YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Samsung accidentally freezes its smart fridges with a software update

81 points Markoff 1 hour ago 52 comments

thesuitonym 56 minutes ago | parent

The R in IoT stands for reliability.

fooqux 54 minutes ago | parent

And the S stands for security.

sebastiennight 44 minutes ago | parent

We have RIoTS already... two more letters and we get a Scrabble.

someonebaggy 24 minutes ago | parent

If we'd had RIoTS this stuff might've already been fixed.

Sharlin 53 minutes ago | parent

The Q in Samsung stands for software quality.

pjmlp 33 minutes ago | parent

Every single time I see Tizen, I get reminded of this,

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/samsungs-tizen-is-ri...

https://pvs-studio.com/en/blog/posts/cpp/0519/

OptionOfT 31 minutes ago | parent

The E in MBA stands for experience.

anon48293 15 minutes ago | parent

Certainly not in their QLED technology..

sandworm101 49 minutes ago | parent

The fridge compressor answers to software? Idiocy. It need be nothing more than a relay attached to a thermocouple. I can see having a smart screen to deliver aps/ads and to collect data on people in the home, but why on earth would that need to actually manipulate temperatures?

chii 48 minutes ago | parent

Fridge sellers dont want their product to be seen as commodities, because they can't charge a high margin on those type of products.

hylaride 31 minutes ago | parent

In 2006 shortly after I bought my (first and still only) home, I bought the cheapest Kenmore fridge from Sears (~$600 at the time) as the one that came with the house failed soon after moving in - it was probably 26 years old with metal grill shelves. I was stretched for money for a bit due to dealing with closing costs, etc. I figured it'd last 5-10 years and I'd just get a new, "better" one when my cashflow wasn't acutely tight.

Despite having since remodelled the kitchen (again spending more than expected as one does when renovating), I kept the fridge...it's still working fine 20 years later, though the plastic drawers are starting to degrade. Next to higher-end German appliances it looks a bit well worn and out of place in an otherwise very nicely renovated kitchen, which my wife and I semi-seriously joke gives the place character.

Every once in awhile I'll wander through an appliance aisle and sigh. Similar fridges feel cheap and are much more expensive. In fancy fridges, I just see more components that'd fail. I'll I really want is a freezer and a fridge. I want need an ice maker (especially after learning how gross they can get). Ideally I'd have a standard old-fashioned sized fridge that had a good separate temperature control for the freezer and is common enough that I can get replacement parts 20 years from now.

The kicker was I now realize the old 26 year old fridge probably just needed a coolant top up. Maybe that wasn't possible as I'm not sure when freon was banned and if it would have been possible to do that.

f6v 24 minutes ago | parent

Old fridges last over two decades. I don't think that Samsung and others want these to last as long.

gedy 30 minutes ago | parent

I guess the sellers and industries should have thought of this when they offloaded manufacturing to cheap countries that can and will undercut them.

vlovich123 40 minutes ago | parent

Because the temperature is adjusted and they want to be able to display the current temperature as well as the target on said display? And once you’ve done that, your bean counters will pressure you to shave the BOM.

Not saying it’s smart, just laying out a plausible sequence of events on how they reached that decision

avian 25 minutes ago | parent

> they want to be able to display the current temperature

Do they really? When replacing my 20 year old fridge (that had an actual mechanical temperature gauge) with a new one I specifically bought one that had a (now digital, of course) display for the current temperature.

It turned out that the temperature display is completely faked. It always shows exactly the set temperature, from the moment you power it on. I guess because of (actual or imagined) customers complaining why their fridge shows e.g. 7°C when they set it to 4°C.

Incidentally, my new smart AC does exactly the same thing. Subjectively it's worse than the old one at keeping the place not too cold and not too warm, but it makes damn sure to never show the actual measured temperature anywhere.

Everything is getting dumber.

Hizonner 25 minutes ago | parent

A thermocouple won't drive a relay.

methyl 48 minutes ago | parent

Better to freeze a fridge than to cook it

amelius 32 minutes ago | parent

This holds for most things, actually.

iAMkenough 27 minutes ago | parent

Reminded me of the August incident where the freezers at multiple U.S. Department of Defense commissionaires were remotely triggered to enter into "defrost" mode and cooked all their refrigerated food overnight.

pelagicAustral 42 minutes ago | parent

Not as bad a putting a mime in the fridge screen, I suppose...

phkahler 42 minutes ago | parent

Reminds me of when Nest thermostats stopped turning on the furnace without an internet connection. If your product fails at its primary job because of some other priority its junk. A thermostat can be as simple as a coiled spring with a mercury switch - no software. Same here, what stupid functionality was so important they failed to ensure the fridge would fridge?

IoT is not for me.

ex1fm3ta 35 minutes ago | parent

ioT is nice but only for people who know how to make softwares.

pixl97 34 minutes ago | parent

The problem here is there is almost always incentive to make that software shit.

cryptoegorophy 18 minutes ago | parent

Similar to when printer stops printing black when color is gone.

whizzter 12 minutes ago | parent

That probably means you've been wasting toner on "enhanced darkness" (check if it's turned on/off).

heisenbit 41 minutes ago | parent

Likely not just rotten food but also spoilt medicine. Content of my fridge is a lot more expensive than the fridge.

sarjann 39 minutes ago | parent

Imagine a lot of insulin gone to waste.

gumby 26 minutes ago | parent

Yes, freezing insulin destroys it, which is a problem for me when I’m outdoors in the winter.

ginko 37 minutes ago | parent

I have yet to understand what the value proposition of an internet-connected refrigerator is.

tocs3 25 minutes ago | parent

I do not disagree with your sentiment. We have had refrigerators for 100+ years [citation needed] after all. Still there are likely cases where it is useful. Looking in on elderly family members might include picking up things from the grocery store and having a list of staples needed might be an example. There are plenty of ways to deal with this but one might be a connected refrigerator.

Am4TIfIsER0ppos 13 minutes ago | parent

> Looking in on elderly family members might include picking up things from the grocery store and having a list of staples needed might be an example

You would turn up unannounced with things you think are missing from the fridge surveillance camera? Here's how that should go: Visit old person. Check fridge. Check cupboards. Visit store. Visit old person.

whizzter 10 minutes ago | parent

You jest but having elderly parents tens of miles outside of town it's a timesaver, luckily I can still request photos of things.

invader 34 minutes ago | parent

Did Gilfoyle hack Jian Yang's smart fridge again?

paulbjensen 33 minutes ago | parent

freeze-in-hell.bat man!

https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/0def6aed-0b5b-4856-874a-d97...

tiku 31 minutes ago | parent

Suck it JinYang.

bsoqk 24 minutes ago | parent

I hate news websites so much. Everything has to be a fucking joke.

diskzero 22 minutes ago | parent

We ended up with a Samsung fridge in our new home. It has no external display or any other indication that it is a "smart" fridge. I only found out when a friend visited who has a Samsung phone and the phone offered to connect to the fridge. We spent the next 30 minutes removing panels from the fridge and found the wifi/bluetooth antenna on a small board under the top-right hinge cover. The board was disconnected and the fridge continues to operate normally.

I am now eyeing my dishwasher very suspiciously.

snarfy 20 minutes ago | parent

Yeah, my hot water heater has an app. I'm not happy about this.

cogman10 17 minutes ago | parent

Samsung has made garbage appliances for my entire life. A family member went through about 3 different samsung fridges before they swore them off for good. The compressor would routinely break after only a year or 2 of service.

I will never own a Samsung or LG appliance. They are built almost explicitly to force you to get a new one in a couple of years.

Then couple that with both companies trying to use weaselly legal maneuvers like putting the EULA that agrees to arbitration on the outside of a box and saying "If you open this box you agree to the EULA".

b3lvedere 15 minutes ago | parent

What you should have done is install a webcam, connect it to some SuperMarket AI App Api (tm) and supply your credit card info. Now you never have to worry about food anymore. :)

whizzter 13 minutes ago | parent

Ugh, I've avoided connecting my TV to Wifi to avoid all "smart" crap but it does support some "wireless" display from Windows that seems to be local based and I do get periodic requests to connect to other devices (My conundrum now becomes, is the TV safer with or without remote connection/updates).

account42 7 minutes ago | parent

A lot of devices have optional "smart" functionality. I don't think that's nearly as bad as devices actively connected to the internet.

abroszka33 22 minutes ago | parent

I'm starting to hate all smart devices. I love my dumb devices that need no updates, internet or subscription. They just work.

aenis 6 minutes ago | parent

That, plus blocking all updates from the 'smart' devices; in the last few years, I dont remember anything getting better from updates, everything is actually getting way worse.

I have a Sonos soundbar. It used to be nice. Now it automatically goes to sleep after a few minutes of tv inactivity. I now hate the device and the company.

My old M1 mbp used to feel super fast. A number of MacOs updates later it feels sluggish. I don't see anything better about MacOs of today vs. 3 years ago, literally NOTHING.

My apple tv now routinely drops airplay -- it used to work flawlessly.

Etc. etc. All those companies push shit updates to keep their existing engineering teams busy.

stevetron 21 minutes ago | parent

How to turn a refrigerator into a brick.

tapanjk 15 minutes ago | parent

I chuckled at the title.

dmpk2k 11 minutes ago | parent

An official update hard (and permanently) bricked my S8 phone back when it was still the flagship. Samsung refused to fix or replace it because I had moved overseas meanwhile.

While "technically" valid, this never happened with iPhones despite frequent travels.

Don't buy Samsung consumer devices.