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AWS outage reminds us why $2,449 Internet-dependent beds are a bad idea (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 month ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

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[–] Xerxos@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And how did no one think about a fallback in case of a outage? I bet some of the tech people thought about it and management said: "No, we don't want the consumers to have a functioning unit without internet access. We need the data!".

Btw. same with the new Windows 11 setup. There's no technical reason for a computer without internet access to deny the installation.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Surely it doesn't do this when your internet drops out, right? RIGHT??

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Weirdly enough, most companies collecting your data are actually really bad at doing so. Business people don't prioritize data at all, and data collection is a total afterthought, often treated as a major inconvenience. It costs money, and they can't charge for it.

The reason why there was no fallback is because that would have cost money to implement, and they can't imagine someone wanting to use their product that way.