Many devices nowadays won't work unless they can contact the manufacturer's server.

For example, you can buy wifi-enabled SD cards for your digital camera. Unfortunately, you can't transfer files directly from the camera to the computer to use in your favorite editing app because the card requires you to connect to a particular server which automatically uploads your photos to their service and you then have to re-download them to your computer if you want them locally.

This is where manufacturers are trying to lead us. They want users to be locked in to their service any time we purchase one of their devices.

It just seems like a matter of time before most people feel like I do about this: once you've had a device or two bricked because the manufacturer went out of business or just doesn't feel like supporting it is worth their while any more, this simply becomes an unacceptable condition for a product.

Unfortunately, the more probable reaction will be "Why are you using the X device anyway, don't you know it's three years old already? Y has been on the market for months, just buy it and enjoy"

The nest camera is a good example of this. You must be connected to the internet, and the (paid)nest service to view video from the webcam. If your internet connection goes out the webcam is unusable.

But interestingly the Chinese competition from Xiaomi has a hybrid model - it can be set up to record everything onto a micro-sd card, which it does whether or not it's connected to their servers. If it is, you can can then view a live stream on your phone (and get notifications for motion, etc), or shuttle back through the recorded video on the card in the camera. I am actually happier to be spied on by Xiaomi, I doubt they would share anything with various TLAs in the US somehow... (mine is watching my front yard, too, not especially sensitive).