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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any good tv recommendation, if not Sony?
Hmm, I remember going through this debate awhile ago and settled on Vizio.
That’s worse than the Samba.tv app in the OP since Vizio didn’t even tell people they were doing it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And that's our problem... how? Sony makes money off every video game sale; attempting to get more from ads is just greedy. And how they present the ads as another game a very dark pattern.
> And that's our problem... how? Isn't it obvious? That's the buyers problem because any time they "buy" something for less than it actually costs, they actually get an ad/app/service subsidized experience.
This makes ads on the PS4 a product of greed alone.
This sort of crap makes me think a manufacturer should brand a dumb tv, and simply market: "it's just a high end tv without all the crap we know you hate and dont use anyways, also the CIA can't hack it" https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15421326/smart-tv-hacking...
I am quite angry that my PS4 is full of ads. I paid money for that box. What I want is a law that requires a product to clearly indicate if it has ads or not in the software, and it cannot change at any point in the product's life. So I know what the price tag actually is. Edit: I want to be clear. I am not against advertising or the freedom for a manufacturer to decide that advertising is their business model. What…
to be honest, sony have a track record of doing this. bought a music CD or games? get a rootkit. if you still buy sony products, I can't be sory for you.
Any good tv recommendation, if not Sony?
Currently I have a Samsung and 2 LGs in the house.
For future HN context, as the author I'm reproducing them here in full:
My @Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app from https://samba.tv and boy oh boy... this is worse than recent @facebook stuff.
From their own privacy policy: https://samba.tv/legal/privacy-policy/ … they track what you watch, when you watch it, your location, your interactions with other apps. And they share this with... well, everyone basically.
This information is then used to market to you within the TV and offer you a "hot list"... but it is also used to "Detect, investigate and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities and protect the rights, safety and property of Samba and others"
If you have a "Smart TV" from any brand and it's doing an update you will 100% want to disable Samba.
Samba is not a feature for you, it is a snitch in your living room, snitching on everything you watch on your TV, it's a feature for corporations only.
To disable Samba the soft way... don't agree to their T&Cs post OS upgrade.
To disable Samba the hard way... use Android system settings to disable the app.
This is a good time to say that if you own a "Smart TV" from any company you should run it on a different network than your NAS and other computers. And that all other devices best require passwords to connect to them.
Ideally you run a TV on a different VLAN.
And this is where I wish that dumb panels were all the rage, and that the only "smart" functionality was external to the display itself. But when @netflix and other content providers decline the use of their apps outside of integrated devices this is the hell we live in.
I really wish that @Google provided a TV box that was the full Android TV, but that was vanilla Google with the ability to install @netflix, @BBCiPlayer, @mubi as apps. That I could just plug this into any display panel, including dumb displays.
Perhaps @Google could even call it Pixel TV.
This sort of crap makes me think a manufacturer should brand a dumb tv, and simply market: "it's just a high end tv without all the crap we know you hate and dont use anyways, also the CIA can't hack it" https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15421326/smart-tv-hacking...
I am quite angry that my PS4 is full of ads. I paid money for that box. What I want is a law that requires a product to clearly indicate if it has ads or not in the software, and it cannot change at any point in the product's life. So I know what the price tag actually is. Edit: I want to be clear. I am not against advertising or the freedom for a manufacturer to decide that advertising is their business model. What…
I just picked up a 55" TV, and the troubles I had explaining I did not want any "Smart" features was like explaining to morons that smoking is bad for you. The store had no commission on the sale, but the sales people, all of them, could not understand why I'd not want TV apps and Internet.
The meme of "if you're not paying, you are the product" is, of course, true, but it doesn't acknowledge the host of cases when you are the product even if you're paying . This guy basically paid to be spied on.
I'm the author and linking to my tweets is a bad idea because they auto-delete after 14 days. For future HN context, as the author I'm reproducing them here in full: My @Sony "smart" TV has updated itself and tried to force me to use a new app from https://samba.tv and boy oh boy... this is worse than recent @facebook stuff. From their own privacy policy: https://samba.tv/legal/privacy-policy/ … they track what you w…
I actually trust stock Android over Samsung, Sony, etc Android. Hence my "if we're going to have Android TV perhaps Google could supply it without the forced add-ons". I see this similar to installing Windows yourself rather than having "Windows with added vendor crap"... like if you know you want Windows, a stock one is better and same with Android.
I'm now looking at purchasing the Nvidia Shield and disabling all network connectivity on my Sony TV.
The Sony TV is a recent one, about a year old. A Bravia something or other. I have disabled the Samba app using the Android Apps system.
One thing I didn't include in the tweets was Samba's patent list, because it's too deep a topic for Twitter. The patent numbers are on their site though... go take a look: https://samba.tv/legal/patents/ Some of those are downright scary and have no positive application for privacy conscious users.
Feel free to ask anything.