You can now control your Lutron Caséta lighting system with your Amazon Echo

Lutron has partnered with Amazon to bring Alexa voice control to the Luton Caséta Wireless smart lighting system. This lets you use your Amazon Echo or other Alexa-enabled device to control your connected Lutron switches and dimmers. You can control the lights in a given room, or throughout your home.

Owners of Alexa-enabled products, such as the Echo and Echo Dot, or the Amazon Fire TV, already enjoy some control over connected home products. You can use Alexa to control some Insteon products, as well as your Nest Thermostat.

Press release:

Caséta® Wireless Smart Home Lighting Control System by Lutron Now Works with Amazon Alexa

Voice commands will turn lights on, off, or to a preset level   Coopersburg, PA (April 7, 2016) – Lighting control pioneer Lutron Electronics is proud to announce the integration of its affordably-priced Caséta Wireless system with Amazon Alexa, providing convenient voice control of home lighting. Caséta Wireless gives homeowners the ability to control lights from anywhere inside or outside the home using the free Lutron app, the Lutron Pico® remote control, and select third-party devices. And now customers with an Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, or Amazon Fire TV can control their Caséta Wireless system using their voice.   The integration of Caséta Wireless with Alexa-enabled devices is an ideal match – Alexa-enabled devices are used in the areas where people spend the majority of their time, like the family room and kitchen. Whether you’re watching TV, helping the kids with homework or crafts, or enjoying a quiet dinner, all of these events are more relaxing and comfortable in the right light, which can be easily controlled by the sound of your voice or the tap of a button.    “Asking Alexa to control your lights is undeniably powerful and can simplify things like coming home with arms full of kids, pets and groceries,” said Matt Swatsky, director of product management at Lutron, who also noted the product’s usefulness to the aging in place community.    “For some people, this technology restores the freedoms once taken for granted – like freely moving about to alter the lights. Smart home products are not just about the wow factor anymore – they’re about changing peoples’ lives.”    “Using your voice to control smart home devices like Lutron’s Caséta Wireless system is both easy and natural with the magic of far-field voice recognition on Echo,” said Charlie Kindel, Director, Amazon Alexa Smart Home. “We’re excited that Lutron customers can now control their lights simply by asking Alexa.”   Introduced in 2014, the reliable, affordable Caséta Wireless has helped homeowners and professionals alike overcome two common smart home lighting hurdles – compatibility with LEDs and installation challenges. Due to its unique dimmer design, a neutral wire is not required for in-wall installation – a challenge faced by people living in homes built before 1965. Not needing a neutral wire saves homeowners the cost and hassle of adding one.   And according to Swatsky, the system’s powerful Pico remote, which can be mounted to a wall without wiring or affixed to a tabletop pedestal, is ideal for times when talking to Alexa just isn’t possible, like when kids are sleeping or you’re in the middle of an important phone call. “Lutron has worked hard to make sure all situations are covered,” he said.

[custom:amazonecho]

Where’s my Vive? HTC drops an FAQ to help answer that question

To help answer some of the questions surrounding HTC Vive shipments, the company has created an FAQ site with lots of answers. From information about when units will ship to delay issues, if you ordered a Vive you will want to check this out. Anytime you order something online, you want to be able to access information about the order progress, see when it will ship, and have a full understanding of what is going on. HTC answers some of the popular questions in a new FAQ.

When is my expected delivery date?

Your Vive system will be shipped in the month noted in your order confirmation email. When your purchase has been completed and your order has been shipped, you will receive a separate shipment notification email, which includes a tracking number.

I paid for express shipping, but I received economy shipping. Why?

We will be issuing a refund of the shipping cost difference to all customers who paid for express shipping but received economy shipping. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Is HTC communicating with customers affected by order processing issues?

We are contacting customers affected by order processing issues through multiple channels – directly with customers and through updates on the blog here.

If you have questions about the status of your Vive order, be sure to check out all the information from HTC to get your answers.

Marvel’s Avengers Academy — A 30 day followup

Marvel lets you build your own Academy and it’s a ton of fun.

I got caught up in Avengers Academy almost as soon as it came out. When I sat down to write about it, it had only been available for a few days though so there hadn’t been much time to really delve in and decide if this was a game I could enjoy in the long haul. There were some serious questions about whether the in-app purchases were too steep, and whether the game expected you to grind through quests in order to level up.

Here’s where I am 30 days later.

One of the initial questions that I had was whether the entire game would feel like grinding. Getting through the first few levels was nearly painful, until I started to gather more students at the Academy. Since you level up by storing xp collected by completing quests, the early game is slow. You have access to fewer characters, buildings, and actions. As you build up your Academy, level up your existing heroes, and invite new heroes to the campus this becomes much, much easier. At that point the feeling that you’re grinding fades away.

I’ve found that your best bet for getting the most coin is to run through all the short and easy quests, until higher level quests with better rewards show up on the bulletin board. That’s a pretty simplistic way to put it, because as you play through you’ll end up with tons of quests making it more difficult to parse which ones should be done first. Still, the law of low-hanging fruit applies here. There are also character or scenario specific quests that further the storyline in Avengers Academy, rather than just giving you more coin and XP. More difficult quests take more time, but they also give you an exponentially better reward in the process.

In the last 30 days we’ve seen multiple events launch, each offering something unique and interesting.

One thing that Avengers Academy really loves, is running limited time events. These events run from a few days, to a few weeks and give you the chance to pick up some awesome limited time characters, and items. In the last 30 days we’ve seen three different events launch, each offering something unique and interesting. The last one gave you the option of acquiring Pepper Potts as a playable character — complete with RESCUE armor — and right now there is a 3 week long Guardians of the Galaxy event running. Each event offers some different perks, specific in-app purchases, and new characters.

Each event works in a similar fashion, without being actually identical. There are specific quests, and items you’ll need to collect in order to complete them. Most of these quests will trigger story shorts that explain what’s going on and lead to the next quest in the chain. If you successfully complete the string of quests, you’ll be able to bring new characters into your roster. These quests aren’t necessarily easy though, not by a long shot. You only have so much time to complete everything, and many quests may take 8 hours — and multiple characters to complete. This doesn’t mean you’re tethered to your screen for 8 hours, just that you need to check in a few times in that window.

Now of course in a game this size, and free to play, there are in fact in-app purchases. Marvel Avengers Academy never really tells you that you need to buy in-game items. Instead they’ll tell you about a new character, or item and when you check out that character you’ll see it requires several hundred shards to purchase. You’ll never pick up that many shards in game, which means your only option to acquire special characters like Vision, requires an in-app purchase to get. You can also purchase more coins, which are needed for upgrades to characters and buildings alike.

You can also speed up quest completion times, building upgrade times, and use them to fill in the gap of items you need when inviting new characters to the academy, all using shards. You won’t get many of these shards organically, but a few will pop up when you go up a level. 100 shards is the smallest number you can buy at a time, up to 7,000 shards, these purchases run anywhere from $1.99 to $99.99. Special characters run for several hundred shards each, so it works out to be about $10 for each special character that you purchase this way.

While you can certainly pony up the cash to purchase coins, I haven’t found it to be necessary.

Thankfully, coins are much easier to come by. While you certainly can pony up the cash to purchase coins, I haven’t found it to be necessary. Most quests that you complete will reward with coins. In the beginning these amounts are fairly small, but as you upgrade your characters they will earn more coins from each quest that you complete. That means that just by playing the game, you’ll earn plenty of coins. This doesn’t mean that you’ll have all the coins that you ever need though. Making strategic choices about when and how you spend the coins you’ve earned is definitely you’ll need to do.

Avengers Academy has easily become one of the games that I keep playing. I’ve wandered away for a few days at a time, but I always find myself coming back again. The events continually add new, if temporary, ways to play the game. I’m still miles away from exploring everything the game has to offer, and I’m enjoying watching as the story unfolds. Marvel Avengers Academy is a fun twist on a genre of game I’ve never enjoyed overmuch, the town builder game. With a story to entice you to keep playing, and plenty to do, this is one game I’ll be playing for quite a while.

Android Studio 2.0 is now available for developers with Instant Run, faster emulations and more

Google has officially released Android Studio 2.0 for developers with a number of new features. In this release, developers will have access to Instant Run, which will increase their build speeds for testing apps. In addition, the emulator runs around 3 times faster, there is Cloud Test Lab integration and more. Some of the biggest changes in Android Studio 2.0, as detailed by Google, include:

• Instant Run – For every developer who loves faster build speeds. Make changes and see them appear live in your running app. With many build/run accelerations ranging from VM hot swapping to warm swapping app resources, Instant Run will save you time every day.
• Android Emulator – The new emulator runs ~3x faster than Android’s previous emulator, and with ADB enhancements you can now push apps and data 10x faster to the emulator than to a physical device. Like a physical device, the official Android emulator also includes Google Play Services built-in, so you can test out more API functionality. Finally, the new emulator has rich new features to manage calls, battery, network, GPS, and more.
• Cloud Test Lab Integration – Write once, run anywhere. Improve the quality of your apps by quickly and easily testing on a wide range of physical Android devices in the Cloud Test Lab right from within Android Studio.
• App Indexing Code Generation & Test – Help promote the visibility your app in Google Search for your users by adding auto-generated URLS with the App Indexing feature in Android Studio. With a few click you can add indexable URL links that you can test all within the IDE.
• GPU Debugger Preview – For those of you developing OpenGL ES based games or apps, you can now see each frame and the GL state with the new GPU debugger. Uncover and diagnosis GL rendering issues by capturing and analyzing the GPU stream from your Android device.
• IntelliJ 15 Update – Android Studio is built on the world class Intellij coding platform. Check out the latest Intellij features here.

To get started with the update, simply launch your existing install of Android Studio, or you can grab the download right from Google.

Cablevision customers can access Hulu like any other channel

Almost a year ago, Cablevision announced plans to become the first cable provider to offer Hulu through its regular service. Today, the on-demand streaming option is finally being added to Optimum TV on the company’s current-gen set-top boxes. What’s more, customers can access Hulu’s library of content just like any other channel. From there, users can browse the full collection of content in further detail. To get Hulu to its customer’s set-top boxes, Cablevision is leveraging ActiveVideo’s CloudTV StreamCast technology. If you’ll recall, Netflix already made the leap to some cable boxes with its lineup of streaming content.

“We are thrilled that Optimum customers can now access Hulu’s content library without having to leave their cable TV environment,” said Hulu SVP Tim Connolly.

Offering a portal to the streaming service without having to leave the regular channel lineup certainly seems convenient, especially for folks using a game console or mobile device to access movies and shows. There’s no mention of alternate pricing, so it looks like the regular $8/month rate for limited commercials and commercial-free $12/month plans still apply. Customers who already have a Hulu account can navigate to the dedicated channel to log in or sync their account via the Optimum website. Folks who don’t have one can take advantage of a free trial by registering through Optimum to get access to the monthly subscription. Unlike its “Cord Cutter” plans, Hulu doesn’t come bundled with a digital antenna and internet service like the cable company did with HBO Now.

GarageBand for Mac Updated With Music Memos Support, 2,600 New Apple Loops and Sounds

Apple today updated GarageBand for Mac, improving compatibility with GarageBand for iOS and Live Loops projects. The update also includes support for Music Memos projects, allowing them to be opened in GarageBand, and it offers support for Logic Remote for iPhone and iPad Pro.

The Music Memos app, designed for musicians and songwriters, was introduced in January alongside a GarageBand for iOS update that brought the Live Loops feature. Live Loops is a new GarageBand interface that lets users create music by tapping on a grid-like arrangement to trigger different looped instruments and samples.

Along with these features, it adds more than 2,600 new Apple Loops and sounds to the app, adding more variety and options for song and music creation. There are also improvements to reliability when downloading content and enhancements to Accessibility.

What’s New
– Updates compatibility with GarageBand for iOS and Live Loops projects
– Opens Music Memos projects
– Supports Logic Remote for iPhone and iPad Pro
– Adds over 2,600 new Apple Loops and sounds
– Improved reliability when downloading additional content
– Contains multiple enhancements to Accessibility

In addition to GarageBand, Apple has also released a minor update for MainStage 3, designed to address overall stability and performance issues.

GarageBand can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]

MainStage 3 can be downloaded from the App Store for $29.99. [Direct Link]
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New Apple Watch Hermès bands announced, complete colletion to be sold separately

Apple has announced that from 19 April anyone will be able to get their hands on new and previously released Hermès straps for the Apple Watch, as they will be sold individually.

Until now the only way to sport an Hermès Apple Watch strap was to buy the whole setup, watch and all.

Plenty of options will be available to buy including a selection of Hermès Single Tour and Double Tour Bands plus an Hermès Cuff.

Adding to the styles introduced initially will be new bands in the same style. All the bands, new and previously released, will be available separately for the first time.

Apple

The Apple Watch Hermès Single Tour Band will cost £270 and be available in both 38mm and 42mm in Fauve Barenia, Noir Box, Blanc Epsom, Bleu Saphir and Feu Epsom. In 38mm only will be the Capucine Swift and in 42mm only will be the Etain Swift and Bleu Pacon Epsom.

The Apple Watch Hermès Double Tour Band will cost £420 and be available at 38mm in Fauve Barenia, Etain Swift, Capucine Swift, Bleu Jean Swift, Bleu Paon Epsom, Bleu Saphir Epsom, Blanc Epsom and Feu Epsom. It will come in 38mm and XL for the Fauve Barenia.

The Apple Watch Hermès Cuff will sell for £670 and come in Fauve Barenia in 42mm only.

All the the Apple Watch Hermès straps will be available to buy from 19 April.

READ: Apple iPhone 7 may censor your music to stop swearing

Apple

Nintendo NX: Release date, specs and everything you need to know

There’s no hiding from the fact that Nintendo has suffered some rocky times over the last couple of years. The Wii U is shaping up to be the company’s biggest console flop to date (excluding the odd and not widely available Virtual Boy) and its more recent financial results have made for uneasy reading, even for die-hard fans.

Not all is lost, however.

Although the Wii U has failed to shift in significant numbers, it has still been home to some incredible games over its three-and-a-half year lifespan. And that gives hope that Nintendo still knows how to cut it in the home. That particular machine might have failed to ignite mass consumer interest, but its licences and games are still as popular as ever.

Which is why Nintendo is not giving up the ghost quite yet. It will have at least one more stab at the home console market in the shape of the illusive Nintendo NX.

The company has to get it right this time or Sony and Microsoft will be left to share the gaming market between them, but if there was ever a firm that oozed optimism from every pore the home of Mario is surely it.

So here is what we currently know about Nintendo’s most important kit launch in years, based on rumour and speculation. We’ll update as new information comes to light, but here’s everything you need to know for now.

What is Nintendo NX?

While under a lot of pressure about falling financial forecasts and the failure of the Wii U in sales terms – and also while we were ironically travelling to Germany to play the excellent Splatoon before its release – the late Satoru Iwata revealed his company was working on a new games console.

Codenamed Nintendo NX (but reported to be “Project NX” originally), the new console was said to be “a brand-new concept”.

“As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename ‘NX’. It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year,” Iwata said.

Sadly, he passed away last summer, so would not get to deliver that machine himself.

Other than those comments, nothing more has officially been revealed about the machine. Instead, we’re expected to find out more later this year.

Nintendo NX release date

When it was first announced last year, it was revealed that we would find out more “in 2016”. That lead many to believe that Nintendo would use the E3 videogames show in Los Angeles in June to first show the device, much like it did the Wii U originally.

Since that launch, however, Nintendo ditched its annual E3 press conferences in favour of the cheaper, more effective Nintendo Direct online video streams. It is now thought, therefore, that it will not show or announce anything on the NX at E3 at all. Instead, it will present a special Nintendo Direct at a different time – maybe even in April, if some reports are to be believed. 

In terms of release date, there are two schools of thought. Originally it was thought to be coming in 2017, but more recently suggestions are that the console could be rush released to balance the books, with Nintendo aiming to capitalise on the Christmas market this year.

Nintendo NX price

Without even seeing the console yet it is impossible to know how much the Nintendo NX is likely to cost. However, we can take a punt at an estimate based on the prices of former Nintendo consoles on launch over the years.

The Nintendo Wii U, for example, cost $300 when first released in the US. The Wii cost $250, the GameCube $200, as did the N64, SNES and NES.

Nintendo has always aimed to be more family friendly than rivals with its games machines, so traditionally prices them lower to attract a wider userbase. But that usually comes with caveats.

The tech specs of the Wii U, for example, are less attractive than those of the Xbox One and PS4, which came just one year later. That kept the cost down but seemingly at the price of adoption.

Instead, we feel that Nintendo will ensure its next, make-or-break console will be highly spec’ed and will come with a price tag to match. Expect it to be at least $400. That would also make sense in the natural increases for each Nintendo console generation anyway.

Nintendo NX design

The biggest rumour about the Nintendo NX that has been circulating for almost a year is that the console comprises two parts. The original rumour stated that it will be a home and handheld games console.

The idea is that you can play a game at home on the big screen and then carry on with your progress when out and about too.

However, more recent noise coming out from Reddit and other sources claim that it is a home games console only, albeit that it will come with a couple of “gimmicks” – it is a Nintendo console after all.

What it will look like is currently unknown, although some concept artists have been having fun with different ideas.

Mesut G Designs

Most of them show an oblong machine with slightly curved edges, much like the bit of the Wii U you barely see. Somehow we doubt that, but until there’s reports to the contrary, those are seemingly sticking.

Another concept design that did the rounds recently was that of a prospective controller. It was actually published by many sites, including Dual Pixels, as being a leaked shot, but turned out to be fake.

Dual Pixels

Like many concepts though, there is some basis for its look and design. Nintendo was found to have filed patents with the US Patent office for a control device that formed an oval and had a capacitive touchscreen on the front. You can find the pdf of the patent application with images here.

Free Patents Online

New rumours also suggest that there could be more than one controller available, which wouldn’t exactly be a departure for Nintendo considering there often is with a new console launch.

Nintendo NX hardware and specifications

As there are development kits thought to be out there, amongst the studios, some hardware specifications rumours have been doing the rounds.

An official survey, commissioned by Nintendo, suggested that games will run at 900p and in 60 frames per second, while it will also be capable of 4K Ultra HD video streaming.

There is a word of caution however, as surveys can often throw misinformation at the person partaking in order to gauge reaction to possible rather than definitive features. And as the same GfK release stated that the Nintendo NX would have gameplay that flowed “between Nintendo NX console and Nintendo NX handheld device” – something since debunked – there seems to be a lot of smoke and mirrors surrounding this particular source.

The 4K part has been repeated elsewhere though, with some thinking that it goes beyond video streaming and the console might even upscale games footage to 4K. Even in that case, games will still run in 1080p at best, however.

Other rumoured spec (as reported by Nintendo Insider) include an AMD GPU and “between 6GB and 8GB of RAM”. However, these come from Reddit user untypedhero, who claims to be a Nintendo employee or close to the company. Reddit has apparently verified his validity, but there is still come doubt as to his credentials, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Nintendo NX software

An interesting rumour that emerged in the middle of last year is that the Nintendo NX operating system will be based on Android.

This was based on the fact that the company is working with mobile gaming platform company DeNA on its mobile applications, which started recently with Miitomo.

To be honest, we’ve not heard much recently to back up the claim, so it might be a rumour that has faded since.

Nintendo NX games

The strongest two rumours surrounding games for the new console are that the long-awaited, much-delayed Wii U Zelda might never appear for the Wii U after all, and that Unreal Engine 4 will be used for some games – most likely third party ones.

The latter would be amazing as it seems that the Nintendo NX will be at least as powerful, graphically, as the PS4 and Xbox One.

Indeed, independent coders have recreated a couple of games demos in Unreal Engine 4 recently to give an idea what a typical Nintendo title could look like using the graphics engine.

Our particular favourite is a level of the classic Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time recreated using UE4 by YouTuber CryZENx. It is quite simply superb.

Other games so far speculated to be coming for the Nintendo NX include a new Mario title that will be a bit like Mario Sunshine – although we’re not sure if that’s more wishful thinking than fact.

We will update this round-up as and when we hear more rumours, substantiated and otherwise. Hopefully, you’ll return often.

Rhapsody’s Listener Network makes finding new music easier

All of the big music services have pretty much the same catalog, high profile holdouts like Taylor Swift aside. At this point, most of the innovation happening in streaming music is around trying to surface songs from those massive catalogs that users haven’t heard before. Apple Music has its curated editors playlists, Spotify has Discover Weekly, Google Play Music has its Songza-powered radio stations, and now Rhapsody (aka Napster) is ready to unveil its own solution. It’s called the Listener Network, and it leverages all the info the company has about what music its users play to find new songs and albums you might enjoy.

That data is used to find you new music to listen to in a variety of ways, one of the most important of which is called Music Match. This looks at everything you’ve added to your library as well as everything you’ve favorited and compares that listening history with other users. So now, when you click on a user, you’ll see a “match” percentage telling you how much your musical tastes overlap. Someone with a 15 percent match you probably won’t be interested in following, but someone with a 75 percent match seems a lot more likely to surface music you’ll care about. (I confirmed that someone with a 95 percent match probably won’t have a lot new for you to discover; Rhapsody will use its algorithms to surface people who have high match ratings that still have some room for finding new songs.)

Naturally, you won’t have to go hunting for users to follow. For starters, Rhapsody will offer a playlist specifically containing music from people with high Music Match scores, and all of the songs on it will be things you haven’t yet played. When you click on songs in the playlist, you’ll be able to drill down to the user that Rhapsody’s algorithms pulled the song from. From there, you can start following that new user if you want to see more of their musical tendencies in your feeds. You can also get a similar playlist but only based on music trending from people you already follow, if you want to play it safe. When you’re visiting the profile of any user that you have a good music match with, you can also listen to a “matched playlist” of songs based on your similar tastes.

These trending playlists feel like an answer to Spotify’s aforementioned Discover Weekly feature, which surfaces a playlist of new songs you might be interested in every Monday. But while it’s not entirely clear how Spotify pulls together that list for you, Rhapsody wants you to be able to see every listener using the service and how their tastes influence what you’re hearing. And to one-up Spotify, those playlists are updated every single day, so there’s always a fresh stream of songs coming in both from users you directly follow as well as users who you might not know with tastes that intersect.

Rhapsody gave me a preview build of the app for iOS, but unfortunately I haven’t used the service enough for it to surface any meaningful recommendations or playlists. But, it seems like a smart and unique feature that most other music services in the market don’t have. Spotify makes it easy to see exactly what everyone you follow is listening to at a given moment, but trying to get a holistic overview of what’s trending amongst those friends is more of a challenge — and it’s also not that easy to find users who have similar tastes.

The notion of surfacing what’s trending amongst your entire listener network actually feels a lot like a feature the dearly departed Rdio used to offer — it was dead simple to start a station based on what was trending in your network, and Rdio was also very good at suggesting albums based on the listening habits of your friends. As someone who misses Rdio quite a bit, I could definitely see this feature being useful. Of course, for starters, you’ll need to both build up a listening history and find some friends; I have no listening history on Rhapsody right now, and none of my Facebook friends use the service. But for the 3.5 million current Rhapsody subscribers out there, this has the potential to be a solid set of new discovery features. I plan to spend some time with Rhapsody to build up a listening history over the next few weeks and see just how good it can get at helping me on the never-ending quest for new tunes.

Adidas tries to make buying Yeezys fair, but misses the mark

Buying Yeezy Boost sneakers online is tough. It comes down to this: Supply cannot meet demand. The shortage is so acute that if you don’t buy them at launch for retail price — between $200 and $350, depending on the model — you’ll have to pay upwards of $2,000 on eBay or another site to get your hands on a pair. Reselling Yeezys has become a business, and both Adidas and Nike (with its retro Jordans) are turning to tech to make the shopping experience fair and safe for everyone.

Unfortunately, leveling the playing field for customers is easier said than done. Right now, Adidas releases the highly coveted Kanye West-designed shoes on its website and through its “Confirmed” app, which lets iOS and Android users in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City reserve a pair for pickup at a nearby retail store. The problem with these methods is that once Adidas takes to Twitter to announce the sneakers are up for grabs, the company struggles to keep up with the heavy online traffic that follows. Seriously, you probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting to the purchase or reservation page.

The Yeezy Boost 350 “Pirate Black.” [Image credit: Arturo Avila/Flickr]

To keep it fair and, most importantly, stop resellers from hoarding all the stock, Adidas limits Yeezy Boost purchases to one per customer. At least that’s what the company’s website claims. But, as Adidas searches for the right formula to contain people looking to make a profit, the sportswear juggernaut appears to be hurting honest buyers in the process. Judging from personal experience, Adidas is going beyond the one-per-customer restriction on the site. Its checkout system is blocking the use of duplicate credit cards as well as email, billing, shipping and, interestingly enough, IP addresses on any Yeezy order.

Sure, you can argue that’s a reasonable way to give everyone a fair chance to buy the shoes. However, that becomes a problem if you have other people living under the same roof. For example, during the latest Yeezy Boost 350 “Pirate Black” release, on February 19th, I had been waiting almost two hours for Adidas to flip the switch on the launch. After it did, it took another hour to finally pick my size, enter personal info and, lastly, check out. Still, by no means was that a smooth experience, as the site kept crashing, leading to what seemed like a never-ending loop of page refreshes. Until then, I had never been able to buy a pair of Yeezys from the Adidas site.

At the same time, next to me in my apartment was my wife, who also wanted a pair for herself. Like me, she had waited hours to see that rare sight: Adidas’ checkout page on Yeezy Boost day. But that Friday, she did. As she entered her information, her face radiating, she clicked that glorious “Check Out Now” button, only to be denied. We stared at each other, trying to figure out what we did wrong. The credit card numbers were right and so was the billing address. I called Adidas customer service to try and figure out why her order didn’t go through.

A sold-out message on Adidas’ website.

On the phone, an Adidas representative told me her order was blocked because the same credit card had been used for another Yeezy Boost order — the one I had placed minutes before. To be safe, before attempting again, the rep suggested changing any other information that may be the same. So we entered our debit card number instead and a different shipping address; the billing address had to stay the same, otherwise the bank would block the transaction. That didn’t work either. I called again and another representative — one who claimed to work “closely” with the Adidas Originals team, the group in charge of the Yeezy Boost brand — said the system was likely blocking my IP address since I had already placed an order.

In other words, Yeezy Boost sales aren’t one-per-customer, but rather one-per-IP address. That’s bizarre. While Adidas may have good intentions (read: slow down resellers), it seems as if the company didn’t stop to think about families in single households. But the problem goes beyond the husband and wife who want the same sneaker: What about people who live in dorms, or people with roommates? One solution, in cases like these, could be that one person uses a home WiFi signal and the other a hotspot device, which would relay a different IP address. But most people don’t have that option.

All told, we ended up with roughly $800 in pending charges from Adidas, due to the failed orders, and only one pair of Yeezys.

Jaime Rojas, a retail associate at The Mag Park, an apparel boutique in Burbank, California, doesn’t see a problem with the company’s approach. “Adidas isn’t doing anything wrong in particular,” he says. “They have released the most popular shoes of the past year, so the demand is just so big that it’s bound to happen, and people will [complain] and get mad at something Adidas has no real control of.” Rojas notes he could be considered a reseller, since he’s purchased Yeezys in the past and sold them for a profit. “There’s no right or wrong thing these companies are doing. It’s just hard to try to figure out how to control [resellers], which is kind of impossible,” he added.

@adidasoriginals I got to the checkout page and then the website crashed!!! Adidas you robbed me out of my pair!!! pic.twitter.com/ZgFLLe44KX

— Ezekiel Roman (@Eazy3445) February 19, 2016

Other interested consumers had it worse, though. If you look at the replies to this Adidas tweet, in which it let followers know that the Yeezy Boost 350 had sold out, you’ll find a barrage of angry replies and sad memes — including, yes, the notorious “crying Jordan.” It took less than two hours for Adidas to sell however many Yeezys it made available that day.

When I asked Adidas for comment, the company neither confirmed nor denied that its online system was blocking IP addresses. That said, an Adidas Originals spokesperson did give Engadget the following statement:

“The Yeezy Boost franchise is experiencing unprecedented demand from customers worldwide and Adidas Originals continues efforts to provide an amazing purchase experience. After every limited release, we work to improve our back-end and front-end systems to accommodate the growing demand — a commitment squarely focused around providing a fair and unbiased purchase experience. Adidas Originals continues to develop programs like Adidas Confirmed which is a revolutionary tool meant to automate the sneaker lottery system, but we are aware that not all demand can be supplied. We value feedback from customers — good or bad — on their purchase experience, as it only helps to improve the system moving forward.”

Kanye West wearing Yeezy Boost 750s. [Image credit: Getty Images]

Last year, Brandon Beaty, director of brand communications at Adidas Originals, told me the business strategy around Yeezy Boost was a work in progress. “One thing we could do, is you make more product available and then it doesn’t sell out as quickly,” he said. “That’s not something strategically that you just turn the faucet on right away. We have a plan; we’re going to build that business, in a very smart way over time.” Of course, you can always buy at launch from third-party retailers, such as EastBay, FinishLine and FootLocker, but those websites are riddled with bots. That’s one of the reasons Adidas created the Confirmed app.

. @Adidas is making a million Yeezys this year, opening up new factories…

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) March 9, 2016

As for Adidas’ own site, one of the customer service reps I spoke with put it simply. “I don’t think our website has the capabilities of handling this [Yeezy Boost releases],” she said. For sneakerheads who want Yeezys in their collection, though, there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Back in March, Kanye West said in a tweet Adidas was “making a million Yeezys this year,” which would help meet part of the insane demand for them.

But then again, he also said The Life of Pablo would never hit Apple Music and we all know how that turned out. Take that as you will.