381–390 of 687 posts
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An extremely interesting prospect you've got here. What's stopping you from doing it right now?
Nothing. I just realize that as I age, there's only so much a single person can do ;)
Consider making this a kickstarter!
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There's regular dumb TVs around too, and reasonably priced. Walmart's site lets you filter for "Smart = N". Sceptre and RCA are the main brands. For example https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-65-Class-4K-Ultra-HD-2160P-LE...
To offer a non-walmart option, I've been using the Rtings table tool to find consumer TVs are potentially more respectful of privacy. Although I get the impression a number of sets aren't captured here (maybe walmart has some listed that Rtings doesn't), they are fairly thorough. https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/table/53948
It is interesting how stark the reaction to this Vs. Apple's "Find My" network is. Apple's version adds every iPhone to part of their network. It uses battery AND expensive mobile data even when the owner has no eligible devices, and that isn't considered controversial. But Amazon wants to use data on non-battery/non-pay per transfer lines and this is considered controversial (and an "abuse of their market position")…
Well, to me, it is.
Beautiful. An age-old techno-anarchist pipe dream, mesh networking, co-opted by the biggest of corporations. Note the language used. Users are "neighbors". The network becomes "stronger". You "support community extended coverage benefits". It's like something straight out of Zero HP Lovecraft's fiction.
I wonder how hard it would be to transform this Amazon network into an independent mesh network, out of Amazon's control.
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That seems extremely unlikely. The "smart" portion is hundreds of dollars in most TVs. A quick search proves that out: https://www.cdw.com/product/Samsung-40-Full-HD-Non-Smart-Hos... https://www.cdw.com/product/samsung-hg40nf690gf-nf690-series...
I suppose that the smart part's hardware is below $10, it's not much more advanced than a RPi. OK, $20 if it includes a decent camera for video calls. But its presence can be sold for a hundred more, because the consumers apparently... want these features? Things like YouTube, Netflix, video calls, etc. And, of course, voice control.
To that price, you also need to add a continuous software development for the OS and some apps (even if they are Open Source, because they need to do at least some modifications). Minor bugs will happen and you would need to solve them.
Also, more complex hardware and software usually equals more complex testing and debugging, and with this more person-hours and a bigger cost. At the end, it might not be $100, but it will be near enough to round it for $100.
To be clear, this is said without having ever worked in a TV manufacturing company, but knowing how this kind of things are made, I think I'm not too far from reality.
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Well I apparently have not drank enough coffee this morning.
Don't worry, when Amazon has fully rolled out Sidewalk it'll be able to prompt you through an Amazon Alexa somewhere nearby that you need another coffee, and would you like to have some delivered.
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There's also the factor that whoever owns the platform showing the ads doesn't care whether the ads are effective. So long as your eyeballs are tracking it, they'll get paid anyway.
Only in the sense that restaurateurs don't care if the food is good. If it's selling... sure, they'll keep selling something that sucks. But generally, advertisers aren't quite the fools everyone thinks they are. There are always fools around, but prices tend to be rational enough long term. If ads aren't effective, revenue will dry up eventually. All that effort to track people for ads... these are all attempts at i…
> The maximum bandwidth of a Sidewalk Bridge to the Sidewalk server is 80Kbps, which is about 1/40th of the bandwidth used to stream a typical high definition video. Today, when you share your Bridge’s connection with Sidewalk, total monthly data used by Sidewalk, per account, is capped at 500MB, which is equivalent to streaming about 10 minutes of high definition video. Seems this is not about guest hotspots or the…
That is cool. My upload is capped at 768kbps, and with overhead it seems to be around 600kbps. So, 13% of my upload bandwidth would be consumed. This is a bit disingenuous on their part, equivocating uploading with downloading. Does each Echo device consume 80kbps, or is that total? If I had 10 Echo devices, would my internet connection no longer function and become saturated?
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I don't entirely agree. A better analogy might be that a restaurant's landlord doesn't care if the food is good. I've run into the problem that sellers of adspace will often prefer to work more with customers who have lower conversion rates. Makes perfect sense when you think about it, people with the crappiest products need advertising the most, while the best products can lean on word-of-mouth. Edit: Come to think…
There are 20 equally good product brands for 99% of things you buy and use everyday. But you have a clear favorite amongst those 20 that you have already chosen to buy and use consistently. And you don't change your preference unless you are repeatedly reminded of those alternatives. This is advertising 101. Then there are products that you don't yet use because you don't yet think you need or want them. And you don'…