Not The Onion

22262 readers

863 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

Links to news stories from...
...credible sources, with...
...their original headlines, that...
...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, ableist, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

kescusay@lemmy.world

133

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

submitted 3 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).

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Why does a pet feeder need internet access? Next thing you're going to tell me is that my fridge needs internet. What's next? My car? The thing that drives away from the internet connection?

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think some cars already do. All those modern recalls we hear about are often a "connect your car to your home wifi and they'll download the update"

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Most car updates are done through mobile network now. Mine has "over the air updates" which is just a dumb way of saying 5g... Before that, they'd be updated during service at the mechanic. I've never heard about a car being connected to your home wifi to update, since that would be practically impossible for most renters.

[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

All those things you mentioned HAVE models with internet capabilities. Some features are required for use, while not completely limiting you using the unit for its intended purpose without internet, yet, it soon will I bet.

Edit: vehicles offer their OWN internet from the manufacturer now; for a premium of course... isn't that crazy?