Smart tech plain stupid
From Amazon’s Alexa to self driving cars – smart tech is incredible. But it doesn’t always work according to plan…
The Internet Fridge
In 2000 Electrolux promised to revolutionise daily life with their internet fridge, which you could use the fridge to send messages, order food and even watch TV!
With most people in the UK still on dial-up internet in 2000 – if they were even online at all – the idea was pretty laughable. Why would you use your fridge to send an email?
Maybe it was just too ahead of its time, but the Eletrolux smart fridge never lived up to its promise. Not that it’s put developers off – Samsung has just started to produce their own modern version which can be yours for £3000!
Smart watches
While smart watches aren’t stupid, something about the business model behind these companies certainly is.
You may see Fitbits everywhere you look, but the company itself is making massive losses.
It’s not alone either, the highly anticipated Pebble quickly died, and Jawbone looks as if it’s on the way out too.
Meanwhile Swiss Watch sales are up – perhaps it’s time smart watches injected a bit of classic style into their brand?
Google vs Burger King
Home assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant are great, but they aren’t without their failings.
This was shown recently when Burger King put out an advert made to trigger Google Assistant, asking: “Ok Google, what is the Whopper burger?”
The Google assistant rightly replied with the list of Whopper ingredients, but the problem is it took the information from Wikipedia, which people quickly went to edit.
As a result, devices across the world were saying things like the whopper is the “worst hamburger product” and contains “cyanide”. Not ideal for Burger King!
Is it worth it?
Ultimately smart tech is still developing in new and exciting ways, so while it’s not always perfect yet, there’s still definitely a place for it in the home.
Of course, if you’re considering integrating smart tech into your own home, you’ll need reliable internet to run it.
If you want to learn more about how to make that happen with an independent, local internet provider call us on +44(0) 1228 21 71 71 or email [email protected].
Read more about what makes Smart TVs so dumb www.solwaycomms.com/dumb-smart-tvs/
