• SaraTonin@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    I once asked why anybody would want a smart fridge. Most people didn’t seem to know. The most common answer was that it could act as a focal point for a busy family for keeping track of things like appointments.

    So, like a blackboard/whiteboard, cork board, or even a normal fridge, some paper, and magnets.

    I’m no Luddite. I’ve got smart lamps so i can change the lighting in my living room & bedroom without getting up. And I’m looking into heating so i can have my heating come on when i leave work, rather than at a specific time. That saves effort and money.

    But i just see no reason whatsoever for anybody to have a smart fridge.

    • LiveLM@lemmy.zip
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      22 minutes ago

      In my country they run ads for a “Smart” line of appliances and there’s a part the guy is like “Adjusting thr fridge’s temperature from my phone? Now that’s smart!”

      Like mf how often do you need to adjust the temp??? I do it once after buying groceries or maybe when the season changes and it’s like 1 press of the button at the door, tf?

    • Mwalimu@baraza.africa
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      4 hours ago

      “Luddite” has been turned into a slur over time but it is actually a view point that humans should have a say on what technology does to them and for who. They were not technophobes. They were technodeterminists.

    • yermaw@sh.itjust.works
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      8 hours ago

      I would very much like a tablet on the wall, like a digital cork board/calendar/photo frame etc

      Building it into the fridge with what I assume are zero options about the actual software involved ain’t it though.

    • vodka@feddit.org
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      8 hours ago

      The one smart feature I could see being nice is inventory tracking.

      There’s some new regulation incoming in the EU where they’re doing QR codes on products with the price and also expiry date. A fridge that scans my milk carton as I put it in and then also knows the expiry date would be neat.

      I don’t see this as something I could ever need, but for old people or people with various disabilities? Could have its use.

      • bstix@feddit.dk
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        6 hours ago

        Pretty nice until the day inevitably comes where one of the RFID chips malfunctions and the fridge keeps insisting that you throw out something that isn’t there and you can’t reset the inventory without downloading an update from some company that doesn’t exist anymore using a profile that your ex has the password for.

        Then you’ll wonder why you didn’t use to have these sorts of issues, and your kids will ask how you updated the fridge in your childhood. As an adult you are expected to know this stuff. With your authority being undermined like that they’ll stop listening to anything you say and start smoking crack after school. Now you have a malfunctioning fridge and junkie children. Thanks a lot, dad.

        No thanks. I’ve got 99 problems, but a fridge ain’t one.

        • Sabata@ani.social
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          2 hours ago

          "Unauthorized product detected. Subscribe to premium to store products from this brand. "

        • vodka@feddit.org
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          4 hours ago

          It’s a QR code and not rfid.

          I’m not saying this is for everyone, I’m saying that’s a feature that could be handy for certain use cases where people need such assistance in their life.

        • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Fridge probably stop operating if it can’t show you ads. And if the company goes belly up they send a code that kills your fridge. Just like another companies have done.

      • sauerkrautsaul@lemmus.org
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        8 hours ago

        no I hate, and I mean hate smart speakers and all generative ai.

        I would 100% be up for a fridge that keeps track of its contents’ expiry dates via qr and could display warnings when things are going off. I hate wasting food, especially animal products (I already feel guilty enough) so if my fridge said the smoked salmon had 3 days left I’d be into that. now, it retaining my data and sharing it with anyone would be a complete dealbreaker so

        • UndergroundGoblin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 hours ago

          If it’s dead, it’s dead. Whether you eat it or not, it won’t change anything. The purchase kills the animal, not the consumption.

          It only makes an ecological difference if you convert the generated calories into energy.

          • hans@feddit.org
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            52 minutes ago

            The purchase kills the animal, not the consumption.

            the animal is usually dead before someone walks into the grocery store

          • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
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            6 hours ago

            Sure, but let’s assume you want to eat x grams of animal products a week. You could either buy them and eat them, or buy them, have them expire, and then you have to re-buy them. The second one clearly sucks more.

    • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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      7 hours ago

      Do you leave work at different times each day and week that you don’t know about until you are at work?

      Unless you do, a regular programmable thermostat would be fine.

      • Grostleton@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 hours ago

        This might surprise you, but some people work jobs with alternating schedules.

        I’d imagine it’s pretty annoying to reprogram the thermostat every other week or w/e.

        • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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          5 hours ago

          And it isn’t annoying to have to log into your thermostat every day?

            • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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              4 hours ago

              Either way you need to interact with your thermostat to change it, why add a vulnerability to it that the company may break it at some point?

          • Grostleton@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 hours ago

            Log in every day? Many, if not most, smart thermostat apps have location based features to automatically handle the use case OP had mentioned. You can set it up one time and pretty much never need to interact with it again.

            • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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              1 hour ago

              So your thermostat is tracking your location by GPS to know when to turn on?

              I mean, I guess at least I can see how someone might benefit from it I suppose. I certainly don’t want that though.

              • Grostleton@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 hour ago

                Nobody was asking what you want.

                Nobody here is trying to sell you on one of these, you just jumped in to tell us how you cant fathom why someone would want one and were offered a reasonably common use case as an answer.

                  • Grostleton@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                    24 minutes ago

                    Or when they find out that their phone has like 30 other sensors used in conjunction with the GPS for tracking that can’t be “switched off”.

                    Or that switching off GPS is only switching off the transmission of the data, not the collection of it on the device which then stores it all to be transmitted as soon as you turn the toggle back on.