Category Archives: Cloud

cloud computing and why it’s a good or bad idea

Not one to be outdone by Microsoft, Apple’s cloud fell over too. Unlike Microsoft, it hasn’t said what happened

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The rivalry between Apple and Microsoft continued last night as the fruity firm’s cloud services took a tumble a mere day after Azure crapped itself.

While Apple has remained silent on what happened (we asked; it did not respond), the vast majority of its services wobbled over a two-hour period early this morning (UK time).

Issues began at around 1am affecting services including Apple TV, iCloud Mail, iWork for iCloud, and the company’s App Store. On its System Status page the company said “Some users were affected”, along with “Users experienced a problem with this service.”

The “problem” being that it simply didn’t work. A glance at social media shows disappointed fanatics wailing about Apple TV stopping midstream, Apple Music hitting the pause button, and iCloud Photos leaping from the nearest ledge.

At one point even the System Status page reportedly fell over.

Apple’s inability to keep its cloud in the air came a day after Microsoft suffered an embarrassing Azure failure, prompting us to ponder if Redmond has a reliability problem.

Unless some late-night (and early morning) fondling was involved, the outage did not cause too much European outrage. Some US users, on the other hand, found themselves at the pointy end of Apple’s issues and unable to express their feelings on the US presidential debate via the medium of iCloud email.

Things appear back to normal this morning, and The Register was heartened to note that fanboi assistant Siri did not appear to be affected.

In marked contrast to the approach taken by Microsoft, Apple has yet to explain what happened, why it happened, and why it will not happen again. We will update should a statement be forthcoming.

In the meantime, we anxiously await Cook & co’s inevitable “you’re using it wrong” retort.

Source: Not one to be outdone by Microsoft, Apple’s cloud fell over too. Unlike Microsoft, it hasn’t said what happened • The Register

Yay cloud.

Tesla network goes down leaving drivers unable to connect to their cars with mobile app in massive outage – yay cloud

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TESLA’s network completely dropped on Wednesday in a massive outage that left drivers unable to connect to their cars.

According to Electrek, internal systems were fully down and around 11am ET, leaving users unable to connect their vehicles to the mobile app.

Tesla users were unable to connect their cars to their mobile apps on Wednesday

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Tesla users were unable to connect their cars to their mobile apps on WednesdayCredit: EPA

Tesla staff were also unable “to process deliveries and orders” and the company’s website wasn’t working.

The outage also hit Tesla solar and Powerwall, the company’s in-home batteries.

Around noon ET, connectivity was reportedly returning for some users’ cars, the news outlet reported.

The outage – which appeared to be global – is said to be one of the “most wide-ranging” in Tesla’s history.

The network outage was said to be one of the 'most wide-ranging' in Tesla's history

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The network outage was said to be one of the ‘most wide-ranging’ in Tesla’s historyCredit: Getty Images

CEO Elon Musk did not immediately comment on what happened.

Source: Tesla network goes down leaving drivers unable to connect to their cars with mobile app in massive outage

Adidas now stands for All Day I’m Disconnecting All Servers as owners of ‘smart’ Libra scales furious over bricked kit – don’t trust stuff that needs cloud

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In 2015, German sportswear manufacturer Adidas acquired a plucky Austrian IoT startup called Runtastic, which, among other things, manufactured a $129.99 “smart” scale called Libra. Now that product is being discontinued, preventing owners from synchronising their data or even downloading the app required to use it.

In a post published yesterday, Adidas announced the discontinuation of key functionality from the Libra smart scale.

“We wanted to let you know that we’ve decided to stop supporting the Libra app. This means that we’ve taken the app off the market and that login won’t work anymore,” the company said. “A login and the synchronisation of your weight data from the Libra scale is no longer possible.”

Owners can still see how much timber they’ve put on during lockdown by glancing at the Libra’s LCD screen, much like they could with an ordinary £10 scale from Tesco. However, the core functionality that initially attracted them to the product is long gone.

While the Libra app is no longer searchable on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, those who have previously downloaded it are able to visit its page, where they can still leave “feedback”. Predictably, this has prompted a flood of one-star reviews and furious comments.

El Reg has contacted Adidas for comment.

Users of Libra are not alone in having their expensive IoT kit discontinued after just a few years of ownership.

In April 2016, the servers supporting a smart home hub product called Revolv were shut down, leaving owners unable to control their other Wi-Fi-connected gizmos. This stung for a couple of reasons: firstly, the hub cost £210 and was explicitly sold with a “lifetime subscription”. Secondly, Revolv wasn’t a fledgling startup with tenuous cash flow, but rather a subsidiary of Alphabet – one of the largest and wealthiest companies on the planet.

Another shocking example comes from last year, when Den Automation, a crowdfunding sensation that raised $4.5m in equity crowdfunding for a family of smart plugs and light switches, entered administration. As it found itself unable to pay for server costs, people suddenly found themselves burdened with non-functional and hugely expensive kit.

The assets and intellectual property of Den Automation were subsequently acquired by a previous investor through a new company called Den Switches, which has said it intends to restart the service. It’s not clear when that will happen.

More recently, the Will.i.am-owned startup Wink sent out an email to users of its smart home products demanding they pay for a subscription service in order to continue using their products as the revenue obtained from one-time purchases of its equipment proved insufficient to support long-term maintenance.

The problem with most IoT products isn’t necessarily that they rely on back-end servers to run. It’s that, for the most part, it’s impossible to perceive the trajectory of a given company. Will they be acquired by new owners with aggressive cost-cutting strategies and leaner product roadmaps?

Or will they financially struggle, eventually swirling the toilet basin of insolvency, and leave nothing behind but a bunch of electronic waste and angry one-star app reviews?

Source: Adidas now stands for All Day I’m Disconnecting All Servers as owners of ‘smart’ Libra scales furious over bricked kit • The Register

Some managed Netgear switches suddenly need a cloud account to use its full UI. Also may not update security. Time to change vendor.

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Netgear has decided that users of some of its managed network switches don’t need access to the equipment’s full user interface – unless they register their details with Netgear first.

For instance, owners of its 64W Power-over-Ethernet eight-port managed gigabit switch GC108P, and its 126W variant GC108PP, need to hand over information about themselves to the Netgear Cloud to get full use out of the devices.

“Starting from firmware version 1.0.5.4, product registration is required to unlock full access to the local browser user interface,” said the manufacturer in a note on its website referencing a version released in April this year.

The latest build, 1.0.5.8, released last week, continues that registration requirement. These rules also appear to apply to a dozen or so models of Netgear’s kit, including its GS724TPP 24-port managed Ethernet switch.

“I recently bought a couple of Netgear Managed Switches for business, and in their datasheet they list local-only management as a feature. Only after they arrived we discovered that you only get limited functionality in the local-only management mode, you have to register the switches to your Netgear Cloud account to get access to the full functionality,” fumed one netizen on a Hacker News discussion thread. “I would not have bought the switches if I had knew I needed to register them to Netgear Cloud to have access to the full functionality specified in the data sheet.”

It appears the Silicon Valley giant is aware that not everyone will rush to create a cloud account to manage their network hardware because it has published a list of functions that one can freely access without said registration – for now, anyway.

We’ve asked Netgear to explain the move. The manufacturer most recently made the headlines when, after being informed of a security flaw in a large number of product lines, promptly abandoned half of them rather than issue a patch.

Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey, England, opined: “It’s a conundrum because it is software and you do have only a licence to use it: you don’t own it so one might argue this helps protect intellectual property rights. However, that’s different for the hardware which is pretty useless without the software.”

Woodward pointed to Netgear’s online privacy policy, which, like every other company on the internet, states that data from customers and others can be hoovered up for marketing purposes, research and so on (see section 11).

Source: Before you buy that managed Netgear switch, be aware you may need to create a cloud account to use its full UI • The Register