friend got a canon camera. you can install the canon app to use bluetooth/wifi to transfer the photos to the phone. At some point the app went from thre app allowing limited permissions to insert into camera roll, to full permissions to access all photos on the phone.

I hate that.

I recently bought a G-Shock watch, it can connect to your phone via Bluetooth, it was a selling point but may be convenient to sync the time with a quick connection.

First, the G-Shock app displayed a prompt that it won't work with animations turned off which is just baffling. I have them disabled in Android settings under accessibility options because I find them frivolous.

Then with the animations enabled the G-Shock app says that it's EOL since mid 2023, now CASIO WATCHES app is for everything.

Install CASIO WATCHES, doesn't complain about animations being disabled which is an improvement but then when I want to add a watch it says I need an account.

Two local devices connecting via Bluetooth need a goddamn online account! Uninstalled that shit immediately.

I don't regret the purchase, I like the watch and it works perfectly without any connection crap but boy is all this online nonsense annoying.

they don't require constant maintenance. They are forced to receive constant maintenance. Ex if you don't release updates, you get delisted. But you wrote a calculator app. What updates and maintenance does it require that wasn't forced on you by google/apple by changing out the os from under you, or simply because they feel like it?

This is wrong. Yes, they require constant maintenance. But that maintenance is pretty limited in scope, if it is required even. All they have to do is to push some updates once or twice a year at max, and maybe update the usage of some APIs. It's not like these companies can't do it. In the grand scheme they wouldn't even notice it if one of their developers would do that.

It's that they just don't want to. They're greedy as hell, and they don't care about you.

Even if it would be too much work at one point, e.g. if Apple would finally update their Bluetooth stack more often then every 10 years, and the API completely changes. Why not just open source the whole app, or at least their interface so independent developers could develop something so not all of their products need to go into the waste? Because even in this hypothetical scenario, one thing holds true: They're greedy and they don't care about you.

I unironically look forward to the world where this is solved by unsupervised AI agents incrementally upgrade these apps to keep them evergreen...

...and the Lovecraftian gradual drift as incremental recursive hallucinations turn them into still... mostly working... strange little app-like-bundles of Something Weird.

On the other hand, if someone searches "appname apk", they will be able to download it forever, and install it for another year (thanks google!).

just yet another example of dying companies could be heroes by releasing their code to the public

The lockly model I have is the same, no cloud features.

You can configure it using the keypad or using an app over BT, that is the primary difference between it and a completely self contained device.

Don't most washers and dryers have timed start like dishwashers do? I always remember mine having pictures like that but maybe that's just not a common thing

Remote start, and finish notifications, are genuinely useful things.

At the same time, I don't know if they're actually worth the downsides of needing to create an account, having hackable IoT things, installing an app per appliance brand (at least), etc vs, say, a timer and/or delay.