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It’s not entirely surprising when a company chooses to stop paying for the upkeep and continued development of an app for a product it’s no longer making money on
How much fucking upkeep can an app require to operate a pair of shoes?
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2024
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Technology
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Inevitably what happens after 5 years is that someone reports that the app doesn’t work well with a newer version of iOS or Android, and the person that led the engineering on it is gone, because much of your engineering org has turned over after 5 years.
Then a new person jumps into the old project, finds out that it’s had 1 active user last year, then they question why they have to spend a week bug fixing something for one end user.
As a developer, this is the answer. I can't wait for the day I can finally stop supporting old Amazon Kindle devices.
You're questioning the sanity of people who even develop shoes that need an app
I'm not questioning sanity, I'm questioning why an app that does nothing but send commands over Bluetooth or whatever needs any maintenance whatsoever.
Android isn't stable is my guess
Open source the app?
No. Never. That would be literally impossible.
If something requires an "app" and a connection to "the cloud" for basic functionality, don't buy it. This sort of abandonment by the manufacturer will always happen. Maybe it will last longer. Maybe it will be next week. But once the company has your money, the last thing they want to do is to spend any of that money providing you with support.
The funny thing about this is that the first time I had that moment of realization was when I got the Sphero BB-8 toy from my kids for Christmas. It had a dedicated app. The reason it’s funny is because, out of all the things that I own, it’s the only app-driven one that still works. Sphero just merged it into their main app. Once that app stops getting updated, this toy will cease to work despite everything about it being functional. ☹️
This is why i am for mandatory open sourcing of abandonware. So much stuff just laying wasted that could be hacked.
But allowing you to diy your own toys might make you consume less and thats bad or something.
That's funny, I have the exact same toy. It was a Father's day gift years ago. It's now an expensive display piece, as the battery no longer seems to hold a charge. And, as best I can tell, the battery is well sealed inside, making replacement impossible. Yet another thing I hate about our disposable culture.
As long as you can side load a functional apk to a supported Android device, it should work, no?
Only if it works as a peer to peer, if the device depends on connecting to a company's server (which all do since the whole point was to collect usage habits) then you're shit out of luck whenever they decide you're
Android eventually locks out apps designed for older APIs. I remember reading about a bunch of abandoned apps being dropped from the Play Store for that reason. Not sure if that's just the Play Store though or if it is the Android OS itself. I haven't ever kept a phone beyond the manufacturer providing security updates since I actually use my phone for secure things.
You have to enable developer mode and install with --bypass-low-target-sdk-block now.
Dunno if they'll remove that eventually
Don't say that so loud.
You'll have the self-proclaimed "power users" that just copy things they see posted without knowing what it does or possible issues and side effects, doing this and then complaining about issues stemming from it. And never disclosing they did it, blaming it on the system as a whole, ignoring the bypass they did.
Oh wait, this isn't the Windows community.
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Would something like BlueStacks let the app run?
I’m not sure but that’s a potential solution. You’d have to find the older APK somewhere but I feel like it should work since it’s just a Bluetooth connection to the toy.
I'm laughing my ass off thinking about all the steps required to get these working if you bought them new. downloading an app and pairing your shoes to wifi or some shit. ha
if the internet goes down can you still put on your shoes?! lmao!
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hearing about shoes that need an app makes me want to stab myself in the testicle.
People who bought these are fucking idiots and they deserve much worse then their stupid fucking smart shoes turning into abandonware.
Maybe we wouldn’t have so much shit in landfills if those idiots didn’t gobble up any piece of trash someone wants to sell them.
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We are going to far with technology. If you need an app for your shoes.
Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?
Good question, but not in these shoes me think.
I have been further though, and looked way more like, but that was with Adidas.
Are you having a stroke, or am I missing a reference?
It's a very old meme... and not especially applicable here
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TIL about self-lacing shoes... What a waste of fucking resources. Might as well add some flashing red lights at the back of the soles if you already have batteries in them.
Lights in shoes that blink at each step were all the hype in my childhood
Hey, my daughter wore shoes like that—- dang I’m old. :(
My two year old has shoes like that today!
yeah they've pretty much never stopped selling them for kids
Honestly if they got the cost down and figured out a better interaction mechanism than an app, I could see it being useful for older or disabled individuals.
For example, imagine someone is 55. They are still with it, and decently active for this age. However they have arthritis in their hands that makes tasks that require dexterity mildly uncomfortable. These kinds of shoes would be a pretty big boon for them in terms of staying active.
The issue is that they tried to make it some cool fashion accessory for Gen Z sneaker heads to buy.
Dude never heard of slipons or Velcro
They have buttons on the shoes too. Still, having a battery for something like this is just wasteful and pointless. People with disabilities have already several unpowered alternatives that work perfectly fine and as mentioned, those things are clearly not designed for that purpose in mind anyway.
Man, at 55 I will be still running ironman's... Hopefully. And trails. Let's keep arthritis for the 70's, shall we?
I know a few people in their 40’s with varying stages of arthritis. I’m hopeful for post 70’s as well, but it’s not looking too good.
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Just today? You need to carve out some time and watch back to the future trilogy my guy. You won't regret it.
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Someone should make stopkillingshoes.com.
Allowing these companies to ever sell anything with the "cloud" marketing was a colossal mistake. Not only it was a waste of people's money, but now also e-waste
In a world where I can slip my shoes on and off without untying them, why would I need shoes that can self-tie?
Sounds like a job for Flipper Zero.
Probably overkill and possibly even overly complicated for an MCU.
This probably just requires some good old reverse engineering the original apps bluetooth API and an app to connect to the shoes.
If they're really lucky, it's simple unencrypted packets they can just capture via Wireshark, but I really haven't looked into it any further than this article summary, so I could be wrong.
If if they can work by simple packet replay, that would be the most simple, and definitely doable by the Flipper.
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