[kaolinite]

Bathroom scales that log your weight to your health app automatically.

Lights that dim when the movie starts.

A front door that unlocks when you approach.

None of these are necessary, obviously, but they offer little conveniences. An iKettle is pushing it a little, but honestly, I'd quite like to receive a tap on my wrist when the kettle has finished or my toast has popped up.

There's plenty of utility to be had from IoT devices (although you're right about security being a concern) however, like remote controls and robotic vacuums, initially they are being dismissed as tools for the lazy. Soon I suspect they'll be part of everyone's lives.

[steckerbrett]

All of these things sound like solutions that will take me a lot longer to set up than they will save me in time. A few years ago I messed about with "smart" lighting, and it turns out that all of it just unimaginably annoying. All of these "easy" devices are going to have horrific security, some day there's going to be articles about a doorknob botnet or exploits running on shovels.

[TheLoneWolfling]

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1205/

[Profan]

With this comment, that multi-functional Chinese army shovel becomes so much more sinister.

[krylon]

> A front door that unlocks when you approach.

Mmmh, what could possibly go wrong with that?

I do not deny that there might be some useful applications for "IoT", but what I have heard / read about so far sounds mostly like solutions desperately looking for problems so everyone can ride the hype train.

Given the numerous security issues we have seen on the Internet so far, I have serious doubts about hooking up everyday objects or critical infrastructure to the Internet just for the sake of a little convenience.

[informatimago]

Here is what goes wrong with that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPqOQnpragc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTZHTIvKGOQ

[kaolinite]

> Mmmh, what could possibly go wrong with that?

Honestly? Not much, really. As long as there's a backup in case you lose your phone (some have a regular key lock, some require a passcode) then you'll be fine. Thieves aren't going to hack your smart lock, they'll just crowbar the door or throw a brick through a window.

Critical infrastructure aside, hooking up every day objects like scales and other appliances (I'm looking forward to notifications such as "Your washing is ready" or "Your pizza might be burning") is potentially really useful. There'll be rough spots at first - configuring these devices right now isn't great - but hopefully systems like Homekit are going to help with the setup and administration of these devices.

[aaron695]

> Lights that dim when the movie starts.

How does it know you want the lights dimmed? What if someone in the room is reading? This would be pretty high level AI.

>A front door that unlocks when you approach.

It has to know if you'll enter the house. What if you don't?

It could lock it again, but then what if someone else left the house assuming it was unlocked. Now they could be locked out.

These are hard problems to solve and more AI related.

[chillingeffect]

Exactly. One of the best things Joi Ito has done at the MIT Media Lab has been to shift the culture from "demo or die" to "deploy or die," because in that demo moment we are susceptible to the narrow and novel circumstances of the idea as performance.