

Ask HN: Does IOT mean anything to you? - roymurdock


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27182818284
I think it is kinda "meh" for me at this point, because it is difficult to get
even home networks talking to each other _still_. Printers have gotten better,
but Google something like "Plex can't 'find server" and there are tons of
results from people trying to get a TV to talk to their computer 20 ft away.

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byoung2
The future looks a little brighter...I just got a new Zmodo surveillance
camera DVR and setting up the mobile viewing app was a snap...just scan the QR
code on the DVR using the app on the phone and everything was set up
automatically. I think that kind of experience would go a long way toward user
adoption.

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CyberFonic
IoT is great for tinkerers and hackers. It's kinda cool to have the watering
system turn on as you unlock the front door. Changing the colour of the lights
when your phone rings is fun too.

As for the average consumer, where are the use cases that make the over-priced
products appealing?

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J_Darnley
Yes, a fridge tweeting that it is out of milk then promptly being owned by a
hacker because the manufacturer makes appliances not software.

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CyberFonic
Poor security, buggy software and over-reliance on cloud hosted "intelligence"
could become the Achilles heel of IoT.

Unfortunately PHBs rush in, jostling to dominate the new opportunities which
IoT promises. The result could be a slew of meh products that work poorly and
hardly ever interoperate with other brands.

IoT products could become the VCR blinking 0:00 of this decade.

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itburnswheniit
Yes. Marketing B.S. for the layman.

"IoT" = Network-enabled sensors on things.

"Cloud" means "Server hosted somewhere else"...and we had that in the very
early bits/bytes.

Practice the air quotes with me. ;)

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devnill
I think the problem I (and most people) have with IoT is that the marketing is
coming before the UX. Sure, you can spend 100 bucks on a lightbulb that can be
controlled by your email, but will it really be usable? There is a lot of
potential for zigbee/zwave/thread/BTLE/etc, but until there is an actual use
case that will hold water it will only be over commercialized gadgets.

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logn
Not until we get pneumatic tube technology like they have at bank drive
thru's. Yes a smart fridge is anti-climactic, but a smart fridge connected to
a grocery store with pneumatic tubes?

Smart trash can... meh. Smart trash can connected to dumpster with pneumatic
tubes?

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IpV8
As a contractor that connects embedded devices with web applications; Yes, it
means quite a bit.

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CyberFonic
Is your work for domestic or commercial applications?

How do you cope with the support issues when things don't interoperate?

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justonepost
IoT (to me) means green field network of sensors (BLE, mesh, Wifi, etc) which
securely connect to the cloud (azure, aws, google) that has big databases,
machine learning and dashboards. So, yeah, it has meaning.

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marssaxman
It means "yet another overhyped buzzword".

I can see why it's a good thing for people who want to sell expensive gadgets,
but they aren't doing a very good job of explaining why anyone would want to
buy them.

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amarraja
Until the day comes where I can't use my toilet because the internet is down,
then no.

