...Will Robinson!?
Nest Labs -- now a Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) company -- is recalling all its fancy Nest Protect smoke-and-CO detectors. It seems that they may not always sound an alarm when they should, because a key feature doesn't work right.
Oops. That's embarrassing. Still, it's a good thing that no Nest customers have been burned alive, suffocated by smoke, or poisoned by carbon monoxide, eh?
In IT Blogwatch, bloggers ponder returning the product for a refund.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment.
Nick Mediati mediates the media: [You're fired -Ed.]
On Tuesday, Nest officially recalled 440,000 Nest Protect smoke detectors, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, because of an issue that could prevent the alarm from sounding.…
The Nest Protect’s “wave” feature lets you temporarily disable the alarm with a wave of the hand. [But] under certain circumstances, the feature could misinterpret other movements or gestures as waves. ... As you might imagine, this could be a problem.…
Nest has temporarily removed the Nest Protect from store shelves [and] is still working on a permanent fix to the wave glitch. ... In the meantime, it has released a Nest Protect software update [which] will get pushed to your Nest Protect automatically, so make sure [it] is connected to your home Wi-Fi network, and connected to your Nest Account. MORE
Wait. What? Is this a recall or an update? Matthew Panzarino clarifies:
The recall was detailed on the US Consumer Product Safety Commission website. ... This marks the culmination of a process that began back in April when Nest first disclosed that the Wave feature was not working as advertised.…
This is not a physical recall so much as a software update alert, but the CPSC filing formalizes the fact that people can get their updates or full refunds as they choose. MORE
Kif Leswing gives wings to a Nest spokesdroid:
Current customers can continue to use their Nest Protects once the Nest Wave feature has been disabled via software update. Even with the Wave feature disabled, the Nest Protect Alarm will continue to perform its essential safety functions, monitoring for increased levels of smoke and CO, and alerting users via voice alerts and Nest app alerts (if set up) as soon as there is a potential issue. MORE
Meanwhile, as Consumer Reports' Daniel DiClerico notes, the device isn't all that, anyway:
Nest Labs, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based manufacturer of the device, has received no reports of incidents, injuries, or property damage.…
The Nest Protect...was part of our latest report on these devices. It did not make our list of recommended smoke alarms, because it was slow to detect fast-flaming fires.…
If you [prefer], contact Nest Labs for a full refund. MORE
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