this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2024
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CAFE by GE for those who are wondering.

We are renovating our house including all new appliances. I have told my partner to make sure we get non smart appliances. This is why.

Yes I can setup a VLAN for it to be on but that's not the point.

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[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 126 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You didn't buy an oven. You bought a node for someone else's botnet.

[–] RobotZap10000@feddit.nl 20 points 3 months ago

Whenever someone designs or purchases a smart device, this is what they need to be told. Is it really worth the risk for potential harm?

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 8 points 3 months ago

Hanlon's razor, but its interesting to imagine that some Russian, US, Israeli, Chinese, etc agents infiltrated management at appliance manufacturers and convinced them to make all their devices smart, just so they could build bigger botnets

[–] rem26_art@fedia.io 77 points 3 months ago (3 children)

they're using the Wi-fi radiation to cook your meals /s

Thats really, really dumb. I can understand maybe wanting the option of having your oven ping your phone when the timer goes off, but what could it possibly need internet access for in order to turn on the heating element and a fan for a set period of time??

[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 55 points 3 months ago (6 children)

It doesn't need it. That's exactly the point.

Even though air frying doesn't need Internet, the manufacturer is restricting that feature as a way to force you to set up the WiFi, so they can then slurp up all your data.

They're literally holding the feature hostage, as motivation.

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[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 18 points 3 months ago

I had a bakery/kiosk mix of shop, where I baked bread every morning for 13 years or so. There was a customer who questioned my oven, because she actually does not know if it really radiates. And how I can be this sure about it. Its a damn oven! Like one in every household, just a bit bigger. People are really this dumb. Besides, it wouldn't be legal... oh man still upsets me. Not because of being accused for, but it upset me that people like her have the right to vote.

[–] SteevyT@beehaw.org 18 points 3 months ago (2 children)

they’re using the Wi-fi radiation to cook your meals

You're thinking of microwaves.

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 32 points 3 months ago (4 children)

The microwave region extends from 1,000 to 300,000 MHz (or 30 cm to 1 mm wavelength).

Source: https://www.britannica.com/science/electromagnetic-radiation/Microwaves

2.4Ghz, and 5Ghz are microwaves. Your typical microwave oven operates at about 2.45GHz due to resonance frequency of water. 2.4Ghz wifi is literally a typical microwave's neighbor.

The difference is sheer amount of power and shielding. Not the type of radiation.

[–] SteevyT@beehaw.org 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 7 points 3 months ago

It may very well be. However, with how matter-of-factly you said it, some people might not think it's a joke.

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[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That could work if you amped the waves up and trapped them in a confined, isolated space, no?

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Maybe if you could amp up the wattage by a 1000 fold, sure

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 45 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That's a big, honking "no" from me.

It'd be one thing if the "smart" features were there but only supplemented the basic functionality. It's another entirely for those basic features to require an internet connection.

Out of curiosity, did the product description indicate the internet connection was required? I'm soon to be replacing some appliances and want to know what to look out for (besides all mentions of "wifi" or "smart").

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[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 43 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Why the fuck does an oven have a touch screen? That's a horrible idea. Good luck cleaning your kitchen without accidentally hitting "buttons" on the oven! And heaven forbid food splatter turns on your oven broiler.

[–] Railison@aussie.zone 27 points 3 months ago

How about the motherboard dying before the oven does

[–] saigot@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 months ago

I don't love touch screens on ovens either, but you just press the lock button and then you can clean to your hearts content.

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[–] TheTimeKnife@beehaw.org 42 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Smart appliances are such a ridiculous scam.

[–] neomachino@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I can totally see a point in some of the features.

The other day my wife and I got 20 minutes from home before I said "oh shit I don't know if I turned the oven off". Turns out I did, but we had to drive home to check. I would have loved to pull up an app that told me it was actually off, or even if I was on be able to turn it off from there.

With that said, it's not worth all the extra bullshit in my opinion.

[–] JustJack23@slrpnk.net 7 points 3 months ago (3 children)

And what if someone else downloads the app and turns in on?

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[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 40 points 3 months ago

For OUR best experience ( not yours )

F&&& that. Send it back.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 34 points 3 months ago (2 children)

So basically you paid money to store someone else's oven. How long before we are installing vending machines in our kitchens instead of fridge and stove.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Straight out of Unauthorized Bread from Doctorow

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[–] Hupf@feddit.org 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's an awesome idea. I'll have my engineers build it into our next product line.

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[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 33 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

But they told me I can just not connect it to the internet and it'll be just like any dumb device.

Eventually these things will come with modems built in so you can't even do that.

[–] WilfordGrimley@linux.community 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My APAP machine has a sim card and unless I am careful to not disable airplane mode every time I start it up, it will send all of my health data to company that I have signed no agreement with.

I explicitly declined to agree to the privacy policy of the company that sold it to me.

If I find my data in a breach, lawyers will be involved.

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[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 28 points 3 months ago (6 children)

My microwave is a 1977 Amanda Radarange. It can boil a cup of water in ⅕ of the time a modern microwave can.

Now granted, it has zero fancy settings and a simple number pad that does nothing but set how long you want the microwave to run.

But honestly, this simplicity is a large part of it’s charm. No connectivity needs, no features locked behind paywalls, no extraneous bullshit or never-used features. Just a tool that does only one thing, and does it exceptionally well.

[–] JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago (7 children)

I got a "retrowave" in mint green. It's dumb, uses a turn dial to set the cook time, stands on little feet like it's from Rocko's Modern Life, and looks like it's from the 50's. Have a matching toaster and eventually want a matching fridge.

It's been 4 years and no issues which is more than I can say about a lot of other new appliances we've gotten for the house.

For dumb appliances with a fun aesthetics look up 'retro (name of appliance here) and you'll get all the brands who make stuff like that. It's the only way I've been able to avoid smart garbage so far.

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[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

It's only a matter of time before corporate WANs like Amazon sidewalk and/or the ever decreasing cost of cellular modems and IOT contracts mean they won't even ask anymore.

In the mean time, these things are usually programmed with minimal effort. I have to wonder if there's an actual unlock process or if giving it a completely isolated subnet would satisfy the check.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It’s only a matter of time before corporate WANs like Amazon sidewalk and/or the ever decreasing cost of cellular modems and IOT contracts mean they won’t even ask anymore.

Then it's time to heat up the soldering iron and disable the wireless connectivity in hardware.

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

which is great until you realize that if it cant connect to a server somewhere to download the latest Ad manifest it crashes the OvenOS and now your warranty is void AND you can't bake a cake.

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[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Why the fuck can't we make things hot without the internet? FFS

Fire: "I got you, bro."

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

A fire is what you may get when a hacker decides to turn the oven on for you.

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[–] Blackout@fedia.io 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I bought one of those ge induction ovens to swap out a gas one. The only smart feature I liked was the ability to turn my oven on to preheat from my phone. Guess what feature just doesn't work no matter the tech support help i get with it.

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[–] dangerous50@feddit.nl 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I wonder if they will eventually make a toilet bowl to connect to the Internet. Can't flush until you connects to the Internet just because....

[–] InevitableList@beehaw.org 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

There are toilets that analyse your waste and send the results to your doctor. They ID you by scanning your anus since everyone's anus is unique. Maybe one day the results can be sent to your kitchen and your fridge and airfryer can deny you access to unhealthy foods when your toilet tells them to.

[–] Shortstack@reddthat.com 6 points 3 months ago

Jesús fucking christ some guy made the Adult Swim skit into a real product?

This wasn’t supposed to be real

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[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago (4 children)
[–] Dalvoron@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago (4 children)

AI will analyse video of dirty bums and generate the exact pressure and aim required to get them clean.

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[–] Exec@pawb.social 11 points 3 months ago

It's so you can have the New Turkey Mode

[–] rtc@beehaw.org 11 points 3 months ago

Seems to me like they do not know how to make a good oven.

[–] BigBolillo@beehaw.org 10 points 3 months ago

If they will be running a botnet with your net at least it should be a fair pay.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

That's because air fryer.

There are no dumb air fryers, are there?

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[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 3 months ago

They are smart because they know how to spy on you without telling you.

[–] CHOPSTEEQ@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Our GE Profile oven did the same. Of course the software is so shit, it tripped up connecting to the VLAN I set up and now it has air fry mode and no wifi.

Maybe try switching to airplane mode on your phone while trying to onboard the oven? I’m sure it’s too late for that.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Any smart feature must be optional.

I have smart lights at home, none is required to get light in the rooms, they are only used for mood lighting.

[–] Vodulas@beehaw.org 8 points 3 months ago

We have a lot of smart plugs that we use for plant timers. They are way more accurate than the old school notched wheel ones and we can set them to actual sunrise and sunset. They also can just be turned on and used like a switch if the internet goes out

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 6 points 3 months ago

Maybe you can buy a DLC to have additional functionality. Or you need to pay micro transactions with each cooking. No money is wasted.

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