My god, this is just hilarious. Remember, kids: If a piece of furniture that has been basically agreed upon for thousands of years (with some changes) needs a cloud connection:

  • You’re paying too much.

  • You’ll continue paying too much.

  • You might wake up sweating in an uncomfortable position.

This week’s Amazon Web Services outage had some people waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

A Domain Name System (DNS) resolution problem affected AWS cloud hosting, resulting in an outage that impacted more than 1,000 web-based products and services and millions of people.

Perhaps one of the most avoidable breakdowns came via people’s beds. The reliance on the Internet for smart bed products from Eight Sleep resulted in people being awoken by beds locked into inclined positions and sweltering temperatures.

As spotted by Dexerto, the AWS outage caused smart mattress covers from Eight Sleep to malfunction. These “Pod” mattress covers connect to a physical hub, and users can set the covers to temperatures between 55° and 110° Fahrenheit via a companion app. Eight Sleep also sells smart mattress bases that let people control their bed’s elevation with the app. As of this writing, the Pods’ MSRPs range from $2,449 to $3,249, and the base has a $1,950 MSRP. Eight Sleep also sells its Autopilot feature through an annual subscription that starts at $199. Autopilot is supposed to help automatically set Eight Sleep devices to users’ optimal sleeping conditions. Pod purchases require a one-year subscription to Autopilot.

There’s admittedly a bit of Schadenfreude here. You seriously subscribed to a fucking bed?

  • Hexarei@beehaw.org
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    2 days ago

    I’d rather a happy medium of local control where it can be hooked up to HomeAssistant. I like smart home when the smarts stay in my home!

    • BurgerBaron@piefed.social
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      8 hours ago

      I haven’t gone lookimg but I’m sure I could find acceptable alternatives. I’ve just never felt the need to blow so much money and time for so little gain.

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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      2 days ago

      I was talking about this recently with someone (read: ranting as they nodded sympathetically) and I finished up by saying “what’s the point of ‘smart’ tech if the humans who use it are steadily disempowered and ultimately, made less smart?”

      I’ve recently been dabbling in HomeAssistant and learning how to set things up properly feels like it’s been making me more smart.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        Kasa TPlink sockets and switches can be set to only run local on Homeassistant., with some github hacking help. Don’t need their cloud app at all