Bought a "smart" umbrella off a Kickstarter that claimed it could predict rain within 15 minutes

Paid $65 for that thing and it never once alerted me before a storm, plus the app crashed every time I tried to sync it, has anyone else gotten burned by a dumb weather gadget?

3 comments

3 Comments

sagey692mo ago

Got burned by a similar Kickstarter umbrella last year that was supposed to tell me UV levels along with rain. Thing straight up told me it was sunny when it was pouring outside, battery died after two weeks. What actually worked was just using the regular Weather app on my phone with a cheap collapse umbrella I got for like $12 at Target. Sometimes the simple stuff just works better lol.

the_james2mo ago

$12 Target umbrella? That's wild because I spent like $40 on some brand name one that broke after three months, so you definitely found the sweet spot there. The whole "smart" umbrella thing feels like someone in marketing just threw random buzzwords at a whiteboard and called it innovation. Honestly my phone's weather app is already smarter than most of these gadgets, plus I can close it without worrying about the battery dying.

margaretf402mo ago

The moment I saw "smart umbrella" I knew it was gonna be a scam. $65 for something that can't even do its one job is just throwing money away. Honestly kickstarter gadgets are mostly vaporware or garbage. The app crashing is the cherry on top of a bad idea. People need to stop chasing "smart" versions of things that already work fine.