This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
This week Amazon starting pushing ads to customers paying extra for ad-free Prime Video.
Corporations are now so powerful they don't have to abide by reasonable norms, contracts, or laws any longer. Any fines are just a cost of doing business and are a small fraction of the profits they generate.
What are customers going to do anyway? Go to other businesses that are doing the exact same things on different days?
People should give up streaming subscriptions. How long would it take to learn how to get movies another way, from a friend who is already doing it.
People dont even own their media anymore and it can be removed at any time. And they are paying for that. Lols.
We'll kick piracy into high gear.
Then they'll make any ISPs suspecting people of piracy to be forcibly shut off.
The real question is what will we do then?
Installing spyware and wire taps in my home was never appealing to me.
AND not even being paid for doing so. But paying for instead. that's the most bizarre part of it.
it doesn't take much critical thinking to conclude that smart tvs are bullshit, but apparently too much for most people
Even worse than not-really-understanding-any-of-it is the wilful ignorance shown by some. "I have nothing to hide" is the epitome of obedient worker-ant stupidity.
My pet pony keeps shitting on the floor.
I am very frustrated and did not expect it.
I should sell it off and buy a horse instead.
Ponies are supposed to shit. It’s more like if the pony came strapped with ill-fitting saddlebags that leak toxic chemicals.
... and all the actual tech nerds who told everyone they should avoid smart devices like the plague laugh and laugh...
And the pro tech nerds who told everyone to use local-only, non proprietary smart devices so they can still have a secure, ad-free smarthome laugh as we walk through the house without ever touching light switches.
Exactly. It's not the smart part of a device that is the problem. That's an extreme overreaction.
The problem with most smart devices today is that they are proprietary, non-fully libre and open source, for-profit, cloud-connected, corporate committee designed spyware, adware, and bloatware.
Devices that are fully FLOSS (firmware, hardware, software) and based on open and free standards and protocols are awesome, but they get easily forgotten.
The Internet and your technology can be so much better. Demand it.
I get that we should expect shit like this from Amazon but at the same time, they bought something and the maker completely changed how the device worked after they bought it.
I’d be pissed too. We have to hold these companies accountable.
Yeah, they totally deserve to be sued and pay a $5 fee as punishment.
That will teach them!
I'm kind of glad that I don't mind flipping switches and pressing buttons. I've never felt the need for a smart home, so this stuff hasn't affected me much personally.
Home assistant is the way to go, all run locally on a homePC, I have ZigBee lights and switches automated
An example is my front deck lights turn on at sundown, at 10% brightness, at 11;00 pm they drop to 1%.
If motion is detected they brighten up for a bit. On holidays they have appropriate RFB effects.
All of this is automated, none of it talks to the internet.
My current project is making a harry potter style "clock", with hands for me, my wife, and kids. Can set up some geofencing. Run off some ESPhome and the HA app, which reports directly to my install, without releasing tracking info.
People seem to never learn. Same behavior for decades now from these companies but people are shocked. :)
Any ads is a no-go for me.
I run Pi-hole, and ublock.
I went to my pal's house and turn on his TV, ad. He turned on his Xbox, ad. Was looking for a specific game on his Xbox, another fucking ad.
"Too complicated" he says when I suggested setting him up with a raspberry pi.
This is a simple problem. Destroy it and end your Amazon prime subscription. Now, your Samsung fridge that shows ads is a different problem.
There is a special kind of person who buys a smart fridge. But even they must realise after a month that standing in front of a frige and looking at a screen isn't really a thing anyone does.
Why the fuck anyone needs a smart fridge is beyond me. Just open the door and write down what you need. The only thing a good refrigerator needs to do is keep shit cold
I can see the logic of being able to set certain items that you always want in stock, and your fridge being able to tell you if you're running low or if it's beyond its expiry.
Can smart fridges do that? I don't think so.
Even if they can, it's probably not worth the extra expense, complexity, data mining, security concerns, or the fact that Samsung or whoever can shut down functionality whenever they want.
I just want a basic fridge-freezer.
I was falling down that hole about 2 years ago. I've always been a tech nerd, big scifi fan, etc so the tech advancements lately were really cool to me. Integration was such a cool concept. A fridge that could see inside itself, track what was in it, and suggest when it's time to get more of something just seemed so futuristic. Screens everywhere with weather and useful info really played into my childhood dreams watching scifi movies and tv. I've since done a complete 180 and as of 2 months ago finally completely cut out all big tech, but there's a big push for people like me to fall into the trap of "I don't need it, but it's so cool".
Never saw this coming (said no one ever).
Well, you would be surprised, I bet at least 50% didn't see that coming.
"Advertising is a small part of the experience".
Well great Amazon. Nobody is asking for this 'experience'.
What you mean you dont watch the superbowl for the commercial advertisements that take up approximately 80% of the time of the 6 hour game?
I'm about to just toss the whole thing and move back to google.
... Ah yes. Here we see that, while frustrated, the consumer remains largely undeterred from fitting into the boxes outlined by our fearless corpo overlords.
I mean…. Hasn’t been this with Amazon products forever? I had a Kindle Fire in 2012 and had to root it just to stop ads from showing up on the locked screen
FWIW, I have had some Google (now Nest) Home Hubs for years and I don't think I've ever seen or heard ads on them.
I'm gradually de-googling my life though, so maybe I'll just replace them with some DIY thing
Google is NOT going to be any better at this. That will just be changing one corporate evil for another.
Personally, I disagree with the first and agree with the latter. I have a Nest Hub, and there are no ads on that. But I would still urge the redditor and myself to get acquainted with Home Assistant instead of bothering with the offerings from Google and Amazon.
