I blame the remote. When I was a kid, you had to get up to change the channel on the TV. Yes, I’m old (or this TV was back then). But at some point, smart people came up with a device that you could hold in your hand to control the TV remotely. At first it was attached via a cable. Later, you’d throw your controls through the air, like a D-list sci-fi hero. It was all pretty exciting at the time. But at that time we didn’t have the Internet.

In the years that followed, the situation continued to deteriorate. Remote controls have become increasingly complex and have evolved into apps on your phone in recent years. Meanwhile, the controls on the devices themselves have diminished to the point where you can’t do anything if the remote disappears. Which was bad enough when it came to a physical thing. It’s even worse now that it’s a virtual object – a simple app on a phone that only exists because of the goodwill of whoever created it in the first place.

This is why I think more and more that when someone recommends a technology and happily notes “there’s an app for that,” you should run a mile.

The mind-blowing truth

The main problem with gadgets that rely on apps is that apps die. Gadgets too, you would say. Of course. But applications have an unfortunate tendency to crash before the things they are designed to control stop working.

New operating systems come out and gadget companies do a quick calculation based on the cost of updating the app versus the amount of money they could lose due to unhappy customers facing a dead application for aging technology. Because such calculations often suggest that people will simply buy new gadgets – perhaps even from companies that kill off old ones – the result is entirely predictable.

This is why I surprised myself by writing about waking up at sunrise last week. I assumed I would talk about how difficult mine – and most in the industry still are – is implementing and demanding app-based goodness. But instead I decided that I didn’t want even more devices that depend on apps. I want more devices that don’t die with a random software update.

Avoid app-ocalypse

To be honest, I was lucky in all of this. Despite – or because of – broken words for ThingI’m wary of smart technology and take a cautious approach. I’ve never had to discard equipment because Google got bored. I didn’t have to endure the horror of a smart audio company blowing up its entire app ecosystem because of the rushed release of headphones that almost no one cares about. But my house is nonetheless littered with technology that no longer works, simply because an app died.

There are small robots, immobilized forever because the company that made them went bankrupt. Smart accessories languish in drawers because apps fail and there is no other way to control the hardware. And various Lego kits intended for do things beyond being piles of plastic bricks, they are now there inanimately. All because Lego felt there was no point in supporting them when the kits had been retired a long time ago.

Still, I guess at least Lego retains its usefulness when the apps that gave it extra functionality cease to be so. Although it makes me think about the fact that one day Lego will drop support for LEGO Super Mario . The mustachioed hero will then forever have black, dead eyes.

Well, my kid always preferred Yoshi anyway.