So absurd and embarrassing ..."

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.

  • HugeNerd@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    17 hours ago

    It’s a fridge. It doesn’t even need an 8 bit microcontroller from the 1970s.

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      16 hours ago

      It can use a 32 bit microcontroller, like mine does, but it only has some pretty basic functionality like setting temperature and shutting down the fans if door opened. Anything beyond that is just overengineering.

    • Bromeliadventures@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      16 hours ago

      My washing machine keeps asking to be connected to the WiFi. 2 years I’ve been ignoring it, which has been very convenient. I think it just wants to watch porn.

    • khánh@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      17 hours ago

      it does, for massive user convenience. however, the more you add, the less convenience is gained from each addition, sort of like a law of diminishing returns-type thing.

      • Leon@pawb.socialEnglish
        0·
        13 hours ago

        My washer/dryer is “smart” and there’s no convenience there at all, honestly. It argues with me, it sits and flashes suggestions freezing the entire interface, it decides to just not do things at times. It’s hella annoying.

      • HugeNerd@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        16 hours ago

        What convenience? You open the door, a light goes on, it is cold or freezing cold inside depending on the door.

        The end.

        My parent’s McClary fridge from the 1960s still runs on the original refrigerant.

        Don’t tell me about energy efficiency when

        1. We are awash in renewable electricity

        2. Building new fridges every five years filled with e-waste running garbage software requiring a networking infrastructure on top of it surely used a few joules as well.

        3. It’s not in a landfill.

        I can’t wait for the global energy crash, maybe we’ll be calmer and wiser when gas is 100$/liter.

        • khánh@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          16 hours ago

          beeping after the fridge hasn’t been closed for a while, or controlling the temperature, or turn on the lights when the door is open.

          • WIZARD POPE💫@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            16 hours ago

            Yeah that can moatly be done without one. The beeping maybe not but the temp and lights can be done completely analog. Our old fridge literally had a push switch that turned off the light when closed (20yr old fridge)

        • AnyOldName3@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          16 hours ago

          Some things off the top of my head are:

          • you could set the temperature to a number of degrees via a numerical display, which would be much harder to implement without a microcontroller.
          • maybe you could have PID control over the compressor rather than bang-bang control, so the temperature would be more stable.
          • these days, a bimetallic strip costs more than a microcontroller and a chip thermometer, despite the chip being much more accurate.

          All of this only requires a really dumb microcontroller, though, not one with networking. I don’t see how that could be useful until your fridge could magically track what it contains so you could ask it if you needed to buy stuff while you were shopping. I don’t think we have the technology for that yet.

          • Zanacross@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            16 hours ago

            I think we probably do have the tech to track what’s in the fridge but we’d need a camera and some kind of ai watching it always…

        • FjordDan@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          16 hours ago

          Digital display for thermostat/thermometer is nice.

          Party Mode is convenient when adding large amounts of beverages (or leftovers) as it temporarily changes the compressor setpoint/cycle for a couple of hours in expectation of heavy usage.

          Night mode / vacation mode can similarly change the compressor working profile to be either more quiet or energy efficient at times when it’s not expecting the door to open for extended periods of time.

          None of these are essential features of a fridge, but they can be convenient.