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Just JD Howard he wanted to see cloud security tutorials. Howard, a construction worker on the sabbatical, spent $ 4,000 on a NordicTrack X32i tape, which attracted his 32-inch HD screens and body and head work options. His intention was to spend his time doing exercises outside of work while watching technical videos from learning platforms like Pluralsight and Udemy. But his tape had other ideas.
Despite being tied to a big screen, NordicTrack’s hardware encourages people to subscribe to the exercise software managed by iFit, their parent company, and doesn’t let you watch videos from other apps or external sources. The content of iFit includes exercise classes and running tracks, which automatically change the inclination of the tape according to the ground on the screen. But Howard, and many other NordicTrack owners, weren’t attracted to the hardware in iFit’s videos. They were attracted to the ease of hacking fitness machines.
To access the X32i, Howard simply had to press the touch screen 10 times, wait seven seconds and press 10 times more. By doing so, the machine was unlocked, allowing Howard to enter the Android operating system below. This way of privilege, a kind of way for God, gave Howard complete control over the tape: he could load the app side by side and, using an integrated browser, access anything and everything on the network. “It wasn’t complicated,” Howard says. After logging in as a privilege, he installed a third-party browser that allowed him to save passwords and turn on his beloved cloud security videos.
Although NordicTrack does not advertise the privilege mode as a customer function, its existence is no secret. Many unofficial guides tell people how to access their machines, as well as iFit help pages how to enter. The whole reason Howard bought the X32i, he says, was that he could enter it as God. But the good times did not last long.
Since October, NordicTrack has been automatically updating all of its exercise equipment – with its bikes, ellipticals and rowing machines attached to large screens – to block access to privileged mode. The move has angered customers who are now struggling and finding solutions to avoid what they want while they avoid updating and working.
“I got exactly what I paid for,” says Howard, who had a “rough” screenless tape before buying a model connected to the Internet and is also a subscriber to iFit software. “They’re trying to get rid of it now [features] which are of critical importance to me. I don’t agree with that. ‘
Another NordicTrack owner, who asked not to be named, says it is one of the most expensive purchases the tape has ever made and was “outraged” when the update stopped him and his partner from watching Netflix, YouTube and England’s top Premier League football. while they worked. “Actually, you’ve pushed for an update to stop doing this, and that’s really weird,” he says. “It’s so disappointing because this beautiful screen is here.”
They are not alone in their complaints. In recent weeks multiple threads and messages deplores The decision by NordicTrack and iFit to block privilege mode has surfaced online. Customers complain that they have spent thousands of dollars on their machines and should be able to do what they want with them, arguing that being able to watch many of their favorite sessions means spending more time training. Some say they valued the ability to stream iFit exercise videos to a larger screen; others say they want to use tapes for Zoom calls. Many complain that, unlike previous software updates, they were forced to lock the privilege mode.
“The lock was automatically installed as a privilege because we believe it improves safety and security while using fitness equipment with multiple moving parts,” says a spokesperson for NordicTrack and iFit. The company has never marketed its products as they are capable of accessing other applications, the spokesman added. “Since there is no way to know what changes or errors the consumer may make in the software, there is no way to know what specific problems access to the privilege may cause,” the spokesperson says. “Therefore, in order to maintain safety, security and functionality of the machines, we have restricted access as a privilege.” The spokesman also stressed that the privilege mode “has never been designed as a functionality for consumers”. Instead, it was designed to allow the company’s customer service team to access products remotely, “to fix, update, reset or repair our software”.
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