Why "smart" refrigerators will soon become useless?

Want to buy a "smart" refrigerator? Maybe is a good think?

In the early 2000's with mobile phones was to make calls, write SMS messages and to run a couple of simple games. Today technological progress has gone so that with phones you can now chat with people from all over the world to run "heavy" games and to capture high-quality photos and videos. We do not notice, but for decades "wised up" not only mobile devices but also home appliances. For someone it will be opening, but there are already refrigerators that can monitor the shelf life of products and to order missing for cooking ingredients. The owners of these refrigerators can only envy, but soon they may turn into bulky boxes with ice, with almost no use.

What can a "smart" refrigerator?

This, at least, according to the authors of the British . According to them, the refrigerators with large touch screens and connectivity to the Internet are hundreds of dollars more expensive than more modest counterparts. But they clearly will perform all of its functions only for a maximum of five years, whereas the lifespan of conventional refrigerators exceeds a decade. And all because for such functions as tracking the shelf life of food and ordering of products in the store, you need a connection to the vendor's servers via the Internet. And the manufacturers can shut down their servers after a couple years since the release of "smart" refrigerator. This, in fact, no one is immune.

Here is the refrigerator Samsung Family Hub. Through the screen you can see what's in the fridge without opening the door.

The duration of the period during which all functions of the fridge will be sure to work depends on the manufacturer. The company LG says that release updates for their appliances for ten years. South Korean firm Samsung, which also actively produces advanced models of refrigerators, promises to release updates for two years. LG, in turn, does not name the specific timing and simply says that the update will be issued as necessary.

Reason of failure of the refrigerator

It Turns out that after the expiration support, users can lose the functions for which they bought a "smart" technique. For example, here's the situation — the manufacturer has ceased to manufacture for refrigerator software updates, and to connect to the server needs a newer version. Connection is not, and functions such as determining the shelf life of products through installed cameras require mandatory connection — fridge just won't be able to recognize the food.

But in addition to the function of determining shelf life of products, in expensive refrigerators there are other possibilities. For example, some models show installed in the door of the touch screen recipes. All of this information, of course, is taken from the Internet when you stop the updates and, especially, the mail server, some users may not be able to quickly find recipes. Lucky only to those whose refrigerators have a built-in browser — you need recipes you can simply "Google".

Modern coolers not only keep food fresh but also help you learn to cook

Reliability

It May seem that these concerns are sucked from the finger. After all, many of us have old smartphones and tablets on Android, which after a few months after the release stopped the updates. And nothing — they still work great, no problems installing apps and generally perform all of its functions. Maybe with fridges and other appliances of the above-described problems do not happen — if their system is based on Android. But proprietary systems can be difficult, and this has happened.

does anyone else have a very old smartphone or tablet that still works perfectly? Let's

A Vivid example. In 2016 the Corporation of the Alphabet closed startup Revolv, which allowed people to control the elements of "smart home" using a smartphone. That is, the owners of the Revolv device could connect all your high-tech light bulbs, televisions, refrigerators and other devices to a single center and to monitor their work through a special application on the smartphone. But here's the thing — the project was closed, the server has disconnected and the user accounts have been removed. The company was willing to refund the users money, but they were just furious. After all, without all the "smart" electronics of their home remained without electricity and protection security camera is also depended on the device Revolv.

Yeah, Revolv notably nerves of buyers

Even if all functions of the equipment will continue to operate as usual, while stopping the release of software updates, the device at least will be in danger. The fact that any "smart" appliances can have vulnerabilities, which can be usedhackers. Such stories very much — there are viruses, which penetrate into the device and use their capacity for conducting large-scale hacker attacks. Well, the standard scenario when the hackers find out personal user data from home appliances, too, abound. For example not far to seek — in 2015, attackers and find out what username and password the owner uses to log into Gmail.

Just such an interesting topic for reflection recently planted foreign journalists. What do you think — are their fears, or is a panic out of the blue? Share your thoughts in the comments.