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Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges (arstechnica.com)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Some Samsung smart fridges stopped working on Tuesday due to a firmware update.

Korean outlets were the first to report the problems, which affect Samsung’s Bespoke AI line of fridges. Star News Korea, per a Google-provided translation, said that most of the affected devices were four-door fridges from 2024 or later.

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[–] 12 points 3 days ago (7 children)

I just don’t see the utility. I can be pretty pro “smart” stuff, especially if I can run it without an internet connection, but what’s the point for a fridge?

About ten minutes ago I installed a smart bulb in my fridge. I plan to set up an automation in Home Assistant to tell me when the fridge has been open too long. I also have a temp sensor near the compressor because I had an issue with the fan going out and now if the temp is too high I get an alert to check on it.

I also have a temp sensor in the freezer and the main fridge, again to alert me when things go wrong.

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  • [–] 15 points 3 days ago (4 children)

    See that’s utility and depending on the sensors you choose that can definitely be local only

    But skimming the page for a Samsung smart fridge none of this is in the features. It’s that it can play music, you can put notes and pictures and shit, there’s an “ai camera” that can tell you what you need to buy (though something tells me that struggles if your fridge isn’t set up like a stock image and is actually loaded with like food and condiments and shit like a normal person)

    A Bluetooth speaker can do the music part likely with much better sound quality, a smart speaker can handle the typical kitchen tasks like setting timers (which can be done purely in HA, you don’t need Alexa or whatever), a dry erase board and magnets can cover notes and pictures, and the reminders app on your phone can probably do a much more accurate job of keeping a shopping list. Then you can buy a fridge that doesn’t have a 32” proprietary lcd that is a major point of failure, and you can literally save thousands of dollars (quick search shows these fridges are 3500-4k, which is insane for a fridge, even a fancy huge one).

    The market for these is people who have too much money (or are willing to take on credit debt) but also can’t be bothered to spend the 1-2 hours it takes to read up on how to do what you’ve done. Samsung, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc prey on these people

    The top of the line one can make spherical ice though, which is admittedly super cool

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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago* (1 child)

    The market for these is people who have too much money (or are willing to take on credit debt) but also can’t be bothered to spend the 1-2 hours it takes to read up on how to do what you’ve done.

    Nah. The market for this is people who go shopping for a new fridge and then see this shiny, flashy thing that the other fridges don't have. And then "Ooh, shiny!" And then the salesman comes by and gives them a quick pitch about how this is 'the way of the future', soon all fridges will be like this and they don't want to be left behind with a soon-to-be-obsolete dumb fridge, do they? And due to having more money and/or credit than sense, they nod along and sign on the dotted line, because obviously, they want 'the best' fridge, right? And how can any other fridge be 'the best' if it doesn't have this flashy, eye-catching feature on the front of it?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    there’s an “ai camera” that can tell you what you need to buy (though something tells me that struggles if your fridge isn’t set up like a stock image and is actually loaded with like food and condiments and shit like a normal person)

    What do you mean? You don't individually label and color coordinate Tupperware containers every time you put leftovers in the fridge?

    *looks at three brown grocery bags of vegetables I didn't bother to unpack and five rubbermaids, one upside down, tossed randomly in fridge*

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago*

    looks at three brown grocery bags of vegetables I didn’t bother to unpack and five rubbermaids, one upside down, tossed randomly in fridge

    AI: "You seem to be running low on Nvidia, Alphabet, and Tesla stock. Let me order more shares for you."

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago

    I have a tiny, battery powered temperature/humidity sensor in my fridge, connected to Home Assistant.

    I don't actually need it there, but I was interested to know if it would work, and it did. So now I know that my fridge maintains a steady 5⁰C.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 days ago

    I installed a smart bulb in my fridge. I plan to set up an automation in Home Assistant to tell me when the fridge has been open too long.

    My fridge just beeps at me if the door has been open more than a minute or two.

    It's not a 'smart' fridge, either. You don't need anything complex to accomplish that. I guess that the interior fridge light is wired in parallel with a simple timer circuit, and if that timer circuit is energized long enough for its pre-set timer to run out, it energizes the beeping circuit.

    You could do a similar thing with your fridge. No need for network connectivity and computers to be involved. Just find the circuit that goes to the light bulb and wire in a simple electronic timer in parallel.

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