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   Linux in a Bit 🐧 (linux_in_a_bit@linuxrocks.online)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:05:40 JST Linux in a Bit 🐧

   Companies making an app to control a device which should have had physical controls, and could have had them cheaper :blobcatgooglytrash:

   • iced depresso likes this.
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     iced depresso (icedquinn@blob.cat)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:06:18 JST iced depresso

     in reply to
     @Linux_in_a_Bit dunno about that. buttons gotta be molded, switches installed, takes up pins on your chips.
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     iced depresso (icedquinn@blob.cat)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:14:05 JST iced depresso

     in reply to
     @Linux_in_a_Bit much of that is done by a pick'n'placer and an IC oven. physically speaking.
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     Linux in a Bit 🐧 (linux_in_a_bit@linuxrocks.online)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:14:06 JST Linux in a Bit 🐧

     in reply to

     • iced depresso

     @icedquinn
     Bluetooth radios have to be installed, connected, and programmed.
     Antennas have to be positioned
     The app has to be designed, uploaded, and tested.
     Etc.
     I think the app is more expensive.

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     iced depresso (icedquinn@blob.cat)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:24:03 JST iced depresso

     in reply to

     • iced depresso
     @Linux_in_a_Bit hey agree with preferring hard lines controls it's just that cost ain't it. here's a random bluetooth chip i found off of mouser: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/u-blox/ANNA-B112-02B?qs=By6Nw2ByBD23Yj7O3bb2RA%3D%3D for about ten dollars.
     
     if you consider a keyboard matrix--which is about one dollar per switch--then each one of those switches has to be read it into a pin on the microchip. just a couple of buttons you've already reached the point where the bluetooth radio is significantly easier to wire. as an added bonus you don't have to cut out space for the switches, do plastic molds for the buttons. to say nothing of if there is some kind of LCD display to give some kind of user feedback all of which you could just shunt to the bluetooth.
     
     LCDs can be another ten dollars or more depending on how many pixels you want to show, and then you have to cut out space for the thing, and then you have to have somebody actually physically put it in there during assembly, only some of this can be automated by machines, and you quickly end up in a situation where using the bluetooth actually makes it much cheaper to manufacture the physical goods.
     
     software engineers are also a lot cheaper than hardware engineers because the cost of it a rating on software is significantly lower and you can always just get some shitty web dead to cram the interface together and electron and shouted on the google play store where you have to download a two hundred megabyte monstrosity just to use your toaster oven.
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     iced depresso (icedquinn@blob.cat)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:30:49 JST iced depresso

     in reply to
     @Linux_in_a_Bit but the bluetooth is why they can charge 100$ for it
     
     t. :blobcatdeficit: value marketing analysis
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     Linux in a Bit 🐧 (linux_in_a_bit@linuxrocks.online)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:30:50 JST Linux in a Bit 🐧

     in reply to

     • iced depresso

     @icedquinn
     You're thinking about the wrong category of device.

     I'm saying an internet-connected $100 toothbrush should have just had a power button and an intensity select button instead of an app, and could have been $90 if they did that instead.

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     sunflowerinrain (sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:48:15 JST sunflowerinrain

     in reply to

     • iced depresso

     @Linux_in_a_Bit @icedquinn I find the idea of an internet-connected toothbrush frightening, nay, horrifying.
     Yonks ago I was with a group of excited devs discussing connected fridges which would monitor their contents and send an order to a supermarket when stocks ran out. As we were people who all hated shopping, it seemed a brilliant concept. Then I thought about the possibilities and ramifications. No. Really, really no.

     iced depresso likes this.
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     iced depresso (icedquinn@blob.cat)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:49:09 JST iced depresso

     in reply to

     • sunflowerinrain
     @sunflowerinrain @Linux_in_a_Bit on one hand, filling up the NSA/GCHQ/CCP's hard drives with metadata about how much almond milk is in my fridge is kind of funny.