God I miss the sense that a company is trying to sell me exactly what I want to buy. I used to get it so often in the early 2000s.
This just reminded me, resently I wanted to plug some things into a smart switch (you plug the switch into the wall, you plug something into the switch, you can now turn the thing on/off from your phone etc...)
A year ago I bought a pack of 4 Meross smart switches. I was using one and had 4 left. The one had issues, about once every 2-3 months it would stop responding. I'd unplug it and plug in back in and it would work again.
Any, last week I wanted to plug something else in so I grabbed one of the remaining 3 switches. I could not get it to pair with the iPhone Home app (the same app I was using for the first switch). I tried moving closer to my WiFi (right next to it in fact). No luck. I tried all 3 switches. No luck. Ok, go online, Meross has an app that might let me do the pairing and/or apply upgrades? Download the app. You can't use the app unless you make an account. F that. I took all 4 switches that immediately threw them in the trash.
I searched and found Eve (https://www.evehome.com/) who "claim" they are all about privacy
> 100% Privacy > No Eve cloud, no registration and no tracking so your data won’t get exposed. Local intelligence and direct communication between Eve accessory and iPhone, iPad or home hub without bridge or cloud dependency.
They cost >2x the Meross ones. Got 2. They work so far. Crossing my fingers they're legit, though my guess is they won't last. Few consumers care AFAICT.
FYI - there are plenty of cheap Tuya devices[0] that can be flashed with alternative firmware[1] which works locally. More generically, there a lot of ESP32-based switches that work with Tasmota open-source firmware[2]. There breadth of devices is annoying because it makes configuration difficult since manufacturer wire up the relays differently, so it took me trial and error to figure out which device/"port" the firmware needs to toggle to turn the switch on or off
0. Any device that requires installation of a phone app named "Smart Life" or "Tuya Smart".