The smart home graveyard is getting crowded
The smart home graveyard is getting crowded
智能家居的“坟场”正变得越来越拥挤
The shutdown of June Oven is just another reminder that the cloud was never ours to keep. June Oven 的关停再次提醒我们：云端服务从来都不属于我们。
How it started
故事的开端
A decade ago, a group of former Apple engineers built a beautiful smart oven. With a built-in scale, restaurant-grade heating elements, a camera, and the intelligence to recognize a chicken breast and cook it perfectly, the June Oven set the standard for smart cooking appliances. At $1,495, it was absurdly expensive, but it quickly grew a small, devoted following that expanded when the company introduced a more modestly priced model. 十年前，一群前苹果工程师打造了一款精美的智能烤箱。凭借内置秤、餐厅级加热元件、摄像头，以及识别鸡胸肉并将其完美烹饪的智能技术，June Oven 为智能烹饪电器树立了标杆。尽管 1495 美元的售价高得离谱，但它很快积累了一批忠实用户，并在公司推出价格更亲民的型号后，用户群进一步扩大。
This past Tuesday, June went dark. Weber, which bought the company in January 2021 and stopped making the ovens in 2022, shut off the app and cloud services, leaving its users with a sleek-looking toaster oven. There will be no app control, no software updates, and no new AI food recognition to crisp that strudel perfectly. You can still use it as an oven, but there will be no support or parts, and if you have to factory reset it for some reason, that could be the nail in the coffin. Weber told me it considered open-sourcing the technology for someone else to keep it alive, but decided against it, citing the fact June’s IP is part of its Weber Connect platform. 上周二，June 正式“熄灯”。Weber 公司于 2021 年 1 月收购了该公司，并于 2022 年停止生产该烤箱。如今，他们关闭了应用程序和云服务，只给用户留下了一台外观精美的多士炉。从此不再有 App 控制，不再有软件更新，也没有新的 AI 食物识别功能来帮你把果馅卷烤得酥脆。你依然可以把它当作普通烤箱使用，但将不再获得任何技术支持或零件供应；如果因为某种原因需要恢复出厂设置，那可能就是它的“终结时刻”。Weber 告诉我说，他们曾考虑将技术开源以便他人接手，但最终放弃了，理由是 June 的知识产权属于其 Weber Connect 平台的一部分。
June is just the latest in a depressingly long list of connected products that have arrived in the smart home graveyard in the last two years alone. The Nest Secure, early Nest Thermostats, Belkin’s WeMo line, Neato’s robot vacuums, the Brava smart oven, Logitech’s Pop buttons, Bose’s SoundTouch speakers, and Sengled’s smart bulbs all lost their lifelines. While some were saved by local APIs and protocols — such as Zigbee, Thread, and Apple’s HomeKit, or a Home Assistant integration — most are like the June Oven, destined to live out their days in a zombie state. 仅在过去两年里，进入智能家居“坟场”的联网产品名单就长得令人沮丧，June 只是其中最新的一员。Nest Secure、早期 Nest 恒温器、Belkin 的 WeMo 系列、Neato 扫地机器人、Brava 智能烤箱、Logitech Pop 按钮、Bose SoundTouch 音箱以及 Sengled 智能灯泡，它们都失去了生命线。虽然有些产品通过本地 API 和协议（如 Zigbee、Thread、Apple HomeKit 或 Home Assistant 集成）得以幸存，但大多数产品都像 June Oven 一样，注定要在“僵尸状态”中度过余生。
How it’s going
现状如何
The silver lining, if you want to see it, is that most of these gadgets degrade rather than die outright. June and Brava will still work as ovens. Nest Thermostats can still control your heating and cooling, just like the $30 plastic wall wart they replaced, and a Neato will still vacuum your floors. But the remote access, voice control, updates, and other smart features you bought the devices for are gone. Some — like Nest Secure — are now pure e-waste. 如果非要找点安慰的话，那就是这些设备大多是“功能退化”而非直接“死亡”。June 和 Brava 依然可以作为烤箱使用。Nest 恒温器依然能控制冷暖气，就像它们所取代的 30 美元塑料墙控器一样；Neato 依然能清扫地板。但你当初购买这些设备所看重的远程访问、语音控制、更新以及其他智能功能都已经消失了。有些产品——比如 Nest Secure——现在已经完全变成了电子垃圾。
There’s always the possibility of a rescue, but it’s rare. Some enterprising user may figure out a way to connect a headless corpse to Home Assistant, the open-source platform that has become the default refuge for the smart home undead. When smart lighting platform Insteon shut down in 2022, its users bought the company and resurrected it. Bose reversed course and open-sourced its SoundTouch API, and Pebble’s founder brought the iconic smartwatch back to life after the Rebble alliance kept it on life support. June’s co-founder Matt Van Horn said on X that he tried to keep the servers online but to no avail. 当然，总有被拯救的可能，但这很罕见。一些有进取心的用户可能会想办法将这些“无头尸体”连接到 Home Assistant——这个开源平台已成为智能家居“亡灵”的默认避难所。当智能照明平台 Insteon 在 2022 年倒闭时，其用户买下了该公司并使其复活。Bose 改变了主意，开源了其 SoundTouch API；Pebble 的创始人也在 Rebble 联盟维持其生命后，让这款标志性的智能手表重获新生。June 的联合创始人 Matt Van Horn 在 X 上表示，他曾尝试维持服务器运行，但无济于事。
The smart home has reached a tipping point. Many of its early pioneers are aging out — a decade plus is a long time for a startup. Most have been bought by bigger companies, likely attracted by the shiny thing but then quickly dismayed by the bottom line. Back then, a cloud server was cheaper to build than a local hub, but servers continue to cost money, and once a company decides to shut down a product, reasons to keep paying fade rapidly. This appears to be what’s happening to Level Lock, another former-Apple-engineer startup that produced a beautiful replacement for a common household item. Assa Abloy bought the smart lock company and abruptly fired most of the team. It’s still alive, but how long it will continue is a big question. 智能家居已达到一个临界点。许多早期的先驱者正在老去——对于一家初创公司来说，十年以上的时间已经很长了。大多数公司被大企业收购，后者最初可能被这些闪亮的产品所吸引，但很快就会对利润表现感到失望。当年，构建云服务器比本地集线器更便宜，但服务器的维护成本持续存在，一旦公司决定停产某款产品，继续付费的理由就会迅速消失。Level Lock 似乎正在经历这一切，这是另一家由前苹果工程师创立的初创公司，他们生产了一款精美的智能锁。Assa Abloy 收购了这家公司并突然解雇了大部分团队。它目前还活着，但能持续多久是个大问题。
What happens next
未来何去何从
Three things need to happen to prevent the smart home from burning more users: we need consumer protections; manufacturers need to step up and build in safeguards; we need to know how to protect ourselves. 为了防止智能家居继续伤害用户，我们需要做到三点：我们需要消费者保护措施；制造商需要挺身而出，建立保障机制；我们需要知道如何保护自己。
Consumer Reports is pushing for legislation around connected IoT devices, including making manufacturers push a local API to a device before killing its cloud. This would allow it to keep talking to a platform like Home Assistant instead of becoming a paperweight. This is essentially what Bose did with SoundTouch, and other companies should follow that lead (I’m not holding my breath on legislation). 《消费者报告》正在推动有关联网物联网设备的立法，包括要求制造商在关闭云服务前，必须为设备推送本地 API。这将使设备能够继续与 Home Assistant 等平台通信，而不是变成镇纸。这本质上就是 Bose 对 SoundTouch 所做的事情，其他公司也应该效仿（不过我对立法进程并不抱太大希望）。
When building a connected device, manufacturers need to make it function without the cloud. Include physical buttons so it doesn’t rely on an app, and use local protocols alongside any cloud connectivity. This is a key issue the smart home standard Matter was designed to address: Matter devices can retain many functions in a Matter platform, regardless of what happens to the manufacturer’s business. Other local protocols like Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, and Bluetooth similarly help futureproof products. 在制造联网设备时，制造商需要确保其在没有云的情况下也能运行。应包含物理按钮，使其不依赖于应用程序，并在云连接之外使用本地协议。这是智能家居标准 Matter 旨在解决的关键问题：无论制造商的业务发生什么变化，Matter 设备都能在 Matter 平台上保留许多功能。其他本地协议如 Zigbee、Z-Wave、Thread 和蓝牙同样有助于实现产品的面向未来。
I fully agree with Stacey Higginbotham’s advice to manufacturers that they need to “design for death from day one,” or at the very least plan to pay for the funeral. Amazon refunded anyone who bought a Halo in the 12 months before it killed the fitness band. Vorwerk promised to keep Neato running for five years; when that was truncated to two, it at least gave some users free replacements. Google offered… 我完全同意 Stacey Higginbotham 给制造商的建议，即他们需要“从第一天起就为死亡做设计”，或者至少要计划好支付“葬礼费用”。亚马逊在砍掉 Halo 手环前，为所有在 12 个月内购买该产品的用户提供了退款。Vorwerk 曾承诺让 Neato 运行五年；当期限缩短至两年时，他们至少为部分用户提供了免费更换。谷歌则提供了……