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Pet owners say smart pet feeder outage led to furry ones going unfed (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 days ago by slaacaa@lemmy.world to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

46 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/technology@lemmy.world/p/902391/pet-owners-say-smart-pet-feeder-outage-led-to-furry-ones-going-unfed

This feels like bad design

Smart pet-feeder company Petlibro suffered an outage on Tuesday, giving users a harsh reminder of the risks of relying on smart devices.

Petlibro makes pet feeders that connect to Wi-Fi and, for setup with Petlibro’s mobile companion app, Bluetooth. Users can set the feeders to automatically dispense food at scheduled times, which is handy for pet care when the owner is out of the home.

In a statement to The Verge, Petlibro CEO York Wu said this week’s outage was “related to how the Petlibro app communicates with devices through its online servers.”

Some user reports have also conflicted with Petlibro’s claims about offline functionality. As The Verge pointed out, various users online claimed that during the outage, their devices did not perform any scheduled feedings, performed some feedings but not others, or performed feedings late (examples here, here, here, here, and here).

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[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Why the hell does anyone need an app to feed a pet?

Use this when you're home:

Use this when you're gone for a couple of days:

[–] moldy_rice@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com 8 points 2 days ago

Cat ate week's food in one day. Help.

[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The latter is potential for over feeding if your pet over eats. But yeah, don't own a pet if you can't take care of it without full automation.. what's the fuckin point?

[–] vorpuni@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 5 points 2 days ago

Automated feeders are useful for consistency and avoiding screaming near feeding time in some cases. Also makes diets more enforceable for fat pets.

[–] gedfromgont@piefed.ca 2 points 2 days ago

What the fucking point is? I take it you don't have a cat. The point is you don't have to be home to feed your cat. Meaning you can be late one day and not worry about your little friend getting their food. If you are lucky you don't have to get out of the bed in the morning, just for the feeding, either.

But definitely do not get one that requires Wifi. I got one from this brand that actually has no internet connection whatsoever, and its great!

[–] MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don't have an app for it, but I have a fully offline automatic feeder. For over a decade I didn't and it was fine but then I had some nights where I ended up delayed on my return home and I felt bad because their bowl would be overturned even if I was only 30 minutes late. Now they have a predictable schedule regardless of if I make it home exactly on time or not and there's an added bonus of having it for pet sitters so they never have to worry about getting the time wrong or forgetting. Mine plugs into the wall and has a battery backup so even if the power goes out it's still going to work for quite some time.

I definitely wouldn't do free feeding like in your second picture for my pets, but I'm sure some could pace themselves.

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What fully offline automatic feeder did you get? The "fully offline" one I got ended up requiring internet.

[–] MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com 2 points 2 days ago

Wasn't this exact one, as I'm pretty sure they're all fly by night companies and I can't find the one I have, but it's basically this: https://www.chewy.com/nityers-food-dispenser-lcd-screen/dp/5012590

Seems to be the same down to the battery backup. I'm sure you could get it cheaper through Amazon or Temu or some other company, I just try to avoid sharing amazon links.

Sorry I couldn't find mine exactly, but based off the appearance and info I'm pretty sure it's the same.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 1 points 2 days ago

I've only ever done free feeding for my cats. None have really had any issues staying in shape. Don't know much about dogs though.