An engineer got curious about how his iLife A11 smart vacuum worked and monitored the network traffic coming from the device. That’s when he noticed it was constantly sending logs and telemetry data to the manufacturer — something he hadn’t consented to. The user, Harishankar, decided to block the telemetry servers’ IP addresses on his network, while keeping the firmware and OTA servers open. While his smart gadget worked for a while, it just refused to turn on soon after. After a lengthy investigation, he discovered that a remote kill command had been issued to his device.
I gotta say, I’ve never really found the appeal of the self-propelled vacuum cleaners. They’re incredibly finicky and prone to getting snagged on surfaces. They don’t have particularly good suction and their waste storage is minimal. Tons of moving parts that wear through easily over time. Belts, fans, and wheels all get worn away from the device’s heat and exhaustive regular use.
The time savings is minimal and the expense is extraordinary. I just don’t think its worth the trouble.
I used to have a Roomba in my apartment. I had a small step that was about 2 inches off the ground, and the Roomba kept falling off of it. It got caught on a small area rug that I had; it was pretty fluffy, so that it kept getting caught on the floofs was valid. but the Roomba could not clean up my cats litter. it just ran over it. absolutely no suction power in that thing. I eventually sold it on Facebook for 15 dollars. I paid about 400 dollars for it to do nothing at all. I then purchased a Dyson for 500 dollars. I still have it. it works perfectly.