I can't shill any harder right now for Hubitat: https://hubitat.com/

It's an IoT hub that functions totally offline, no cloud dependency (they do have an app but it's optional). It uses a built-in HTTP server. It's not as well known or as successful because it's a little more - scratch that - a lot more technical of a product but that's the price you pay. So if they go out of business you keep humming along.

https://twitter.com/internetofshit too. Curent top tweet is a quote tweet of this:

'An investor told me yesterday that they were recently asked what the "web3 strategy" of one of their portfolio companies was. It was a smart oven startup.'

Doesn't mean there are no good uses of this technology, but the fact that my Bosch cooker hood is wifi-enabled in case, I don't know, perhaps I need to turn it on while I'm at the office, does suggest that this whole area could do with a serious reality check.

Helium seems like a potentially good web3/crypto implementation. I think it’s using LORa as the underlying tech.

Some are even intentional, like Sonos bricking devices to force upgrades.

I think everything should have an API to let you serve it yourself, eg from Home Assistant.

I wouldn’t characterize Insteon as this in the same way as most Alexa controlled WiFi stuff. My Insteon devices continue to work fine because I have the USB controller that works through HomeSeer completely offline and didn’t utilize their Internet services. Unfortunately, it is a proprietary protocol that did not get licensed broadly the way zwave has. While the communications were reliable and there was an enthusiastic base, they probably couldn’t compete against the cheap Internet of shit being pumped out to the Alexa crowd.

The IoT/smart home devices I've accumulated over the last decade are all still working just as well as when I bought them. In that time, I've gone through multiple TVs, HDMI sticks, laptops, phones and fridges.

I do think we need to work on more open protocols for IoT to prevent this kind of situation, but I'm not sure that ewaste disaster of a generation seems entirely warranted. Most people barely have more than an Alexa, if anything.

Matter got delayed but so far is the closest thing we’re getting to an open protocol

It's a real shame when protocols like zigbee and z-wave can offer exactly the same functionality without requiring any third-party services.

Well, ZigBee or zWave won't necessarily save you from a proprietary hub or from cloud-reliance. Though they most likely are better than many alternatives, including WiFi.