Logitech Will Brick Its $100 Pop Smart Home Buttons on October 15 (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0179716174
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/08/1831202/logitech-will-brick-its-100-pop-smart-home-buttons-on-october-15
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/logitech-will-brick-its-100-pop-smart-home-buttons-on-october-15/
> In another loss for early smart home adopters, Logitech has announced that it will [1]brick all Pop switches on October 15 .
>
> In August of 2016, Logitech launched Pop switches, which provide quick access to a range of smart home actions, including third-party gadgets. For example, people could set their Pop buttons to launch Philips Hue or Insteon lighting presets, play a playlist from their Sonos speaker, or control Lutron smart blinds. Each button could store three actions, worked by identifying smart home devices on a shared Wi-Fi network, and was controllable via a dedicated Android or iOS app. The Pop Home Switch Starter Pack launched at $100, and individual Pop Add-on Home Switches debuted at $40 each.
>
> A company spokesperson told Ars Technica that Logitech informed customers on September 29 that their Pop switches would soon become e-waste.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/logitech-will-brick-its-100-pop-smart-home-buttons-on-october-15/
Be fucked, customer! (Score:2, Insightful)
These are toys and were never designed as professional equipment. At the same time, my light-switches just keep working ...
Light switches (Score:3)
Funny you should say that. I had a ceiling fan that stopped working. Various YouTube videos suggested it could be a failed capacitor in the fan. I took it apart, and everything measured correctly on my meter. The fan was fine. The problem was the switch on the wall had broken. I've had to replace four failed light switches in our house.
They don't make them like they used to.
Re: (Score:2)
When I was finishing my basement by retired EE dad strongly suggested getting switches and outlets made in Mexico if USA wasn't available at the big box.
If a company sells a brickable device, (Score:1, Troll)
...I believe there should be disclosure on the packaging or product page. Otherwise they are selling an internet service, not just a physical product.
Blue states are usually okay with such laws, the red states like to waste all their time working around laissez-faire's gotcha so that the Holy Rich can have their Holy Taxcuts. ProveMeWrong!
Re: (Score:3)
In my mind these intentionally brick-able devices violates " implied warranty of fitness [for purpose]".
Getting an attorney and actually winning a case though. Good luck, these guys got way more lawyers than any of us consumers have.
And the second S in IoT... (Score:3)
stands for "support".
Re: (Score:2)
What does the "H" stand for?
Re: (Score:2)
The I stands for Intranet. Don't buy crap that relies on the cloud.
Re: (Score:2)
(the first 'S' stands for Security)
Local functions should be local (Score:3)
Another illustration of why you donÂt want to depend on the cloud for local functions.
Re: (Score:2)
Unless they commit to open sourcing the cloud server aspect upon EOL so that the users, if they choose, can run it on their own cloud server.
Open source (Score:2)
Solve it with open source.
Counter example (Score:2)
Bosch is going to take down the servers that some of their smart thermostats use.
The thermostats will continue to work, they just won't be Internet-accessible.
They are sending out newer models that will be fully supported at no cost to the owner.
Re: (Score:2)
When I moved into my new house, I bought a bunch of fairly bare-bones Honeywell switches that supported Z-Wave. All the smarts are on a server I control. Short of a physical defect I never have to worry about them going out of support.
Pop switches? (Score:2)
More like Poop switches.
Return them to Logitech (Score:2)
Postage paid by recipient.
Use the address of the Logitech CEO as the return address so they can get caught in the infinite loop.
Re: (Score:2)
So you are advocating mail fraud - a federal offense. Good luck with that.
If it requires a cloud account, you don't own it (Score:2)
You merely paid $100 for the privilege of throwing it away before it wears out.
Never buy any device... (Score:2)
... that requires cloud access
The cloud is a trap
Run away
Wild (Score:2)
People just accept this kind of thing as totally normal. As we move closer and closer to the WEFs "Own nothing:be happy", it's becoming more and more absurd that people are just OK with this.
Watch them turn around and sell an identical product with a different color button or rounded corners or something.
Re: (Score:2)
They're frogs being boiled in slowly heated water. Thanks, I'll stick with my ancient manual light switches et al.
Subscription for button? (Score:2)
Arent there open source projects like home assistant that can do the same thing?
Not buying any smart-home that aren't local-use. (Score:2)
Specifically cross-platform, not vendor-app or vendor-cloud dependent.
I still have some Hue bulbs, and a few WiFi bulbs that are dependent on vendor lock-in that I'll be replacing when they go out.
Any newer devices are Matter/Thread compatible. Local control, no vendor lock-in.
Thank goodness it wasn't open source (Score:2)
Thank goodness it wasn't open source...can you imagine? People might still be able to use a thing they bought, err, I mean "inadvertently rented without realizing it".
And we can't have that, now can we?
Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
The economy doesn't work if you buy things that last.
CONSUME (Score:3)
And if you don't consume, then you're communist scum!
Re:CONSUME (Score:5, Insightful)
We need legislation that all equipment that is no longer supported be open sourced, and one last firmware update gives a vector to load your own firmware (or community) firmware you download. I get they have no economic interest in these buttons, but for fucks sake, if you aren't paying for it continuously, "the cloud" will stop working with it eventually. We need a way to make the device receive / send API calls locally. This should be legislated. "We no longer support your device. Here is the most recent firmware's source code, the certificates used to validate the update server, and a quick read me on how to get it to fetch a firmware from your local computer (web server with said certificate). Thanks for using our product!"
Re: (Score:3)
> We need legislation that all equipment that is no longer supported be open sourced, and one last firmware update gives a vector to load your own firmware (or community) firmware you download.
Yes, and it needs to apply to absolutely everything, including computers, cell phones, etc. Having hardware locked to a single software vendor is barely tolerable while the manufacturer is supporting it, but absolutely should not be allowed once the manufacturer drops support.
But that's not really enough. Reverse engineering the hardware for nontrivial stuff is usually not worth the effort. The companies should be required to also do one of two things:
Release their internal documentation telling addre
Re: (Score:2)
And Consumist scum have landed us in this mess.
Re:Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
Reasonable? Working equipment you own suddenly stops working because it's tied to a company that can fuck you at will. That's reasonable? So where is the line? 9 years ... 8 years ... 5 years? This why I avoid EVERYTHING that requires a company's cloud to operate. These "reasonable" actions will always happen.
Re: (Score:1)
2 years per $100 seems about right.
Re: (Score:2)
I have over 600 smart home devices. About half of them are smart bulbs and smart switches.
Most cost far less than $50 new. I bought a bunch of them used for even less..
$50/year support fee per device would be completely unreasonable.
Fortunately, most of the 600 devices don't require cloud, and can operate in Home assistant locally on Wifi, without an ISP.
Re: (Score:2)
I have about 30 smart home devices. There are lights which, if you flip a switch on the wall, turn on. Flip it again and they turn off. Also a kettle that works the same way. And a bedside clock that has buttons you can use to set the time. All of them just as smart as I need them to be, and they'll never be bricked or disabled.
Re: (Score:2)
That is where Home Assistant shines. You can create all manner of automations and it will work with most devices. So if there's a z-wave or zigbee lightswitch, you can use home assistant to get your input of choice to control it.
I don't know the specifics of your situation, but I'm pretty sure that if you have something that works for you, you don't want Logitech to brick it one day.
Re: (Score:2)
> $50/year support fee per device would be completely unreasonable.
I think they were saying a reasonable minimum required cloud support period should be 2 years per $100 of the device's cost.
Re: (Score:3)
That doesn't seem right to me at all, given that the only reason these devices stop working is a matter of needless dependence .
There is no technical reason why these devices must be dependent on Logitech's servers. They can operate as smart home devices entirely on a local network. The cloud piece is a completely needless tether. I understand that Logitech doesn't want to be on the hook to pay the server maintenance costs for a device that isn't making them money. That's fine. They should be free to cu
Re: (Score:2)
No legislation is needed.
#1 STOP BUYING THINGS THAT ARE CLOUD CONNECTED. If enough people did that, it would change. But it won't, because people like expensive things.
#2 STOP TRYING TO INCREASE PRICES OF THINGS BY MANDATING VARIOUS THINGS LIKE requiring companies to open source/whatever. It /will/ add a lot of cost due to dumb decisions most companies make in design. Even if it doesn't, or to you it is "worth it", it is also a vector for many other bad things due to the decision on what/how to do things be
No it doesn't! (Re:Makes sense) (Score:2)
Agreed.
Now imagine my dismay when I've discovered furnaces now demand cloud access so that they push firmware updates without notification. Excuse me? My furnace keeps the pipes in my house from freezing and essentially destroying the building. There is no effing way that I'm going to let my furnace or its controller on the Internet. Like everything else that they've managed to make electric, this is a hugely regressive step and we really need our respective governments to step in and draw the line. Ditto t
Re: (Score:2)
Certainly not reasonable from an environmental standpoint. Also, if you have a large home, you might own many of these, and replacing them could be a sizeable unplanned expense.
Best to stay away from any device requiring cloud, but unfortunately that is not always possible for some device categories.
Re: (Score:3)
Do you know how long a regular switch on my house lasts? Neither do I. They just always work! They cost a lot less than $100!
Re: (Score:2)
> "Do you know how long a regular switch on my house lasts? Neither do I. They just always work! They cost a lot less than $100!
I have a bunch of ancient X10 stuff that works every day. Doesn't work very well (can be flaky) or very fast, but still works. A lot of it branded Radio Shack. I just needed remote controls for some lights and fans, none of it computer operated, none of it "cloud" based, none of it with subscription crap. I can turn on some lights from my chair or from the wall and dim them t
Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Informative)
> Introduced in 2016. That's 9 years ago. On a $100 expense. That sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Still being sold as of last year. That's one year ago, so not so much.
Re: Makes sense (Score:2)
Another fine example of the renter economy. You never owned the light switch. You merely rented it.
Re: (Score:2)
In no way is it reasonable to have some asshole you've never heard of make a decision to cause hardware you bought and paid for stop working because they aren't interested in maintaining their service offering any more.
Anyone looking far enough to the horizon knows that if you start selling a product like this, you have to keep the service on until the last one leaves the world, or someone decides it's not worth maintaining any more and perfectly working hardware goes to the landfill.
Fuck Logitech for not m
Re: Makes sense (Score:2)
First sold is not as relevant as last sold in this case.
actually, it does (Score:2)
It doesn't have cancerous growth curves demanded by those trying to hit an exponential jackpot every quarter, but the economy will function just fine.
Re: Makes sense (Score:2)
You're not actually "doing" anything with the button other than reinforcing trust that a company's cloud server will exist in a few years to carry out what you perceived as a linked actual, lol. Foolish to think that.