[wlug] Buy Them Up, Shut Them Down

The latest in a long line of IoT devices being bricked or crippled because their essential servers are being shut down is the Libra “smart” weighing scale from Adidas <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/22/adidas_libra_scale/>. This product was originally created by a small startup, which was later acquired by the big company ... with the usual all-too-frequent consequences. The article includes a catalogue of similar examples, including a “lifetime subscription” that turned out to be anything but, and an attempt to impose subscription fees on users who thought they were getting a fixed-price product. I wonder how long the customers will continue to get taken in ...