It could know what you have in your fridge. Give warning about food that's going to go bad soon. If you're going shopping you could see what you already have in your fridge. It could recommend recipes based on what you have in your fridge. You could ask it or see it without opening the fridge constantly, which might save energy.

What

Considering smart devices tend to more expensive than their dumb equivalent, someone buying would ideally be buying them for the enhanced features.

For example; if I bought a smart fridge with internal cameras so I could see I needed milk while I was out, I'd probably be using that feature frequently.

Did he smoke crack on government property?

These companies want to know everything about you right down to the circumstance of your left nut sack.

It's six faculty positions, that's practically affirmative action.

My favourite hoax of this variety was when some "monks" would knead quicksliver and through the power of ancient mediation and whatnot, and the liquid mercury would congeal into solid shapes. "Science currently cannot explain how this works at all". Well, either that, or the blue water they sprinkled all over the place probably helped, forming an amalgam from the copper in it

To be very clear, in any case that I've heard of you power company can't do that unless you sign an agreement and connect your account. (I don’t mean legally, I mean they don’t have the ability to do so technically)

Stories you see in the news of this happening are quite commonly people who got a free/discounted smart thermostat under an agreement that explicitly calls out that the power company can and will (within some limits) turn your thermostat down during overload events. Usually this comes with explicit limits too, I remember verbiage like "up to 4 events per <year/season>, down to <some min/max temp that wasn't really that extreme> and during X to Y hours." Connecting their account is a condition of getting their rebate, so people click-click-click/tap-tap-tap through the agreement without reading because they want "Free stuff."

My thermostat prompts me a few times a year to sign up for the local utilities load-shedding promotion for some $50 or a Homepod mini, etc. I just refuse, I don't have to. (I do try my best anyway to be a community minded person and follow their news announcements - set my thermostat down manually if their is an imminent grid overload.)

I quite enjoy the simple utility of being able to adjust the thermostat or run the fan from bed, or while out of the house. One of the few actually useful smart appliances.

I don't even think it was "hacked by their coffee maker" concerns.

I suspect it's far more likely that a substantial number of people are buying smart appliances yet they neither know nor care that their appliance has this feature and it sits unconnected and unloved. They just thought it looked nice.

It's the modern equivalent of the VCR clock flashing 00:00 99% of the time. Yes, you can do additional things by setting it up, but most of those additional things are entirely useless most of the time, so why go to the hassle of doing so?

The most thin-skinned religion on the entire planet.

Ok. But won't they be protected under the fair use parody law since it's is less of a resemblance than the dumb Starbucks store that was only shutdown due lack of permits to sell food.

Most people just want a nice oven and a fridge. Especially if they are older they won't bother with the smart features.

Rip off? Or parody? Or sample, even?

PS - I am not even close to being a lawyer, so...

Lol did you see any comment sections like this about hunter biden literally smoking crack?

The first time I read about a washing machine that needed an apache server update, I felt something perish inside of me.

So how maany terrorists attacks with this car before it becomes illegal.

Well that sound just Prime to me.

Have Turkey taken crazy pills?

Pfft! "Experts"

I did MY OWN research and found out that, no, rocks don't work as batteries

You don't need a smart device for that. You just put a heat sensor there that turns off the stove if the pan gets too hot. They've had them for decades in Asia.

Can’t prove a negative. It’s like answering “Have you stopped beating your wife?”

Do you want Decepticons? Because that's how you get Decepticons

The real crime here is that these pieces of landfill-destined shit are selling for over a hundred dollars. Christ. Consumerism is a disease.

Yea. That’s what free will is for.

Well Lazerbeak and also Ravage are just icing on the cake I was just giving my bare minimum.