Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Sidewalk

amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 687 posts

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#451

Post by gjsman-1000 »

zschuessler wrote: post #445
pupdogg wrote: post #363

If anyone is interested, I wouldn't mind collaborating to create a privacy oriented SmartTV or PC for devs or simply an industrial grade dumb TV. I have experience designing and building 70" industrial displays that utilize Samsung LCD panels. These "industrial" panels are normally twice the price of consumer grade ones but are designed to operate 24/7 with a MTBF of 100k hours (approx. 11 years) and are usually twic…

I don't know if this falls in your vision or not, probably not, but I'll say I would pay top-dollar for an Android TV that was veritably privacy focused. I purchased a Sony TV that runs Android and adore it. I initially purchased it because it was a no-nonsense take on Android with high-rated privacy support. Sadly, over the past year they have begun introducing ads, promotions, and privacy policy readjustments that…

I don't think it'd be that hard. There are these cheap Android chips from China all over the place from companies like Allwinner which can be bought in almost any quantity (even extremely small quantities from an industrial perspective).

You take one of those (which currently have reverse-engineering efforts for drivers ongoing with Sunxi project) and simply run a stock Android AOSP without any code signing. The end user would need to install the Play Store and video wouldn't play above HD for the lack of Hardware-supported DRM, but then you would just model your remote control to work like a Game Controller (which Android supports decently).

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#452

Post by fastball »

simongr3dal wrote: post #163
fastball wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this put a moat around IoT? This is creating a network that didn't previously exist. How does that hurt innovation? If you don't want to be a part of this network you can just... continue what you were doing before. Now at least there is an option.

It's really not that hard. The user loses freedoms because of technology monocultures and Amazons move will further facilitate a whole television market that semi-covertly spies on the user.

It really is that hard. Technology monoculture? This is built on the back of existing networks, which will continue to exist when this new network is online.

Your Smart TV already spies on you. Not sure how this helps.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#453

Post by crazygringo »

hwbehrens wrote: post #433

I do research on mesh networking, and the response to Sidewalk in the tech community has been pretty discouraging. People have rightly brought up Apple's Find My network as a similar application; companies are leveraging existing, ubiquitous devices to create additional network transport layers. See also, the proliferation and adoption of the Thread protocol. This doesn't mean we have to use these networks! But this…

Thank you. I'm baffled by how positive the HN community was to AirTags, but not to this...?

And aren't more networks a good thing? Shouldn't there be another competitor here?

Also, I'm not sure where people are getting that Amazon is bad at privacy. Amazon isn't Facebook, nor is it even Google Analytics, nor has it been involved in any user/privacy data scandal I can think of. I mean, most of the criticism of Amazon seems to do with worry that electronics you buy might turn out to be counterfeit... but that has nothing to do with this.

This seems like really cool tech, folks.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#454

Post by pupdogg »

tehwebguy wrote: post #442
pupdogg wrote: post #363

If anyone is interested, I wouldn't mind collaborating to create a privacy oriented SmartTV or PC for devs or simply an industrial grade dumb TV. I have experience designing and building 70" industrial displays that utilize Samsung LCD panels. These "industrial" panels are normally twice the price of consumer grade ones but are designed to operate 24/7 with a MTBF of 100k hours (approx. 11 years) and are usually twic…

If you make this happen consider making them more easily serviceable too. My guess is TVs are a big landfill problem because they are too inexpensive for most people to bother getting repaired. Personally my ~8-10 y/o Samsung LED has a periodic problem that I’ve been diagnosing with YouTube, it seems like a lot of issues are caused by something simple like loose connectors inside.

Except for the LCD panel itself, everything else (the controller, PSU, wire harnesses, connectors, etc) are already easily serviceable. If you can build a computer, you can service this display.

A big bonus with my industrial design would be that the casing itself is made out of metal and harder to damage than plastic casing of most large format displays.

For your specific case, is that a consumer grade panel? What issues are you having?

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#455

Post by mPReDiToR »

sofixa wrote: post #324
choeger wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. Much more like this: You are legally obliged to install a smart meter, smart smoke detector and smart heating control in your home. If you rent, your landlord will install these things. If you own the authorities will inspect the presence and operation of these devices and fine you if you don't comply. All these devices will be offered by companies like amazon. Coincidentally, amazon lobbyists shape the laws th…

> You are legally obliged to install a smart meter, smart smoke detector and smart heating control in your home If that's all they do, what's the problem here? All three have big and direct positives for everyone ( you, your home, your community) - a smart heating control saves energy ( climate catastrophe incoming, so could be useful), a smart smoke detector can alert the fire department if smoke is ongoing for more…

You're missing the whole concept of choice.

Being forced into something "for your own good" is still being forced, and is anathema to some.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#456

Post by gjsman-1000 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #451
zschuessler wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if this falls in your vision or not, probably not, but I'll say I would pay top-dollar for an Android TV that was veritably privacy focused. I purchased a Sony TV that runs Android and adore it. I initially purchased it because it was a no-nonsense take on Android with high-rated privacy support. Sadly, over the past year they have begun introducing ads, promotions, and privacy policy readjustments that…

I don't think it'd be that hard. There are these cheap Android chips from China all over the place from companies like Allwinner which can be bought in almost any quantity (even extremely small quantities from an industrial perspective). You take one of those (which currently have reverse-engineering efforts for drivers ongoing with Sunxi project) and simply run a stock Android AOSP without any code signing. The end…

Also, further thoughts on this, an example would be the Pine64 series of Boards. They're open source, they've got reverse-engineered drivers coming slowly, they've got Android support already. Basically just take their board, wire the HDMI connector and instead wire that into the TV controller, and you've already got stock Android as long as you can get CEC over HDMI working (for the remote).

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#457

Post by nine_k »

jmrm wrote: post #386
nine_k wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Let's imagine the bill of material is about $30, and that's cheap knowing they have mid to high end embedded SoCs or DSPs being able to move 4K video. 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…

That was a part of my point: BOM is not dominating the difference in the price.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#458

Post by cptskippy »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #451
zschuessler wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if this falls in your vision or not, probably not, but I'll say I would pay top-dollar for an Android TV that was veritably privacy focused. I purchased a Sony TV that runs Android and adore it. I initially purchased it because it was a no-nonsense take on Android with high-rated privacy support. Sadly, over the past year they have begun introducing ads, promotions, and privacy policy readjustments that…

I don't think it'd be that hard. There are these cheap Android chips from China all over the place from companies like Allwinner which can be bought in almost any quantity (even extremely small quantities from an industrial perspective). You take one of those (which currently have reverse-engineering efforts for drivers ongoing with Sunxi project) and simply run a stock Android AOSP without any code signing. The end…

> The end user would need to install the Play Store

At that point you're back to square one though right?

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#459

Post by arc-in-space »

rswail wrote: post #403
pupdogg wrote: post #363

If anyone is interested, I wouldn't mind collaborating to create a privacy oriented SmartTV or PC for devs or simply an industrial grade dumb TV. I have experience designing and building 70" industrial displays that utilize Samsung LCD panels. These "industrial" panels are normally twice the price of consumer grade ones but are designed to operate 24/7 with a MTBF of 100k hours (approx. 11 years) and are usually twic…

Is that something like this: https://displayy.studio/ I remember seeing them on HN a year ago, I assume that they haven't moved that far because COVID etc?

Completely unrelated but this hanging lamp in the second room pictured in the backgrounds on that page looks vaguely creepy to me due to my arachnophobia

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#460

Post by vinay_ys »

SuoDuanDao wrote: post #390
vinay_ys wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

Please don't act as if you know me. Advertisers don't know me nearly as well as they'd like their bosses to think and neither do you.

Please don't take it personally. I obviously don't know _you_ and the "you" in my sentences isn't referring to you specifically. With that "you", I was referring to the typical user in general.
Post reply on HN