this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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Facepalm

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[–] dual_sport_dork 144 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (4 children)

Amusing, clever, but extremely fake.

This is a GE Café CFE28/CYE22 refrigerator and it definitely does not run Windows. You can use its little LCD screen as a digital photo frame, though, and there's a USB port for that purpose tucked beneath the lower edge of the bezel under the buttons. Somebody's just made an image of this fake "Windows update" screen and put it in the photo frame rotation.

[–] expatriado 93 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

still more tech than it needs

[–] spicytuna62 40 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

Don't know why the downvotes. You are absolutely correct.

My fridge doesn't even have a screen, but it has wifi. Wifi!! You do one thing. You are a box designed to keep my food cold. I set the temperature, and I forget that exists.

Anyway, we bought it when we bought our house. The previous owner offered to include all the appliances in the contract so it was nice to not have to buy any appliances. But that refrigerator stays OFF my network.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

but think of all the frosty bitcoins you could be mining!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago

~~you~~ some botnet operator could be mining

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

To be fair, making a device wifi connected is stupid cheap nowadays. That being said, you bet your ass they're harvesting data.

My parents got a fridge with a similar feature and no screen (they didn't know it had that) but I was curious and hooked it to the IOT network. Literally the only smart feature it exposed was a door open sensor...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

not advocating for all IoT products, but some fridges have internal cameras (allows you i remotely access and figure out what you have and dont have), and some also have product expiring tracking so that it can warn you if something is approaching thr best buy date so you can use it up soon or throw it away.

washer and dryer IoT projects to me tend to be pretty terrible.

[–] Diplomjodler3 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

It just sits there, silently plotting revenge...

[–] legion02 4 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

I'm OK with it for some things tbh. With a wifi fridge for example I can know if it stops working and the temp starts rising before I have a fridge full of spoiled food. With an oven I can know if I left the house with it still running. With the washer/dryer I can get notified when I need to fold the cloths before they get wrinkled. I think connected appliances have more useful applications than people give them credit for.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago

With a wifi fridge for example I can know if it stops working

You can also do that with a simple smart plug with energy monitoring. You can get a 4 pack for $35.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Something that might happen once in ten years isn't worth the additional security surface exposure. IMO

[–] cynar 3 points 14 hours ago

I have a small child. It's not just mechanical failure. Then again, I've got a separate network for IoT things. They can't see anything by each other and their controller. Unfortunately, most of the IoT appliances do NOT like this setup.

[–] legion02 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

What security exposure? Any modern router has a way to isolate iot devices. I'm risking people knowing when I open my fridge?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

Most people wouldn't bother.

And the risk would be more a foothold into your network as a staging point to attack other devices, as I'm sure you know .

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

With a wifi fridge for example I can know if it stops working and the temp starts rising before I have a fridge full of spoiled food

A built in alarm sound would achieve the same goal without running the risk of your fridge becoming part of a botnet

[–] legion02 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Alarm is going to have to be pretty loud for me to hear it many miles away.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago

Get a bigger speaker

[–] Zombiepirate 4 points 16 hours ago

But if you get the app you can unlock the crisper drawer+ for only $11.99/mo and get those extra fresh veggies that you crave!

[–] stupidcasey 10 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

We ran out of things we need about the time we learned how to filter water and grow wheat.

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce 9 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I'm ok with the further progress into antibiotics, vaccines, surgery, all that good stuff.

[–] Anticorp 6 points 12 hours ago

I'd be a cripple if not for our progress with surgery. I'm very glad to live in an era of modern medicine.

[–] toynbee 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Apparently, some politician tried to shutdown the patent office in the nineteenth century because "everything that can be invented has been invented."

edit: no need for "I" there.

[–] dual_sport_dork 13 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

But but but but but this is our "upmarket" model and we need some kind of rationalization to upsell people to it over the Profile PFE28/PYE22 which is the same fucking refrigerator mechanically minus the screen and with different handles, but this one costs 30% more.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 18 hours ago

Doesn’t even have AI, how am I supposed to know what to eat

[–] spankmonkey 7 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

You can use its little LCD screen as a digital photo frame

Whhhhhhhyyyyyyy

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago

So you can run Doom on it, duh.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 19 hours ago

I just wanted some water...

[–] Cobrachicken 2 points 18 hours ago

I have to admit I would like to do the same with my fridge.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 13 hours ago

Updating

Windows