Logitech plans to brick its internet-connected Harmony Link

From Boing Boing:

Logitech plans to brick its internet-connected Harmony Link devices next year

Avoid everyday appliances (speakers, cameras, fridges, juicers, remotes, pets) built around internet-connected computers and designed to fail when the company goes bust— or just wants to brick it for commercial reasons. Logitech, for example, doesn't want to continue paying upstream licensing fees on its Harmony Link devices, so it's shutting them down.

Owners of the product have received an email from the company warning that the Link will completely stop working in March. “On March 16th, 2018, Logitech will discontinue service and support for Harmony Link. Your Harmony Link will no longer function after this date,” the email says. There’s no explanation or reason given as to why service is ending in the email, but a Logitech employee provided more details on the company’s forums. “There is a technology certificate license that will expire next March. The certificate will not be renewed as we are focusing resources on our current app-based remote, the Harmony Hub.” The Verge has reached out to Logitech for further comment.

Reddit is also mad about this; a Hacker News commenter noticed that the term "class action" is now being automoderated as a swear word at Logitech's support forums!

Ouch! And yep, not the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last!

Perhaps manufacturers should be required to display an EOL date on the box and be required to support it until that date. And just to stop them cheating the date has to be say 10 years. (How long ago did the link come out?)

At least with the IoT tea kettle that recently went belly up, the company turned off the DRM and (IIRC) open-sourced the thing so that the ones left behind would still work. I get that Logitech might've had upstream license fees they didn't want to pay for infinity, and also get that this fact might preclude them from open sourcing the thing. But it feels hinky that a company plans to purposefully brick a device. Somehow, I don't know, cheesy.

For me, it's more about reinforcing the notion that it's best to avoid IoT devices that require a cloud service to work (unless that's their purpose, of course).

Absolutely agree where possible! Unfortunately so many devices these days there are no choice! I use many Harmony Hubs which I imagine someday will befall the same fate.

Makes me wish I had gone with the Global whatsis IR blaster direct from Indigo instead of the Harmony Hub.

Logitech used to be a stand up company. Now owned by Belkin, so 'nuff said.

The Verge is reporting that Logitech will give Link owners a free Hub (after backlash).


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I just saw that, guess they saw the way the wind was blowing on that one.

@DC I moved from the global cache system simply because having a hardware remote was just too important. Hopefully Logitech has learned their lesson from this escapade. (Also I hadn’t realised Belkin now owner Logitech.. weird!)

But it feels hinky that a company plans to purposefully brick a device. Somehow, I don't know, cheesy.

For me, it's more about reinforcing the notion that it's best to avoid IoT devices that require a cloud service to work (unless that's their purpose, of course).

Parrot did it with their AR2 drone when they brought out the Bebop; They once had the raw GPS data stored where users could access it for export to other platforms and allowed the Maverick third party software to let it fly an autonomous course, but when they brought out the new model, they buried the data behind a firewall somewhere so that the only access to it is a cheesy lores map and downloaded a software patch that deleted the Maverick "Arm" command necessary to get the drone to take off... the raw gps data and autonomous flights are now available exclusively in their new and improved drones... although they still have all the Youtube links in place showing how to do it on the AR (which no longer work). Since those features were critical to my wildlife surveys, I ended up having to purchase a new and improved drone... just NOT from Parrot... and as you say NOT one that stores all the flight data somewhere outside the SD in the drone..