<
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/15/belkin-bricks-most-wemo-smart-home-devices-again-demonstrating-you-dont-own-what-you-buy/>
"Belkin is the latest company to painfully demonstrate that you no longer own
what you buy, and the whims of corporate executives can very often leave you
with expensive paperweights.
In a recent statement to customers, Belkin says that it will no longer be
providing support or software updates for the company’s Wemo “smart home”
devices starting in the new year. About 27 affected devices, on sale since 2015
or so, will no longer receive security updates, work with smart home assistant
services like Alexa, or be controllable via app.
Consumers who bought into the Wemo brand thinking they’d created a “smart home
of the future” are instead stuck with a mostly useless (and quite dumb) pile of
junk. For what it’s worth, a faceless Belkin communications professional claims
to feel bad about it:
“We understand this change may disrupt your routines, and we sincerely
apologize for the inconvenience.”
The writing had, at least, been on the wall for observant consumers. Belkin
stopped selling most smart home tech in late 2023, shifting its focus to game
console accessories. You might have noticed that was going to happen, and you
might not have. You might be able to get “partial refunds” for products still
under warranty, but you might not. Good stuff! Very innovative!
This tendency toward bricking perfectly functional electronics is fairly
terrible for the environment as well, with organizations like iFixit noting
that the United States alone disposes of 500 pounds of electronic waste each
second, and USPIRG estimating that “a minimum of 130 million pounds of
electronic waste has been created by expired software and canceled cloud
services since 2014.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
