51–60 of 211 posts
I do not understand why the prices of these have not fallen to $0, in much the same way an inktjet printer has. Or why the TV does not come as a freebie with some kind of (cable, otherwise) content subscription. (Disclaimer: I hate “smart” TVs)
Because the spying and advertising isn't worth that much?
> Automakers, for example, can now expect to see bigger profits from the loans they make on selling cars than from selling the actual cars I've heard of that. Then I heard dealers will give you a hard time if you want to buy a car right out, some will even run your credit without your permission. I don't have the money to go buy a new car right now, but it's pretty sad that saving up and paying for things is so disco…
My local Ford dealer would not even talk about the price of a used car until filled out paperwork and they ran a credit check without asking.
Seems like medical and health stuff, and car buying there's no pricing transparency and you are pushed around. I'm glad buying other stuff isn't as bad though, imagine if buying toilet paper or a laptop required negotiating.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The price of dumb TVs has also fallen dramatically.
Can you even get a dumb TV anymore? I found it surprisingly difficult when I replaced mine 2 years ago. So far I've been OK with simply not plugging it into the Internet.
"The trade-offs for cheap TVs is that customers are themselves becoming the product for TV makers [...] For something to be as cheap as a great TV, people have to give something up — whether they know it or not." Just never give the TV its own direct connection to the internet. Use another device that you do trust, to feed the big screen its content.
Wait until these companies partner with Comcast to get default access to the ever present Xfinity public hotspot. Sure you might deny it privileged to your network but for a profit share I might let it access mine.
"The trade-offs for cheap TVs is that customers are themselves becoming the product for TV makers [...] For something to be as cheap as a great TV, people have to give something up — whether they know it or not." Just never give the TV its own direct connection to the internet. Use another device that you do trust, to feed the big screen its content.
Wait until these companies partner with Comcast to get default access to the ever present Xfinity public hotspot. Sure you might deny it privileged to your network but for a profit share I might let it access mine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait until these companies partner with Comcast to get default access to the ever present Xfinity public hotspot. Sure you might deny it privileged to your network but for a profit share I might let it access mine.
I doubt you'd get a profit share. When the idea of all of those 'CableWiFi' networks started, it was because the cable operators wanted a separate network. It usually runs on a separate circuit so it won't interfere with the customer's bandwidth.
> Automakers, for example, can now expect to see bigger profits from the loans they make on selling cars than from selling the actual cars I've heard of that. Then I heard dealers will give you a hard time if you want to buy a car right out, some will even run your credit without your permission. I don't have the money to go buy a new car right now, but it's pretty sad that saving up and paying for things is so disco…
The one thing I never understood about this is, aren't you just free to not hookup your TV to the WiFi? I've bought SmartTVs and have just used them as "dumb" TVs and they work perfectly fine. Aren't you there capturing the benefit of this supposedly lower price without having to give up any personal data back?
But people want to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime or other stream services. Modern smart TVs have those integrated.
I bought a TV 6.5 years ago that could access a bunch of services, including Hulu. Too bad for me, that's not the case anymore. Many icons are gone, including Hulu's. And Netflix wasn't part of the deal originally, because it was either not here yet or too new, and it still isn't available. I'm not holding my breath for Disney+, whenever it becomes available where I live.