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Ask Slashdot: Which Software/Devices Are Unusable Without Connecting to the Internet? (techdirt.com)
New submitter AlejandroTejadaC writes: Currently, most commercial software and hardware manufactures rely on an internet connection for registering or activating their products and providing additional functionality. In an ideal world this works fine, but in our real world the buyer could lose access to internet for months --
such as in emergency situations like the aftermath of hurricane Maria -- and their products will refuse to work because they need an internet connection. Which companies are using their internet servers as replacements for hardware dongles? I want to see a complete list of software and devices that become completely unusable without a live internet connection. Just remember the infamous case of the Razer Synapse.
Yes, you can download maps for offline use in a small area, but if you go outside that pre-defined area OR you didn't download maps for offline use and happen to drive through an extended area with poor or no 4G/3G service, it becomes useless. This is perhaps the most bothersome "no internet connection means it won't work" experience I personally have encountered, and it is the primary reason I still carry a standalone GPS device in my car.
There's also VoIP phone services, including a lot of the phone services provided by cable ISPs. Lose that connection, and you lose "landline" phone service...and yes, there are still lots of people who use landline phones either by choice or necessity.
For BT within the UK, at least, it's over separate fibre or separate circuit-switched partitions within fibres that may also carry Internet traffic, but the majority of the phone network, in spite of running IP, is not addressable from the Internet. This is done to guarantee QoS for the voice traffic.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Amen to that, brother (or sister). Why in the world do I need a light bulb I can control with a smartphone app, or a refrigerator that can text message me that I'm low on milk? In the case of that Razer Synapse mouse, a 25 cent EEPROM chip would accomplish the same thing without needing a cloud service to create an account on and save a few dozen bytes of configuration. Smart devices? Rather the opposite I think.