More news about an Internet-connected hardware product being rendered unusable as a result of a business decision: “Canadian smart glasses going ‘offline’ weeks after company bought by Google“
North said Focals 1.0, its first generation of smart glasses released last year, will be discontinued. The wearables company also said it has cancelled any plans to ship its second-generation Focals 2.0.
“Focals smart glasses and its services are being discontinued and will no longer be available after July 31, 2020. You won’t be able to connect your glasses through the app or use any features, abilities, or experiments from your glasses,” the statement read.
As of Saturday, users will no longer be able to log into the Focals app and its support services will be discontinued. The app will also be removed from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
We have seen many examples of this happening before: “Smart devices are services, not products”, “More on the inherent temporariness of internet-connected devices“.
If your device or appliance requires an Internet connection to the manufacturer to function, it’s a big risk. Be very conscious of this when you make purchases. Consider devices that work with the open source home automation framework OpenHAB, as an alternative and invest the time needed to make it work – it’s not an out of the box experience but now you alone get to decide how long your device lasts.