this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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317
Pet owners say smart pet feeder outage led to furry ones going unfed (arstechnica.com)
submitted 3 days ago by new_otters_raft@piefed.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
124 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This feels like bad design

Smart pet-feeder company Petlibro suffered an outage on Tuesday, giving users a harsh reminder of the risks of relying on smart devices.

Petlibro makes pet feeders that connect to Wi-Fi and, for setup with Petlibro’s mobile companion app, Bluetooth. Users can set the feeders to automatically dispense food at scheduled times, which is handy for pet care when the owner is out of the home.

In a statement to The Verge, Petlibro CEO York Wu said this week’s outage was “related to how the Petlibro app communicates with devices through its online servers.”

Some user reports have also conflicted with Petlibro’s claims about offline functionality. As The Verge pointed out, various users online claimed that during the outage, their devices did not perform any scheduled feedings, performed some feedings but not others, or performed feedings late (examples here, here, here, here, and here).

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[–] mastertigurius@lemmy.world 66 points 3 days ago (5 children)

The level of sophistication of our pet feeder at home is a fistful of kibble pulled out of a bag and dropped in a bowl. If we're away, we have a good neighbour who drops in to check on the cat, or the cat stays with my family. I'm an IT professional, and prefer my house to be as dumb as possible.

Of course I will post a picture of my cat when mentioning him. His name is Nemo.

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Nemo appears to be starving. You should ensure nemo is given many treats to fix this problem.

[–] mastertigurius@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

His hunger is insatiable, as evidenced by his annoyed moaning whenever he glimpses the bottom of his food bowl. His foster home had turned him into a mega-chonk, but I got him in the right track. Now he's part killing-machine, part cuddle-machine.

[–] WatermelonPaloma@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Nemo is such a beauty, he looks very soft and cuddly.

[–] mastertigurius@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Thank you. He's indeed soft and cuddly, though also drooly and clawy. We love him.

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I can't dispense 2 upvotes (one for the comment one for the cat pic) so just get this comment

[–] TeaWithDani@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

May be an orange, but you sure have a smart system to alert you if the kibble is late.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I bet Nemo loves to sit on your keyboard when you're trying to type.

[–] mastertigurius@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

He'll lie down between my arms and rest his head on my lower arm while my hands are on the keyboard. Good touch typing practice, as I can't see the keys.