server and client software are open source as well. So now there's ongoing support for the software, and other companies are making audio devices that are compatible with it. My setup continues to work just fine years after Logitech bailed. And my newest Squeezebox device is a RaspberryPi.
But I did research the software side of the Squeezebox product line before I originally purchased, expecting that there was a very good probability that the devices that I bought would possibly far outlast Logitech's stomach for supporting their devices (typically 5 years for consumer products). And it was the availability of open source software that clinched my decision to go with the product. One must really think twice when buying a consumer product with software in it, and thrice if that software depends on a cloud service or even regular updates.
Even otherwise simple standalone devices that have a settable timezone are exciting again, with the New England states beginning to consider dropping twice-a-year DST related changes. Can you update the software's timezone table when jurisdictions make these kinds of changes?
Guess again.
The odds of new customers heading this warning never to use Logitech products ever again is minuscule, meanwhile, it's likely at least a small percentage of the affected users will act against their own self interest and buy the new system despite knowing better from this experience.
End result for Logitech is likely positive, despite the fact that in a sane society it would sound their death knell.
Guess again.
The odds of new customers heading this warning never to use Logitech products ever again is minuscule, meanwhile, it's likely at least a small percentage of the affected users will act against their own self interest and buy the new system despite knowing better from this experience.
End result for Logitech is likely positive, despite the fact that in a sane society it would sound their death knell.
Perhaps. But the drip drip does get through eventually. DRM on music was railed against for years before it became publicly accepted that it was a bad thing. We haven't had any big cloud failures yet but the message is getting through. Just wait until Valve or Amazon or Google make a big error. And then wait a bit longer... public understanding of tech is slow to change, but it does change.
That and legislation, because the market doesn't fix everything when companies are colluding, even if people care.
For most other companies that have tried this approach it's worked out great. And no, that's not sarcasm. It appears that very few future customers bother to research this sort of behaviour, it gets very little media attention overall, and unbelievably, a portion of the user base you just screwed over will actually buy your new product despite the fact that they really should know better.
Worse yet, this is becoming so widespread and common that it's actually hard to find a company that isn't willing to resort to these sorts of tactics, and consumers are actually coming to expect it, and actually don't seem to care.
Unfortunately the cable company remotes can't compete with the feature set of something like a harmony. This isn't the case of a remote with 4 power buttons across the top or something, it really is a better remote in that with a single button it will turn a group of devices on, and change them all to the correct inputs for a specific activity, and when changing activities it will remember the current state of devices to change only the appropriate settings to support the new activity (e.g. if you're watching Netflix through a WD Live box and want to switch to listening to a CD, it will turn off the TV, but leave the surround sound system on, turn off the WD box, turn on the CD player, change the input on the surround sound system, and change the mode on the sound system to music instead of movie.)
Worse yet, there isn't nearly as much competition in this space as you might think, Logitech really is the massively dominant player here. I really like my Harmony remote, but I've always been worried about the cloud dependence (enough that I probably wouldn't have bought it myself, but when I got it as a gift I've enjoyed it) If/when I have to replace it though, I'm not sure exactly what I'll do. With my current setup I'd need 6 remotes without the Harmony, and 4 of those are needed just for the simple task of watching TV (and the cable company remote won't reliably control ANY of my devices other than their own cable box)
I think you underestimate the willingness of the average consumer to let companies screw them over. It's unlikely this will actually hurt Logitech in any meaningful way, and it may even benefit them as a certain percentage of users actually buy Logitech's newest version despite the fact that they really should know better.
It doesn't hurt any that, as pointed out by other respondents, there isn't nearly as much competition in this space as you'd think.
Remember when Creative Labs not only pulled the same kind of crap with their drivers (back in 2008)?
Forcing people to upgrade their discrete sound cards by killing the drivers worked really well for them!
I don't think the public yet accepts that DRM on music is bad. Really people have simply switched away from owning music entirely. It's all streaming services now, and all of those are cloud based with no way to keep your music once you stop paying monthly. If you're using that as an example of a "win" for consumers, I think you're looking at the wrong industry.
It will be when the first big game console service shuts down prematurely that people really wake up to it.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC