Comment Re:Hobsons choice (Score 3, Interesting) 175
When enough others decide to buy an app-able crockpot, you won't have any choice but too buy one as well.
Yes, for normal people, but we're nerds. We'll simply hack them, just like we jailbreak iPhones.
This story reminds me of something that happened in a bar a year or so ago. A fellow had a strange looking contraption that looked like it had something to do with a furnace. I asked him what it was, and he said it was an "obsolete" analog part that cost him twenty bucks new that he was installing in a friend's furnace to replace a burned up digital board that cost $200 used.
Look at cars, my last car had a digital circuit to control climate. If it had gone out, the replacement was $300. $300 for something that surely cost the automaker less than $5 to manufacture.
If I'm forced to buy an internet-connected toaster, you can bet its antennas will be the first parts to be removed.