If that's the one, then it's a different thing than what I was thinking. I initially thought this was about a product review of a Wifi router which can't hide its SSID.

But if it's really about that "Wink" thing, then that's a different deal: It's a device that is expected to connect *to* a Wifi router, and if the router's SSID is hidden then it won't work.

Looking at the thing, it looks like it's designed mainly to be used with the little "magic button" connect method, aka "WPS" (WiFi Protected Setup). I wonder, does WPS itself even support hidden SSIDs? In other words, if I have a router with a hidden SSID and some WPS-capable device other than the Wink trying to connect to that router, and I press the magic button on both of them, should I expect them to pair up? Or should I expect the pairing to fail because the SSID is hidden? My googling isn't coming up with immediate answers to that question.

If WPS supports hidden SSIDs, yet this little "Wink" thing doesn't, then fuck 'em, zero stars review. This is a product that's meant to CONNECT EASILY TO OTHER PRODUCTS. That's the point of the thing. It's Wink's fault if that doesn't work. There are legitimate standard-practice reasons to hide an SSID (even if hiding doesn't prevent penetration), and it's not up to Wink to force someone to unhide their SSID and change their network organization just so their little POS will work. Jesus, just fix it, guys.

If WPS doesn't support hidden SSIDs to begin with, then it's not Wink's fault, my review would mention the limitation but it would not dock them any stars for it.