‘Matter’ wants to talk to all your devices. Should you talk back?

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PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston The most exciting development coming in wireless connectivity this year was quite the rage at the Consumer Electro
[See the full post at: ‘Matter’ wants to talk to all your devices. Should you talk back?]

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WSGeo, OscarCP, lmacri

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Here is an alternate view:

I was born before computers, therefore before the Internet, therefore before the Web, before email, before the IoT, before self-driving cars and before Matter.

I grew up in a world that worked pretty well without those things, although things were a bit slower to happen, and some convenient things today were not possible then. But we all managed. Life was just as interesting, as pleasant and as unpleasant as it is today. I give you my word for it.

This introduction is not a statement that progress since those days has not happened, that many things are not better now and even at all possible, that make life better. One of many reasons for justifying this present statement: life expectancy has gone up by well over a decade.

However, being used to those old ways, means that I am managing with just two “devices”: the Mac I am using to write this comment, plus to do email, to get the news, to do online shopping and things at my bank, so I do not need to go all the way to the local branch. And my new G4 clamshell cellphone I use for making occasional phone calls (when I am out of the house and my landline is not accessible), and if possible without sending or receiving text. I am sure there are other benefits, including a few medications I take regularly and probably help me stay in good shape.

I stay as much as possible away from anything “Cloud” (not entirely, because email and browsing, for example, are done using someone else’s server and, therefore, are done in the “Cloud” ) — and do not think I am any the worse off for it.

Because I do avoid the “Cloud” so much, without any ill-effects that I’ve noticed, I do not have devices I can talk to and can talk back, connected to a so-called Artificial Intelligence in the “Cloud.” And I do not have remote controls for anything important that I could manage from a cellphone, which, by the way, is often a jungle of “apps” people collect with no idea of what else these might be up to.

Also I am not a member of FaceBook, Twitter, and whatever. I do not have “likes” and “followers”, and I really don’t care.

In conclusion: there is progress, and there is clutter. Progress is good, clutter, particularly of the IT kind, might open the way to all kinds of interesting things that are also interestingly unfortunate.

Finally about the enormous power of the big three or four IT giants, one last observation: It is about Apple’s statement that: “Our company does not have a dominant market share in any category where we do business.”

Well … how about cellphones? Ups! Smart phones!

Just my two cents.

Ex Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7) since mid-2020. Now: running macOS Big Sur 11.6 & sometimes, Linux (Mint)

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV and Malwarebytes for Macs.

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analogkid, MHCLV941

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Well said Oscar.  When I was born they were working on vacuum tube computers called “Univacs”.  Some things got much better as time went on and other things did not.  When I was a kid I could make a playlist of songs by stacking 45 rpm records on a turntable.  Later on, CD’s were a big improvement, and I still play them, along with my well preserved vinyl LP records.

IMHO the standard of living topped out in the U.S. between the 1980’s to 90’s. Things started to go downhill from then on.  Today, if there’s no “app” for something, young people in general are lost as to what to do.  Just my 50 cents (2 cents adjusted for inflation and current cost of living).

We're getting Sticker Shock everywhere now, not just car dealers.

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analogkid, OscarCP, wavy

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OscarCP wrote:

I was born before computers, therefore before the Internet, therefore before the Web, before email, before the IoT, before self-driving cars and before Matter.

So what was the Big Bang like Oscar?

Oh ooh did not read the article yet 🙄😃

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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OscarCP

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It was big and very loud, but wasn’t really cool.

Ex Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7) since mid-2020. Now: running macOS Big Sur 11.6 & sometimes, Linux (Mint)

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV and Malwarebytes for Macs.

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Loud? In a vacuum? Oh, sorry, it was different before the Big Bang wasn’t it…

cheers, Paul

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Thank you very much for NOT being a fanboy!!!!

With all the zero-day attacks that constantly pop up, I don’t want heaven-knows-what app on my phone. A better approach is technology that sends to my phone any information I may need.

AMEN!!!!   I suggest that your monitor your doors’ keypads for wear of the keycaps and simple dirt accumulation.   Either can, after a while, proclaim to all who would look carefully what digits are in your code.   For a really skilled observer, these perhaps also provide insight into the order those digits appear in your code.

It turned out that utility companies remotely controlled the smart thermostats they’d given homeowners; the settings were silently changed from 74°F to 78°F without people’s knowledge.

I do not find fault with the power company in Texas for “cooking” its customers.  RTFP (read the fine print) for a couple of reasons:

• Anyone who did not know what the power company could do needs only to look in the mirror to know whose fault that was.  After all, that is the main reason, perhaps the only reason, power companies hand out those smart thermostats.
• 78°F is widely recommended as the optimal temperature setting for a home in the summertime.  This was not some number that power company pulled of someplace dark and malodorous.

BTW, I’ve not succumbed to the local power company’s endless offers to give me a free “smart” thermostat because, when I asked for information on how the system was secured, it refused to provide any information whatsoever.

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OscarCP, wavy

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About the Texas old-folks “cook-out”: I also found the complaints that people were being just short of being roasted alive at 78 F, well, quite weird.
Which goes to show that, given a chance, there shall always be people that will complain about whatever is going on.

As I mentioned at the start of my own comment, further up, I am not exactly young, but my thermostat has been set at 76 – 78 F most of the time, summer or winter when the weather requires any use of heating or air conditioning at all (I prefer my windows open wide), and here I am, still. Go figure.

Ex Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7) since mid-2020. Now: running macOS Big Sur 11.6 & sometimes, Linux (Mint)

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV and Malwarebytes for Macs.

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Does anyone see Matter as a competitor, or at least alternative, to Bluetooth?

Haven’t researched this, so bad me. But I’ve heard tangentially that Bluetooth charges a licensing fee for any device that has it, which for some make it cost-prohibitive.

So if Google, Apple, and Amazon can avoid that… or have their own, hmmm.

Circle back to that monopolistic practices conversation. Thanks as always Brian for keeping us informed.

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WSGeo wrote:

Does anyone see Matter as a competitor, or at least alternative, to Bluetooth?

Haven’t researched this, so bad me. But I’ve heard tangentially that Bluetooth charges a licensing fee for any device that has it, which for some make it cost-prohibitive.

So if Google, Apple, and Amazon can avoid that… or have their own, hmmm.

Circle back to that monopolistic practices conversation. Thanks as always Brian for keeping us informed.

No,  it’s not.  I don’t find anything that says “Matter” is tied to any particular hardware.  Rather it seems to be a lingua franca for smart devices so one no longer needs to see if a given device “Works With Alexa” or “Play with Siri”.

 

 

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