In another loss for early smart home adopters, Logitech has announced that it will brick all Pop switches on October 15.
In August of 2016, Logitech launched Pop switches, which provide quick access to a range of smart home actions, including third-party gadgets. For example, people could set their Pop buttons to launch Philips Hue or Insteon lighting presets, play a playlist from their Sonos speaker, or control Lutron smart blinds. Each button could store three actions, worked by identifying smart home devices on a shared Wi-Fi network, and was controllable via a dedicated Android or iOS app. The Pop Home Switch Starter Pack launched at $100, and individual Pop Add-on Home Switches debuted at $40 each.
A company spokesperson told Ars Technica that Logitech informed customers on September 29 that their Pop switches would soon become e-waste. According to copies of the email shared via Reddit, Logitech’s notice said:
