Smart Scale goes dumb as Under Armour pulls the plug on connected tech - The risk of cloud managed devices even if they are $400...

Any smart device comes with its own set of benefits and trade-offs, but there's one huge shoe waiting to drop with every single one of them: anything you connect can be disconnected at the other end, and there's absolutely nothing you the consumer can do about it. Today's example of smart stuff going dumb comes courtesy of Under Armour, which is effectively rendering its fitness hardware line very expensive paperweights.

There is a really quickly growing list of devices that this is happening too - I can immediately recollect Chumby, Pebble Watches, Acurite 5-in-1 weather station, Adobe's subscription service to name but a few. As wonderful as cloud services are can be a lifetime of anything from 3 to 5 years before some companies get bought out or shut down. It's just something to keep in mind when shelving out a lot of money for a cloud enabled device. Like digital photos, don't expect them to just be there and readable in 10 or 20 years time. We are living in the "now" world where "tomorrow" is a liquidation or bankruptcy away