A Community-Driven Future for NEEO
The news of NEEO just dropping out and abandoning ship comes as a devastating blow to many in this community. The NEEO team has to endure a proper shit storm right now - and rightly so I might add. ;-)
This situation is particularly aweful since the hardware design is absolutely stunning! Thousands of hours of care and work have gone into the creation of it. Should it really just be abandoned like this?
I see one scenario where something good could come out of this mess. Make the NEEO software open-source and allow the community to keep it going.
In one last new firmware, make it easy to update to different versions of the software (and revert back, should the need arise), so that the NEEO system can become a playground for a tiny, happy community. Who knows, maybe a few people from the original NEEO team will stick around. After all, they are bound to feel passionate about the project (even though the ones in charge decided against it).
That would be the decent thing to do, really. Please don't throw away all that work you poured into NEEO.
PS: While I am making a wish, I'll just add some more:
- Add IR - Learning so that NEEO becomes somewhat future proof
- Simplify the UI so we have more options
- Add the option for hardware button re-mapping
(this would be the perfect system. But anything in that direction would be nice) ;-)
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I just wrote this in the other thread that proposed a re-design of the NEEO UI. But I think it is quire relevant here too, so I copied it over:
I am not a coder, so I might be way off here. But to me it seems some of the changes I described should be fairly easy to implement and mostly on the UI side. What we already have is:- List of recipes
- Lists of device-specific functions
- Interface with several pages that you can swipe through, after you chose "Show Controls" at the end of a recipe.
Right now there is only one of those "Controls" screens per device. They control both the hardware mapping of buttons and the shortcuts / favourites / etc. shown on the display.
Access to all those elements listed above is very restricted and rigit. A few simple tweaks could change that system in a spectacular way:
- Call those "Controls" just Screens and allow to create as many as you like
- Allow placement of any recipe, any device-specific function or any Screen on any page of a Screen
- Allow Parent-Child relationship of screens so the "Home" button knows where to go.
Now we can get rid of "Rooms". They can simply be re-created by creating a Screen with just recipes on it. Similarly, the "Welcome" screen can be set up with this method.
And as a bonus, since a Screen already comes with the mapping of hardware-buttons, I can decide to have my TV-hardwar buttons active on the home screen!So in my mind, these changes should be rather straigh forward. Not much has to be changed. I believe the code would get even cleaner since we can get rid of quite a few elements. And it would change the user experience quite dramatically.
What do you think? Any coders around here who want to comment? Any developer from the NEEO team? I would love to hear your thoughts!
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Jakob Winter My very personal opinion you are riding a dead horse .
It was in my opinion never the intention to make improvements to the user interface, the last farewell gift we got is a mourning background in black suitable for the situation.
In my opinion, it is not the task of the community to think about any scenarios. First of all, Raphael would have to explain what is possible and how to add IR codes on your own or continue to operate the device without a cloud. Otherwise, this is wasted time and you should resign yourself to the fact that you can not ride a dead horse .
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Fonzo You are probably right. Its just such a pity since there are no comparable products out there. That is the fact that baffles me most. NEEO had the hardware product and a passionate, engaged community... and is just giving it up!?!
It would be very nice indeed of someone from NEEO to give us some info, whether they will leave us something to tinker with or just a dying project without use after two years... -
Jakob Winter Fonzo as Fonzo mentioned, the horse is not only dead, is already stinking and the flies eating the rotten flesh. The only way any former user can get anything compensating or good out of this is when there will be a sucessful lawsuit.
Sucessful could mean that Control4 to avoid negative PR does something for the former NEEO user.
But I 100% surely believe that there will be no open source no NEEO sucessor that will be available to the non-installer public customer.
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Daniel Sütel Damn, I would really hate if it came to a lawsuit. Its just so unnecessary. If the were just a bit more helpful and cooperative... :-(
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Derrick had the great idea to find some alternative channel of communication, just in case this forum dies. I just created a Telegram channel, where we can talk, share new tech and discuss our post-NEEO experiences.
https://t.me/remotefuture
Would be cool to meet you there ;-)
PS: You need to install the Telegram app, available for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android...-
There were some problems earlier with the Telegram group. It should work now. If you joined before, you have to re-join now, I am afraid. Sorry for that 😊
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Jakob Winter not working
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Daniel Jordi thats weird. I tried with other accounts and it worked. Did you delete the original channel from your Telegram history first? Maybe that'll help
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Jakob Winter now it works
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